Societal Impact of Culture Coaches

Cultural coaches make cultural offerings in a municipality accessible to everyone, especially children. It's a valuable job, but how do you make the societal impact of it visible? That's something the Kielzog cultural center in Hoogezand wanted to know. The students Mateo Paulec, Jarno Welp, Cezara Radu, Paula Teerink, Daniela Micleusanu, and Luis Joao conducted research.

The students investigated the role of cultural coaches within the cultural sector, how cultural coaches were deployed in other municipalities, and in collaboration with Kielzog's cultural coaches, developed a new job description. They also analyzed various models to measure the societal impact of cultural coaches. A stakeholder analysis with Kielzog's cultural coaches and the cultural policy officer from the municipality of Midden-Groningen revealed that pride, empathy, and inclusivity are key values for cultural experiences in Midden-Groningen. The students then translated how these core values can be measured through research.

Tom Verbeek, head of education at Kielzog, about the research: 'In addition to the interesting process of the research itself, the final result has provided us with several interesting new insights. The group answered the research questions from Kielzog thoroughly and well-substantiated, with various useful recommendations for the next steps. At Kielzog, we are looking at how to follow up on this research.'