S OCI A L IMPA C T
STRENGTHENING THE SOCIAL FABRIC OF THE COMMUNITY: Studying Social Impact at Thanksgiving Point Stephen Ashton, Ph.D. & Kari Ross Nelson, M.A. M.S. Introduction
Thanksgiving Point Study
Does having a museum in your community make it a better place to live? Like museums around the country, we’ve been wondering about this. Hi, we’re Stephen and Kari, the Audience Research and Evaluation Team at Thanksgiving Point. Our job is to conduct research and evaluation to support Thanksgiving Point’s mission of transformative family learning. The question of the social impact of museums is one we’ve been exploring for a few years now. What started as a study to understand the social impact of Thanksgiving Point is now being scaled to a national level, and we’re excited to be part of it!
In 2016 we partnered with Eva Witesman, a professor at BYU, along with her class of graduate students in the Masters of Public Administration program. Together we developed a plan and tool for measuring Thanksgiving Point’s social impact. To measure the impact, Thanksgiving Point invited families who had never been to Thanksgiving Point before to come, free-of-charge to each of our venues. At the time that included the Museum of Natural Curiosity, Museum of Ancient Life, Ashton Gardens, and Farm Country. Over the course of about three months these families came and experienced what Thanksgiving Point has to offer. At the end of their visits we sent the families an extensive survey that helped us measure changes they had experienced in several categories, such as family relationships, personal health and wellbeing, and higher educational attainment. About 60 families completed the study, meaning they visited four times with their family and then took the survey.
When museums talk about making an impact, that often refers to the educational, economic, and social realms. Typically, economic impact studies document the impact of salaries, business to business spending of operational costs, and visitor spending in the community as extensions to a museum visit. In fact, did you know that museums contribute more than $50 billion into the U.S. economy annually, We were thrilled with the results of the study! We measured 95 support more than 726,000 American jobs, generate $12 billion in indicators that were separated into those categories we listed above. Of tax revenue, and spur tourism from around the world? Educational those 95 indicators, 67 of them (71%) showed statistically significant impact studies document the number of students, schools, and districts positive changes. In other words, families that visited Thanksgiving served. One study found that children who visited a museum during Point had experiences that led to strengthened families, a greater sense kindergarten had higher achievement scores in reading, mathematics, of personal health and wellbeing, and higher educational attainment. and science in third grade than children who did not! Findings from these kinds of studies are often used to make a case for funding and Open response items revealed that the most meaningful aspects of partnerships. Social impact is a little harder to pin down: we define it participant’s experiences were spending quality time with family as the effect of an activity on the social fabric of the community and and children, and the appeal for multiple age groups. Additionally, participants expressed surprise at Thanksgiving Point’s quality, size, the wellbeing of the individuals and families who live there. beauty, and variety of experiences. Stephen Weil, a long time legal expert in the arts and a museum administrator, said in 2006: “Over time, the museum field will need We used the results of this social impact study along with the results to develop a vast arsenal of... more persuasive ways to document of a separate economic impact study to demonstrate to the Utah and/or demonstrate the myriad and beneficial outcomes that may State Legislature the impact Thanksgiving Point was having in the occur for their individual visitors and have impact on the community community. This helped Thanksgiving Point receive significant beyond.” Ten years later, museum analyst and planner John Jacobsen funding to support the building of the Butterfly Biosphere. pointed out “the field still lacks accepted ways to measure impact.” At Thanksgiving Point we’re working to meet this challenge as part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant awarded to the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.
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THAN KSG I V I NG P O I NT G A ZE T TE
