Towards ‘meaningful’ KPIs? capturing multidimensional impacts in the arts

This paper addresses the current challenges of using KPIs to measure the impacts of the arts, against a framework of what it means to do ‘performance measurement’ for arts organisations. It considers why current key performance indicators are perceived as problematic, discusses the distinctions between intrinsic and instrumental benefits of the arts as well as existing literature on these, and argues that there is a need for more research in order to develop complex indicators in Singapore that can be used by arts organisations and the National Arts Council alike to capture the more intangible effects of the arts.