Ellen Loots and Marjelle Vermeulen are the winners of the 2026 Best Teaching and Educational Practice Award by the European Network on Cultural Management and Policy (ENCATC). Through their master’s course Assessing the Impact of Arts and Creativity in Society, the colleagues from Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC) and Impact Centre Erasmus (ESE) bring students into direct contact with cultural organisations and real-world questions about societal impact. “What makes the course special is the way teaching, research and practice continuously inform and reinforce one another.”
Why is this course particularly relevant now?
Ellen: There is growing recognition of the broader societal value of culture. Not only within the cultural sector itself, but also among policymakers and international organisations. In her recent publication The Public Value of Arts and Culture, economist Mariana Mazzucato argues that arts and culture should not be viewed as a cost, but as an investment in social and economic development. The United Nations has likewise placed the role of culture in sustainable development more firmly on the agenda, proclaiming 2027–2036 the International Decade of Culture for Sustainable Development. Culture is increasingly recognised as a force that can contribute to urgent societal challenges and a wide range of transitions.
At the same time, cultural organisations are grappling with how to make their impact visible. Impact research can help organisations understand what they actually achieve, which mechanisms contribute to those outcomes, and how they can use these insights to inform their strategies and practice.
And that is where your course comes in?
Marjelle: Exactly. Assessing the Impact of Arts and Creativity in Society is an elective master’s course that brings together students from a wide range of backgrounds: students with an arts background who want to develop their management skills, business students interested in working in the cultural and creative sectors, and everything in between.
Over eight weeks, students work on a concrete impact question brought forward by a cultural organisation. We formulate the question together with partnering organisations. The organisations then introduce themselves and their challenge to the students in a short video, after which we match the organisations with the students.
This means students take genuine responsibility for a question from professional practice. It goes beyond a guest lecture or field trip: students conduct their own research, make substantive choices and translate their findings into insights and recommendations that organisations can actually use.
That has created quite a network by now.
Ellen: Definitely. We have now completed six editions of the course. Around thirty organisations from across the cultural field have worked with almost 150 students. These range from established institutions such as the Van Gogh Museum and the Mauritshuis to smaller initiatives such as N8W8, a Rotterdam-based organisation working on nightlife and night-time policy, and Emergence Delft, a TU Delft student association that uses art to explore and visualise the consequences of technological developments. The Municipality of Rotterdam and sustainable fashion companies such as MUD Jeans and United Repair Centre have also participated.
Marjelle: What we find particularly rewarding is that these collaborations increasingly extend beyond the duration of the course. We also work with our alumni. Last year, for example, former students brought cases from Kenniscentrum Cultuureducatie Rotterdam and the Heilige Huisjes festival into the course. With another alumnus, we co-developed the impact section of a successful Horizon Europe proposal.
In this way, an ecosystem is emerging in which teaching, practice and research continuously reinforce one another.
This interaction is precisely what the ENCATC jury valued in your approach. What stood out to them?
Marjelle: The jury particularly highlighted the connection between academic learning, professional practice and policy. The course develops not only students’ critical thinking, but also practical skills that they can apply in their future careers. The growing attention to societal impact in the cultural sector is another important factor. The jury also valued the fact that our approach can be transferred to other educational and cultural contexts.
Ellen: That transferability is important to us. We did not develop the course simply to teach our own students. We also want to share our methods with other educators and institutions. That is why we previously developed a magazine about the course. It shows what students can contribute to cultural organisations and provides examples of impact studies conducted by previous cohorts. At the same time, the magazine makes our teaching approach accessible to colleagues who want to develop similar forms of practice-based education.
But the knowledge generated through the course does not remain within the educational setting. The impact questions students work on often connect to current policy challenges, and we now also use the methods and insights emerging from the course in our collaborations with policymakers. In this way, a continuous exchange develops in which questions from practice not only inform teaching, but can also feed into research, new methods and the development of cultural policy.
You translate these insights into practical methods and tools.
Marjelle: Yes. An important part of the course is the Theory of Change. Students learn not only to describe the impact an organisation has, but also to consider the mechanisms through which that impact comes about. This is useful for students in their future professional practice, but it also gives organisations a framework they can continue to use in their own impact work.
We have translated this approach into a decision tree that helps organisations determine what they might best measure when investigating their impact. We have used this tool in an assignment for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), supporting cultural institutions in the national Basic Infrastructure scheme in sharpening and strengthening their approach to impact.
Your course has therefore become not only a teaching practice, but also a research environment.
Ellen: Absolutely. That is one of the most interesting aspects of the course for us. The approximately thirty impact reports produced by students contain a wealth of information about different forms of impact and the mechanisms that contribute to them. This led us to develop an impact wheel. Using AI alongside human interpretation, we mapped recurring impact dimensions and mechanisms across the reports.
What emerges is a broad picture. Cultural organisations generate artistic impact, of course, but they also frequently contribute to health and wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, ecological and social sustainability, talent development, and cultural entrepreneurship.
Marjelle: Take health and wellbeing, for example. Participating in a cultural activity can create opportunities for new encounters, connections and friendships, potentially helping to address loneliness. A sense of belonging can also strengthen wellbeing, while cultural participation can contribute to self-confidence and personal growth. The impact wheel helps us not only to make these effects visible, but also to understand the mechanisms through which they arise.
What makes this interaction between teaching, research and practice so valuable to you?
Marjelle: Precisely that they continuously reinforce one another. A question from practice leads to teaching; teaching generates new insights; those insights lead to research and new tools, which can then be applied again in practice and policy.
Ellen: And the great thing is that everyone benefits. Students learn by contributing to real-world societal challenges, organisations gain new insights, and we are continually challenged as educators and researchers to develop our knowledge and methods further. Education is therefore not only a place where knowledge is transferred, but also where new knowledge and new practices emerge. That continuous exchange is what makes this course so special to us!
- Researcher
- More information
- Magazine about the course – discover how students work with cultural organisations on concrete impact questions.
- Chapter on the decision tree – exploring strategies and guiding principles for developing and measuring impact in the arts and cultural sectors.
- Mariana Mazzucato on the public value of arts and culture – on the contribution of culture to social and economic development.
- UN resolution: International Decade of Culture for Sustainable Development (2027–2036) – on the role of culture in sustainable development.
- Visit the ENCATC website
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For more information, email us at communicatie@eshcc.eur.nl
