Within the framework of the Transformative Territories programme, the evaluation questionnaire on Transformative Artistic Practices constitutes a central methodological tool. Developed collaboratively by the project’s artistic and scientific committee in close cooperation with COAL, this questionnaire reflects a shared ambition: to rethink evaluation not as a purely technical or administrative exercise, but as a process of inquiry embedded in artistic action itself.
Designed specifically for research-creation projects and transformative artistic practices, the questionnaire aims to support an in-depth, situated analysis of how artistic practices interact with territories, publics and ecological challenges. Rather than imposing a standardised or extractive model of evaluation, it invites artists and partners to articulate their own experiences, methods and impacts through a reflective and narrative approach.
Structured around several thematic sections, the questionnaire guides respondents through a comprehensive exploration of their projects. It begins with general contextual questions addressing the intentions, timelines, territorial settings and economic conditions of the research-creation processes. This first section allows each project to be situated within its specific social, ecological and institutional environment, acknowledging that transformation always unfolds within concrete constraints and temporalities.
A second section focuses on the artist’s role, the territorial diagnosis and the tools mobilised. Here, the questionnaire emphasises the artist’s position as a mediator and listener, capable of revealing territorial dynamics, fragilities and potentials. The aim is not to produce a detached diagnosis, but to document how artistic practices transform representations, practices and sometimes even organisational structures within a territory.
The section dedicated to publics highlights a key dimension of Transformative Artistic Practices: the construction of active, durable collectives. Inspired by John Dewey’s notion of the public, the questionnaire encourages respondents to reflect on how alliances are built, how publics emerge around shared issues, and how cooperation is sustained beyond the artistic intervention itself.
A specific focus is placed on research-creation, understood as an ongoing and transformative process rather than a final outcome. Evaluation is framed as a tool for collective learning, enabling participants to make visible symbolic, relational, organisational and material effects that often remain intangible. By doing so, the questionnaire contributes to consolidating knowledge, gestures and practices that can be transmitted and adapted in other contexts.
Finally, an open-ended concluding section invites contributors to reflect on what remains once the artist leaves the territory: the continuities, the alliances, the possible transpositions to other contexts, and the long-term influence of the project.
Far from being a simple reporting tool, this evaluation questionnaire functions as a space for reflection, documentation and transmission. It embodies the core values of Transformative Territories: attention to situated knowledge, care for relationships, and a commitment to cultural practices as levers for ecological and social transformation. As such, it plays a crucial role in making Transformative Artistic Practices legible, shareable and durable, both within the project and beyond.
