Abstract

As they offer emotive and aesthetic experiences that engage with values and deeply held beliefs, the arts have been identified as key stakeholders in fostering the cultural transformations that humanity must undergo to adapt to the climate emergency. Scholars have begun exploring and illuminating the diverse potentialities of the arts to contribute to such transformations such as through participatory and immersive arts experiences, accessible public engagement strategies, and envisioning of imaginative futures scenarios. The growing body of literature pays little attention to understanding the impact of climate-engaged work in the arts. Among the studies that do explore this area, none take the conversation beyond biophysical impacts, thus missing out on a discussion of the unique transformative powers of the arts. This study engages members of arts organization CreativePEI in a Delphi study to generate impact indicators that shed light on how climate impact might be conceptualized and assessed by arts organizations. This process resulted in a list of forty-six impact indicators, forming nine impact categories of interest: audiences, accessibility, public engagement, emotional engagement, collaboration, behavior, building Sustainability and the Arts (SATA) engagement in the sector, biophysical impacts, and others. This set of indicators reveals synergies between existing SATA literature and what those within the arts sector understand to be the unique value offering of the arts to climate action. The study also demonstrates the utility of the Delphi method in generating indicators for conceptualizing climate impact within the arts.