Mobilising Rural Communities to Achieve Environmental Sustainability Using the Arts

Nova-anglica: web of our endeavours, Bungawalbin Wetlands Festival, and Plague and the Moonflower were three different community-based art and environment events in New South Wales, Australia.  The events varied in length and structure from a one day festival reaching about 250 people (Bungawalbin) to a three week series of art and entertainment events reaching 5,000 audience members (Nova-anglica).  The events were externally and internally evaluated as part of a project sponsored by the Land and Water Australia and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.  The primary evaluation goal was to examine if and how the art events improved environmental behaviors at the individual and community level.  This was determined by asking the extent to which the events mobilized the community, fostered empowerment, and facilitated the transfer of knowledge to participants and audiences.  The evaluator triangulated various sources of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.  Data collection instruments included participant observations, surveys and focus groups of people participating in the events, audience surveys and interviews, project documentation, photographs, and numerical data of attendees.  Quantitative data were analyzed using inferential statistics while qualitative data were analyzed through key incident analysis and content analysis for emergent themes.  The results of the evaluation assisted in convincing the author of Plague and the Moonflower to write another oratorio for Armidale.  In addition, the results have been presented at numerous conferences and talks and have helped inform evaluation of other environmental theatre projects.