Making an Educated Guess

Assessing artistic quality in the performing arts is very difficult, especially when it has to be done beforehand based on applications received by funding bodies. By evaluating existing literature on possible criteria for assessing quality in the performing arts, such as reviews, awards or benefits to the art form, a framework of analysis is developed. This framework is applied to documents from the Rotterdamse Raad voor Kunst en Cultuur and the municipality of Rotterdam in the analysis, to provide an insight in which criteria are used most. It becomes clear that reputation is a very important factor, as it can help members of committees to indicate the quality of upcoming projects. However, in the case of the RRKC benefits to society are taken into consideration as well, since the spending of public money on structural subsidies means the city of Rotterdam and its inhabitants must have a certain return on their investment. Furthermore the importance of the overlooked criterion of audience experience is stressed, as incorporating this criterion in an assessment beforehand can be beneficial for both performing arts organisations as well as for funding bodies.