BY YOUNG PEOPLE, FOR YOUNG PEOPLE - A REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF MCA GENEXT, 2019
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AUSTRALIA
From 2017-2021 I was the Young Creatives Producer at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, where I was responsible for the Museum’s Young Guides, Youth Committee and GENEXT, the Museum’s flagship event for young people aged 12-18 that is programmed and run by the Committee.
In 2018 the MCA commissioned cultural research agency Patternmakers to help evaluate GENEXT, asking: “What impact does attending GENEXT have on participants, now and into the future?”
This significant 10-month long project evaluated both the short- and long-term impacts of participation by young people in the program, which at that stage in its 13-year history had welcomed over 30,000 young people to the Museum.
Past and present MCA Youth Committee members were invited to help co-design the evaluation framework and in my role as MCA Project Lead I was also a contributing author to the final report, which was published in June 2019 and can be downloaded from the MCA website here.
Key findings from the report included:
That GENEXT is a safe space that welcomes young people from different backgrounds
74% of past attendees say GENEXT helped them express their identity
8 in 10 feel GENEXT positively impacts their overall wellbeing
GENEXT is creating a new generation of art lovers
Peer-led programming is critical, and could be expanded
GENEXT is playing a role in developing diverse arts audiences
Report excerpts:
