Evaluation and creative placemaking: Using a critical realist model to explore the complexity

In the complex reality of community-based arts and health, it is rare for a direct causal link to be established between any particular project and health and well-being outcomes. Based on a realist retrospective evaluation of a small number of creative placemaking projects, this article presents an integrative model to help conceptualize creative placemaking evaluation according to context, mechanisms and tangible and intangible outcomes and impacts. These include proximal and distal outcomes, some of which may be related to the health and well-being of individuals and communities. The implications of this model for practitioners and researchers include being able to accommodate the range of stakeholders typically involved in creative placemaking projects and to expand the evaluation focus to account for context and mechanisms and outcomes and impacts. The model provides a useful theoretical framework for both practice and research.