Sophia Impact to evaluate culture: the Egyptian Museum pilot case

The topic of impact assessment of cultural projects is particularly relevant today and has taken on a centrality of its own for several years. Coming out of the strictly academic sphere, it has established itself as a fundamental component of policies integrating sustainability, development and innovation. Emblematic, in this sense, is the call made in 2024 by the Council of State to the Ministry of Culture in the organisational reform desired by Gennaro Sangiuliano and concluded by Alessandro Giuli; in fact, specific studies on the impact assessment of state museums were lacking, while the accompanying report merely reported data on revenues and visitor numbers.
In 2025, both the ICOM National Assembly in Brescia and the LuBeC in Lucca placed the topic of impact assessment and the need to build a new grammar of development at the centre of their respective programmes. This is the background to the online publication of the final version of SoPhia Impact, the open access portal dedicated to the assessment of the impact of cultural projects through a guided and simplified path, realised thanks to the contribution of the CHANGES Foundation for about 100,000 euro. The evaluation method adopted by the platform derives, however, from a larger European project, which was developed thanks to a EUR 1.5 million grant within the framework of the programme Horizon 2020 and by the work of an international consortium scientifically coordinated by the University of Roma Tre, with the participation of leading institutions such as the National Technical University of Athens (Greece), Interarts (Spain), the European Museum Academy (Netherlands), Educult (Germany), the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (Ireland) and the Institute for Development and International Relations (Croatia).

At the core of the method are three concepts: People, Time and Domains of Impact. The People dimension recognises that heritage interventions involve stakeholders with different, sometimes conflicting, interests, expectations and interpretations of value. For this reason, a participatory and people-centred perspective is adopted, aimed at understanding and recognising stakeholders' perceptions of the impacts generated by the cultural intervention (detected through tools such as questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, etc.). Moreover, their active involvement in the evaluation process is essential to gather and integrate different points of view on the objectives and expected results of the initiative. The second temporal dimension allows the application of the method in the different phases of an intervention: ex ante, in itinere and ex post. In the ex ante phase, evaluation supports the definition of objectives, expected results and the overall coherence of the intervention design. The in itinere evaluation focuses on monitoring implementation, verifying whether the conditions for achieving the expected results are met and identifying positive or negative dynamics that may require corrective actions. Finally, the ex post evaluation allows the medium and long-term effects of the intervention to be analysed, including effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability over time. In this sense, the temporal dimension makes it possible to accompany the entire lifecycle of cultural heritage initiatives and to inform future projects, policies and collective actions and to correct any errors, in the process.
The third dimension of Impact Domains identifies six major themes, such as social capital and governance; place identity; quality of life; education, creativity and innovation; work and prosperity; and protection. The identified clusters are not treated as isolated categories, but as interrelated dimensions that enable evaluators to grasp the complexity of heritage interventions. Particular attention is paid not only to expected and observable impacts, but also to cross-cutting synergies, missing themes and unintended effects. In this sense, the proposed impact assessment becomes holistic, in the sense of all-inclusive, multidimensional and dynamic.

Before going online, the methodology was tested with pilot projects such as ithe Akropolis Theatre in Genoa which, in 2022, undertook a strategic and organisational transformation linked to the renovation of the theatre's main hall. The results of the impact assessment confirmed that the newly refurbished auditorium represented an important enabling factor for the start-up of new activities and proved to be a multiplier of new initiatives. The expansion of the hall had, in fact, spin-offs in several directions. On the one hand, there was a general appreciation by the public for this renovated space; on the other hand, for the staff, having a new and refurbished hall at their disposal, intended for both artistic production activities and daily work, was a significant element in improving the organisational climate. The evaluation also revealed that the least developed thematic area concerned environmental sustainability; therefore, the cultural institution questioned what actions could be taken to close the gap found and planned more investments in environmental care.

Another significant occasion was the evaluation of the impacts of the "Museo Egizio A/R". project, which involved primary and secondary schools in districts 6 and 7 of Turin and the metropolitan area, reaching 2,194 students in 101 classes. The analysis carried out returned a clear and articulated picture of the effects generated, showing how the initiative was able to produce impacts that went beyond the strictly didactic dimension, becoming part of a broader perspective of public value and educational transformation. The evaluation showed, in fact, that the Egyptian Museum of Turin is not only a place of conservation and transmission of knowledge, but also an institution deeply rooted in the territory and able to generate educational opportunities, particularly in schools where the project represented the only educational experience carried out in collaboration between school and museum institution.

For Professor Paola Demartini of Uniroma3 'the evaluation method was tested in very different contexts, such as museums, theatres, archaeological sites, cultural associations, and urban regeneration projects. All those who took part in the evaluation process highlighted how the experience proved to be a particularly useful exercise of self-reflection to understand the expected results and those actually achieved, while offering new cognitive elements for the future design of activities and recipients'. Concerning future developments, Professor Michela Marchiori notes that 'the cultural sector still lacks articulated data on multidimensional impact assessment. In order to encourage a wider dissemination of the use of the platform, the team is producing video pills, webinars and podcasts designed to facilitate the understanding of the methodology, as well as a service dedicated to cultural organisations'. The portal, currently available free of charge, is a concrete response to this need.