Fundamental Viewpoints for Evaluating Public Theaters and Halls

Abstract

In Japan, the ideal way of evaluating public theaters and halls has become an important issue because of the influence of both the public sector evaluation introduced into many local governments in the latter half of the 1990's, and the designated administrator system ("Shitei-kanrisya-seido") enforced by the amendment to the local government law in 2003. It is essential to evaluate public theaters and halls in order to clarify their mission and to manage them effectively in view of their objectives. However, we cannot show their impact with only quantitative indicators such as profitability and the number of people in the audience, so we must apply qualitative indicators to evaluate public theaters and halls that offer art programs. This is why evaluating public theaters and halls is difficult. One big problem is how to show their various impacts which cannot always be expressed with only quantitative indicators. In recent years, many local governments have faced financial difficulties, and the pressure of spending cuts has intensified. In such a situation, many public theaters and halls are evaluated based only on quantitative indicators. Now it is necessary to examine the role of public theaters and halls in their communities and the benefit of the arts theoretically. This paper proposes fundamental viewpoints for evaluating public halls after having examined their role and the art's public benefit.