In the spring 2014 rethinkIMPACTS 2017 held 5 evaluation workshops, which focused on the 5 impact areas (social, cultural, economical, image and identity, and political and organisational).

In the light of these evaluation workshops the project team has especially been focusing on adapting the evaluation to Aarhus 2017’s strategic objectives. These objectives will be the foundation of the evaluation of the capital of culture.

A part of the process has been for Aarhus 2017 to design a monitoring program. 

Line Wagener (Aarhus 2017) has had the main responsibility for the data gathering documenting activities and the progress of the capital of culture.

These data will be important input into the evaluation. In addition to this the evaluation will ask some of the more complex questions regarding how Aarhus 2017 will affect the development of the city and the region. 

The participants in the evaluation workshops produced these complex questions, as they wished to examine which processes that will create success. Furthermore, they demanded knowledge of the complex causal connections in response to the impacts of Aarhus 2017.

The evaluation team has found inspiration in evaluations composed by other capitals of culture.