I finally got around to reconstructing my speech to the New Jersey Theatre Alliance conference on September 23. It's available in web and PDF format in the Thoughtbucket section of this weblog. Comments, criticisms, and large wads of unmarked cash are welcome.

If you're an impatient sort, here's the gist of it:

....such is the challenge of evaluation and evidence: they only barely describe—and often badly describe—the true nature of human experience. And what is broadly true for all human activity is particularly true of creative endeavor. An individual's or a community's interaction with creative expression and cultural experience has an impact, has a footprint, has a value. But it's a slippery and elusive critter to track in ways that can be measured and described.

Give it a read if you like.