Roz Hall is a socially engaged arts practitioner, a photographer who has undertaken independent evaluations for many years, starting with her work with young people in digital media projects (Hall, 2005).

Conventional evaluation approaches can be lacking if they do not attempt to understand the meaning of arts participation to people taking part. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an approach that places the participant at the centre as the person who knows best what has happened and what this has meant in terms of their own life.