Arts Evaluation in Practice: Answering the Important Questions

Monday, October 13, 1:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Cottonwood A, M1/Street Level

Organized by Janet Sarbaugh, senior program director, arts & culture program, the Heinz Endowments, and presented by Ann Stone, senior research and evaluation officer, Wallace Foundation, and Sandra Radoff, president, S. Radoff Associates

How do arts grantmakers respond to the increasing pressure to demonstrate evaluative results? Can evaluation be structured as both qualitative and quantitative? Can the process and the results be useful, and not burdensome, to grantees? This session will feature a close look at The Wallace Foundation’s recent practice of building support for research and evaluation into arts organization grants and providing associated technical assistance.

We will hear from a participating arts organization about its experience collecting and using data as a specific part of its grant, with the goal of designing more effective strategies to build participation and then assessing the results; from Sandra Radoff, who leads the foundation’s technical assistance team for the arts initiative, about providing technical assistance to grantees with widely varying needs and levels of research experience; and from Ann Stone, senior research and evaluation officer at Wallace, about why the foundation decided to build support for research and evaluation into its grants, the different purposes the results serve, and the challenges and opportunities associated with the program.