EVALUATING our experiences

[kcallard]

I am in the midst of writing my senior thesis on three different community based projects that I designed and facilitated both here in the US and in Nicaragua. Currently I am writing a chapter on the theories and rationale behind community arts as well as some of the issues within the field. I am especially interested in the issue of ownership within projects. By ownership I speaking to the amount of investment or responsibility or voice a participant has in the making of and the final product of a community art project. How do we measure ownership? One way is through the testimonies of the participants themselves. WHERE CAN I FIND THESE testimonies? I feel that the voices of participants are often not represented in artist's accounts of their programs. I am wondering how many of you all use evaluations within your projects. IF so, how? I am curious to hear what some of your participants responses have been to the projects as a whole and also to issues like the power dynamics within the design of the project and their reflections on their level of investment in the project.
Community arts is a growing field. Many of us build our strategies and frameworks based on the outcomes of our previous experiences and so I think it is important that we share those structures and strategies which worked AS WELL AS those that did not work. Please share, I am stuck and would love to hear other voices on this!

[Steven Durland]

You might check out some of the material here on the CAN web site. For instance, both the "Connecting Californians" special project and the "Performing Communities" special project contain the transcripts of interviews with participants as well as artists in various projects. (See the right-hand column of the Reading Room for special projects links.)

[Davida]

I am also planning to write a thesis in a short amount time and found the information given very helpful. At the moment I am working for a non-profit after school art and youth program as a grant writer and researcher. the name of the program is Arts Kids. As far as grant writing, is there another form of evaluation(s) that can be found or done.? Is the logic model a good model? or are there any other evaluation forms that can be used in evaluating community arts programs

[Gailm]

I too am interested in the question of how best to evaluate the impact or benefit of arts-based research projects. Specifically, I am working with a group of researchers and playwrite/director/actors. Research findings on lived experience for persons with dementia are being crafted into a drama for presentation to persons with AD, care providers, and health professionals. We will be evaluating the impact of the play for these different groups. I would appreciate any lead for art-based evaluation. Thank you! Gailm

[fghartl]

Evaluation of these types of programs is, I find, an interesting and very challenging task. I work for an educational theatre program which serves mainly students in the Southern California communities, informing them of relevant health topics (nutrition, safety, conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS). We mainly provide our theatrical interventions in either the gymnasium, cafeteria, or sometimes classroom.

Because of the students' having to be in the school, it's somewhat more plausible to conduct pre and post show surveys which attempt to measure their comprehension & knowledge of specific educational points, and also measure their attitudes toward topics & intended behavior change, in the short term. As for long-term behavior change or any long term effects, I would say we are currently without resources to conduct such a study. But, with the numerical data, we're able to enter it into a statistical program to help determine what effects are valid or not.

Although we've shifted for more quantitative data, we still collect qualitative info through focus groups (pre and post) and letters, pictures, anecdotal info from intervention participants. I have been reading an interesting couple of books by authors Singhal & Rogers. Both books are approximately titled "Entertainment-Education" and they both, in part, discuss evaluation of the effects of this strategy. I would recommend it to anyone who may be interested in it.

Well, that's what I'm up to. I'm glad this site is running---it looks great.