Aesthetic Perspectives in Evaluation

Recorded On: 05/10/2022

imageAbout this Webinar

This session offers an overview of ways the Aesthetics framework can be activated in evaluation of civically and socially engaged arts and culture projects and programs as well as action-based research.  These include: developing a shared language among artists and stakeholders about the creative work; defining indicators of artistic success; guiding data collection; designing ethnographic and developmental evaluations; and communicating findings and lessons learned.

While working as an evaluator and researcher at the Los Angeles County Dept. of Arts & Culture, Susannah Laramee Kidd, in collaboration with artist and community engagement coordinator Sara Daleiden, used the Aesthetic Perspectives framework in a formal evaluation of public art projects and community engagement at four county parks and libraries. 

Participants will learn how the Aesthetics framework was used to:

  • analyze what aesthetic attributes of specific artworks and artistic processes contributed to success
  • inform data collection tools that documented community members’ experience with creative work
  • further stakeholders’ learning about public art impact and evaluation practices 

Looking for more on Aesthetic Perspectives? This webinar builds on the content in the webinar, Assessing Arts for Change: Understanding Aesthetic Perspectives. We recommend viewing this before attending. This webinar is part of the Activating the Aesthetic Perspectives Framework: A Tool for Funders, Evaluators & Artists collection.

This webinar is free as part of our support and service to the field, as is the Aesthetics Perspectives framework. Please consider becoming a member or donating to Americans for the Arts to support ongoing access to resources like these for everyone. 

Susannah Laramee Kidd, Ph.D

Susannah Laramee Kidd is an ethnographer turned evaluator and arts and culture policy researcher. She is passionate about developing learning processes that enable practitioners to meet their artistic and social change goals. To that end, she wrote a brief guide for evaluators and researchers on the “Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence for Arts for Change” framework published by Animating Democracy in 2017. As an independent consultant, Laramee Kidd works with artists, arts and community development organizations, and community advocates to create frameworks that generate knowledge for action from the ground up. Currently with Sara Daleiden, she has been part of a team at the City of Santa Monica, CA supporting the Art of Recovery initiative. In 2020 and 2021, many of the Art of Recovery projects activated commercial corridors and public spaces hit hard by the pandemic. With Metris Arts Consulting, she led knowledge-building, theory of change, evaluation-planning and capacity-building, and cultural asset mapping projects in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago and for the state of Indiana. Previously, Laramee Kidd was a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow at the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, where she collaborated with artist Sara Daleiden to evaluate public art, social practice, and public engagement projects at parks and libraries in unincorporated LA County neighborhoods. Laramee Kidd holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology of Religion and Literature and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University. 

We encourage registrants to become familiar with the Aesthetic Perspectives framework before attending these webinars so that we may give good time for the specific focus of each webinar. Find the free online Full version or the Short Take and a webinar on the framework below. 

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Aesthetic Perspectives in Evaluation
Live event: 05/10/2022 at 3:00 PM (EDT) You must register to access.
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