Evaluation Test Kitchen: Cooking Up Frameworks to Assess Aesthetics and Social Outcomes

Monday, October 19, 2:00pm – 3:15pm

Organized by Pam Korza, Co-Director, Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts; and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Co-Director, Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts.

Moderated by Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Co-Director, Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts. Presented by Kiley Arroyo, Executive Director, Cultural Strategies Council; Denise Brown, Executive Director, Leeway Foundation; and Mark Valdez, independent artist.

Responsible evaluation of arts and social change work will require disrupting mainstream evaluation practices that can undermine or distort the connections between art, culture, and social justice. Evaluation Learning Lab (ELL) is a partnership of Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, the Arts X Culture X Social Justice Network, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Over the past year, ELL has convened arts practitioners, evaluators, and funders to develop these resources. Participants will test frameworks and criteria designed for assessing social and aesthetic qualities and outcomes and increasing equity and access in review processes coming out of the Lab’s test kitchen. Participants will offer feedback regarding usefulness of frameworks in their grantmaking and in balancing power in evaluation. Discussion will inform positive actions grantmakers can take in their own review and evaluation activities and guide further development of practical field resources.