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Stories & Examples

 

On-the-ground examples of evaluation in action!

 

These case studies, evaluation reports, and profiles offer insights that may help you:
 

  • define civic/social outcomes and indicators
  • hone the purpose of or focus your evaluation
  • make choices regarding approach and methods
  • find creative ways to report findings.
     

Check out:

In-Depth Case Studies from Animating Democracy's Arts and Civic Engagement Impact Initiative.
 

Add your own:

Evaluation case studies, reports or stories. Share your work by contacting animatingdemocracy@artsusa.org

Animating Democracy Resource

Art and Soul Project Community Survey, Starksboro, VT, Orton Family Foundation

By Chris Dwyer

This item relates to the Preliminary Menu of Possible Outcomes/Indicators/Measures from the Starksboro Art and Soul Project, as both are part of the Art and Soul Project. This item is a ten page community survey with thirty questions. The survey is an adaptation of a standard survey developed by the Orton Family Foundation to use in tracking changes in perceptions about land use planning in all their Heart and Soul community projects.

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Connecting Californians: Finding the Art of Community Change, an inquiry into the role of story in strengthening communities

	
By Dudley Cocke, Linda Frye Burnham, Erica Kohl, Craig McGarvey
	
        
	
"Connecting Californians" reports on a research project completed in 2000, that explored story as a powerful means of building community. The project conducted a search in each of California's 58 counties to find projects that engaged residents in a public performance or story about local history and life. Maps were created to represent the various projects. It is a helpful model for collaborative planning and discussion regarding the arts, culture, and civil society.


	
		






 




 
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Documenting Civic Engagement:  A Plan for the Tucson Pima Arts Council

	
By Mark J. Stern, Susan Seifert
	
        
	
Grounded in a recent strategic plan, the Tucson Pima Arts Council is moving to advance civic engagement in the city and county through its programming, funding, and partnerships. As part of Animating Democracy’s Art & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, and in addition to the qualitative focus reflected in the evaluation inquiry with Maribel Alvarez, TPAC wanted to know what concrete measures are reasonable to use to understand the civic engagement effects of its work as an agency.


	
		






 




 
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Evaluation Plan:  Starksboro (VT) Art & Soul Project, The Orton Family Foundation

	
By Chris Dwyer
	
        
	
Art & Soul is a project of the Orton Family Foundation. The Orton Family Foundation, in partnership with the Town of Starksboro and the Vermont Land Trust hypothesize that, by getting in touch with deeper community values and connections to place, citizens will be able to improve upon traditional approaches to planning and make better decisions about the future of their communities.


	
		






 




 
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Evaluation Plan: Art At Work, Terra Moto and the City of Portland, ME

	
By Chris Dwyer, Marty Pottenger
	
        
	
The Art at Work is a national initiative to improve municipal government through strategic art projects between artists, city departments, unions, elected officials and the community.  Launched in 2007 in Portland, ME, as a three-year project, the initiative includes artmaking workshops led by artist Marty Pottenger with local artists (currently a printmaker, poets, and photographers) within the city’s Public Works, Health & Human Services, and Police Departments.


	
		






 




 
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Making the Case for Skid Row Culture: Findings from a Collaborative Inquiry by the  Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) and the Urban Institute

	
By Maria Rosario Jackson, John Malpede
	
    
    
	
Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) is a Skid Row-based theater organization, founded and directed by artist John Malpede. LAPD has distinguished itself by its longstanding commitment to making change in L.A.’s Skid Row community, particularly regarding the homeless, through theater-based civic engagement work. Many have observed LAPD’s apparent potent effects on individuals and on social relations in Skid Row, and acknowledge its contributions to influencing structures, systems, and even policy.  


	
		






 




 
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Model of State Arts Agency Values and Actions to Broaden, Deepen, and Diversify Participation

	
By Chris Dwyer
	
        
	
This tool serves as a model to align values, actions, and measures of progress for State Art Agencies. In table form, it lays out a generic base for locating concepts of participation within a framework of concepts of public value and motivating values of different groups. The table can serve as a basis for developing the types of outcomes and measures related to State Art Agencies' actions to broaden, deepen and diversify creators, stewards and spectators/participants.


	
		






 




 
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Moments of Transformation:  Rha Goddess’s LOW and Understanding Social Change

	
By Suzanne Callahan
	
        
	
Artist Rha Goddess’s Hip Hop Mental Health Project (HHMHP) seeks to contribute to shifting the cultural paradigm of shame and alienation surrounding mental illness, and satisfy a need for a SAFE place to confront the issue and obtain vital information.


	
		






 




 
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My Soul to Take Case Study:  Flint Youth Theatre, Flint, MI

	
By Sue Wood 
	
        
	
When Flint Youth Theatre began planning for a new play addressing the local and national problem of school violence, it had no idea that, in the process of developing the project, its own community would experience a devastating elementary school shooting. A year after the tragedy, the play ...My Soul to Take, written by artistic director and playwright William Ward, became a focal point for fresh attention on this persistent and painful issue.


	
		






 




 
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Possible Outcomes/Indicators/Measures from the AEI: Police Calendar Project

	
By Chris Dwyer
	
        
	
This is an example of an interactive worksheet charting desired outcomes, indicators, and potential data collection methods. The Arts and Equity Initiative (AEI) with the city of Portland, Maine, is based on the question, "Can art transform government?" and aims to address municipal issues through art-making exchanges involving artists and city departments/officials/union workers.


	
		






 




 
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