Sponsoring Agency: National Arts Stabilization
Project Officer: Paul Harder
Performance Period: August 1999 – October 2001
Project Summary:
In 1997, the Ford Foundation selected National Arts Stabilization (NAS) to undertake a multiyear project to answer key questions raised by stabilization and capacity-building funders and practitioners that prior research had not addressed. Those questions were: • Do stabilization strategies ultimately create an environment that supports the creative process? • What are the most effective practices in use today nationally and internationally? • What are the outcomes of disparate stabilization programs? • What is the most effective way to communicate between stabilization funders. practitioners, and participating arts organizations? To answer these research questions, NAS worked with six arts stabilization and capacity-building programs to develop an evaluation methodology and collaborative project structure that: (1) measured the effectiveness of stabilization programs; (2) identified effective stabilization and capacity-building strategies; and (3) developed an effective way for capacity-building grant makers, practitioners, the arts policy community, researchers, and arts organizations to share lessons learned about strengthening arts organizations. Capital Research Corporation, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, worked as the local evaluator on this project — collecting and analyzing data from four arts organizations located in the Baltimore area: the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Clayworks, the Contemporary museum, and the Eubie Black National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center. Staff from CRC also provided input on evaluation data collection tools developed as part of the project and used in assessing capacity building efforts of arts organizations in Baltimore and the five other program sites (including the Arts Council of England, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Hawaii Community Foundation). Report: B. Barnow, M. Moret , and J. Trutko, Evaluation: A Tool for Enhancing the Performance of Arts Organization and Stabilization/Capacity Building Programs, National Arts Stabilization Journal, Fall 2000, Issue No. 5.