Available online as a pdf (or it may be ordered from the Kellogg website for free), this 116-page handbook from the Kellogg Foundation provides a framework for thinking about evaluation as a relevant and useful program tool: “For those with little or no evaluation experience, and without the time or resources to learn more, this handbook can help project staff to plan and conduct an evaluation with the assistance of an external evaluator.” A blueprint for conducting project-level evaluations, this handbook is an excellent resource and was written primarily for project directors

Based on a literature review drawing from the social sciences, humanities, and public policy, Stern and Seifert of the Social Impact of the Arts Project at the University of Pennsylvania suggest documentation and evaluation strategies that artists, cultural and community organizations, philanthropists, and public agencies could take to improve the quality of knowledge about the social impact of arts-based civic engagement work.

 Based on 13 years of national research on integrating arts and culture into concepts of healthy communities, Senior Research Associate with the Urban Institute Maria Rosario Jackson observes how sound and worthy community arts programs with social and civic intention are often saddled with unrealistic expectations about the impacts that they might have on a community and the ways in which such impacts might be proved. In this paper, Jackson argues for a shift toward more realistic expectations of social impact and evaluation of arts-based civic engagement both on the part of

Museums and Civic Dialogue features exhibition projects that demonstrate how three museums have functioned as provocative and effective forums for civic dialogue. Focusing on contemporary and conceptual works of art as well as historic images, the projects highlight new and adapted approaches to curatorial practice, interpretation, and education prompted by civic intention. The case studies also offer insights regarding institutional challenges and changes in practice that necessarily occurred. Through Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, Henry

Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art and Civic Dialogue is a collection of essays that explore art, civic dialogue, and reflective critical writing. Twelve essays focus on three compelling and very different projects supported by Animating Democracy that employed the unique capacities of theater, visual art, and historic preservation to initiate crucial conversations within communities. 

The thesis of the study described here is that failure to know the audience is a basic reason for theatre failure. Stated conversely, I believe that, when the theatre meets the needs of its audience, it will have their support. In pursuing this idea, a variety of information was gathered and subsequently arranged into five divisions. The first part sets the stage for the study by surveying a wide range of drama and audiences in other times and places.

This is not a how-to-do-it book. This is a how-it-happened story. It is the recounting of what occurred when a theatre burst full-blown upon a community on a grander scale than had ever before happened in this country, and when two professional public relations people were given the opportunity to explore new ways - and to make mistakes - on the same grand scale. Ours was a unique opportunity, and from it came unique experiences. Because of the size of the Minnesota Theatre Company budget, manpower and money were avaiable for more extensive activity in theatre audience-development than had

The following report began as an attempt to distill the ideas of TCG's first Audience Development Workshop of June, 1966. However, as the Workshop enjoyed another session, and as new ideas developed and old ideas were revised, it became clear that the report Toward a New Audience could not stand by itself. Therefore, we have taken the original report and added qualifying and, we hope, further illuminating thoughts which came to the fore in the second session of the workshop, in Memphis, November 1966.

This is a a supplementary report of the second regional plan. As part of the research for the Second Regional Plan, Regional Plan Association is examining the present problem and future prospects for key region-shaping activities including higher education, medical care, the performing arts, and library and museum services. This report examines museum services. Subsequent reports will examine the future of the other activities.

My job today is to suggest ways and means whereby we may become personally involved in action programs in the arts, and to comment on the possible results, for ourselves and for the community, of our involvement and participation in these programs. I am going to treat the kinds of programs in the very broadest sense, describing each of them briefly.