While arts practitioners may never conduct scientific-level evaluations, most do want to understand the links between program activities and outcomes in order to tell powerful stories of impact.

As municipalities and regions across the country go about the business of addressing complex issues and planning for their futures, arts and culture are being infused into planning and other public processes. Join us for this Americans for the Arts webinar, which explores the capacities of arts and culture to enliven public process, enhance public dialogue and decision-making, and make for more diverse and meaningful public participation.

In this webinar, we will explore the importance of folk and traditional arts, highlighting how they connect individuals to their communities, foster dialogue between groups, and build cultural and civic capacity. Presenters will offer you examples of folk and traditional arts as a method for creating civic engagement and social change and show how they are key to both preservation and participation.

Arts practitioners are often overwhelmed by the prospect of assessing community level impact, particularly against the less tangible social or civic changes they have defined. There are strategies that arts practitioners and their partners can employ and choices they can make in focusing on evaluation, starting with defining clear outcomes and determining what evidence of change to look for.

Arts leaders from communities across the country are working with their colleagues from neighboring areas to share marketing resources that build awareness of the vast cultural assets and advance tourism within their region.  During this webinar we will hear from leaders from the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington and Arlington Cultural Affairs who are working together to drive economic benefits and visibility to the arts and culture within the Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia region.