Goal

To increase cultural participation and improve the financial sustainability, management and governance capacities of leading arts organizations located in select regions of the state.

Initiative Description

The Arts Regional Initiative (ARI) helps regional arts organizations respond to structural changes brought on by technological advances, demographic changes, funding fluctuations and shifting consumer behaviors. The initiative supports leading organizations that occupy an important role in communities outside of California's largest metropolitan areas. These organizations are critical to providing quality and publicly accessible programming, fostering the careers of emerging artists and contributing to community development.

In the fall of 2009, Irvine will launch a second phase of the Arts Regional Initiative that focuses specifically on increasing cultural participation and improving financial sustainability among grantee organizations. The initiative refinements were informed by prior informal evaluation results of the first cohort of grantees. Additional details about the fund are available here.

Evaluation

The evaluation of the second phase of ARI will focus on measuring progress toward the goals of increased cultural participation and improved financial sustainability. There is little existing methodology in the field for assessing these goals, so the evaluator will develop new measures. Evaluation reports will be delivered at key points in the grant cycle to provide opportunities for grantees to adapt and refine their work. Findings about outcomes and effective strategies will inform Irvine's future grantmaking and be reported to the field.

Objectives:

To gather evidence of increased cultural participation and improved financial sustainability among grantee organizations, and analyze whether and how strategies from this initiative led to organizational outcomes.

Time frame:

The evaluation focuses on the period from 2006 to 2012.

Participating grantees:

This evaluation will include grantees from three cohorts in the second phase of this initiative — in Southern California (outside of Los Angeles), the Central Valley and the Central Coast.

Methods:

This evaluation will use a mixed method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data. Surveys and interviews with executive directors and board presidents at multiple points in the grant period will assess progress towards grantee-specific outcomes and the internal and external factors affecting those outcomes. This evaluation will draw on data in the California Cultural Data Project to assess grantee financial performance. Data on cultural participation will be gathered through audience surveys administered by the grantees, with support from the evaluators.

Findings:

We plan to report findings from this evaluation in 2011.

Evaluator:

Paul Harder
President
Harder+Company Community Research
www.harderco.com/

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