Possibly the best conference slide ever.

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@artsresearch
Possibly the best conference slide ever.
Sustainable development: Will we ever know if weāve achieved it?
The UN has just passed a series of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Seventeen bold goals for the world: No more hunger! Education for all! Watch the video to see what theyāve agreed to work toward. Itās a beautiful picture of what humans could achieve. Ā
Leave it to Dr. Tom Schwandt of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to bring a sobering voice to the party. How will we ever measure progress toward those goals? And if we canāt measure them, how will we ever know if we achieved them?Ā
āIf evaluation is a religion,ā he says, referencing an earlier comment by Dr. Deborah Rugg,Ā āwe might have to do a little praying.ā He brings up five issues the UN will face in trying to measure progress.Ā
1) The SDGs are meant to be universal, but itās not clear yet what policies and programs will be needed. The challenges to achieving sustainable development are different for low, middle and high income countries. How can we collapse both interventions and their measurement into a global summary, or even a global picture? How can we structure meaningful reporting on a global scale?Ā
2) There is an extremely strong focus on data, both availability and quality. Thereās an entire UN subgroup assigned to coming to agreement on a set of indicators for the 17 SDGs. So far theyāve come to agreement on 159 indicators and are still debating another 20 or so. Big data, citizen-generated data, other types of data, what are the risks of data collection and ownership? The real danger here, Schwandt says, is that a focus on data for indicators leads to focus on monitoring which is not the same thing as evaluation. How do we do evaluation without falling into the monitoring trap?Ā
3) Schwandt suggests reading a blog post by Caroline Heider of the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank. In sum, she points out the 17 SDGs are so complex, integrated and interrelated that standard linear models for measuring and impact will not work. We will have to develop new strategies for incorporating systems thinking and methods of doing systems oriented evaluation.
4) Attribution and contribution: how can we possibly measure which policies and programs and in what dosage work? And in which settings?Ā
5) Finally, thereās that tricky issue of scale. Itās hard enough to measure some of these outcomes at the country level. How can we roll up findings to the global level, taking into account inter- and intra-regional differences in measurement.
I learned evaluation as a science, practiced it as an art, and continue to believe in it as a religion.
Dr. Deborah Rugg, senior advisor to US mission to the UN (via bgm-ac-re)
At the American Evaluation Association poster session I saw dogs, dragons, kittehs and multivariate regression analysis. Watch the video here!
The LA Times just did a great dataviz of arts education data from the LA Unified School District. I was curious about how they did it, so I opened up the code to take a look.
When I scrolled down to the very bottom, I found this little Easter egg hiding in the code. Click on the image to get a closer look.
All star panel to close out Equity Summit 2015
Equity Summit 2015
It's been an inspiring day 2 thus far far. I'd like to see more of the panels have the sense of urgency that was displayed in the #BlackLovesMatter panel.
Packed house for Black Lives Matter panel
Really great performance by Contra Tiempo this morning to 3,000 people at the Equity Summit.
Arts and culture is a driving force in Leimert Park, thanks in part to artist efforts by Mark Bradford and the community operated Vision Theatre.
Data: not just numbers; not always big
Pity the poor arts administrator who has drunk the Big Data kool-aid without fully understanding its strengths, limitations and ramifications.Ā
Who thinks data only means numbers (āBut how can I quantify that?ā) without knowing the many varied research and evaluation tools available to them. See: An intro to qualitative methods.
Who thinks research always begins with a survey. See: What is a research question?
Who thinks you always have to collect original data yourself. See: What is secondary data?Ā
Who doesnāt take the time to find out if the biggest questions the organization is asking have already been researched and answered. See: How to write a literature review.
Who doesnāt consider the potential ramifications of null (or negative!) results before launching a study. See: Research on why researchers donāt publish when their study turns up nothing terribly interesting.
Who has fallen for the Big Data Gurus who argue that quantity can overcome non-representative methods. See: A very technical article about overcoming bias in large nonrepresentative internet datasets.
Who asks grantees to āproveā theĀ āimpactā of their programs without understanding what it truly takes to measure cause and effect in the social sciences. See: Actual news headlines that mistook correlation for causality.
As an arts administrator, you donāt need big data, you need accurate information. You need to ask smart questions and provide guidance to your research/evaluation staff or contractors about whatās important to you, then let them figure out what the best methods are to answer your questions. Before diving into the research, make sure your question hasnāt already been answered. If not, see if there is secondary data available already to answer it. Good quality research takes time and resources - make sure you have enough of both to commit to the project.
Data is only as powerful as the people who wield it. As you would with any sharp instrument, use it with care and respect and it will serve you well.
This is my favorite part of the Broad. It reminds me of the assembly line factory videos on Electric Company.
What I learned at breakfast.... 1) When arts are used as an interpretive layer, they can clarify, complicate or make things visible. --Rosten Woo 2) "The only way out is in. Once we take that risk, we will make it out.... Perhaps not unscathed, but certainly all the better for it." --crystal am Nelson 3) "I grew up when we were embracing this new technology: the automobile." --Aaron Paley
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance issues a report comparing arts and culture in eleven cities nationwide. Iād give you the highlights, but Iām sworn to secrecy until Oct 26.
Developing a board of directors is like casting a show
Our session at Grantmakers in the Arts today was a blast. Vera de Vera of the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative talked about nonprofit restructuring as a tool for building capacity, while Juliet Flores of the Annenberg Foundation talked about their Alchemy leadership development program. I told about the study undertaken by the LA County Arts Commission to assess and improve our technical assistance and capacity building work.Ā
But it ended up being one of those rare conference sessions where the conversation among the people in attendance was as interesting as the presentations (at least from my POV). One particular issue came up that I think deserves closer investigation: When seeking out capacity building to strengthen their organizations, people from arts nonprofits sometimes feel uncomfortable getting those services alongside folks from other types of nonprofits.Ā
Some think their organization management issues are different from that of other nonprofits.Ā
Others donāt feel comfortable talking about the āniceā arts stuff they do beside nonprofits that are curing childhood diseases or saving women from trafficking.Ā
In yet other cases, many arts organizations are founded by artists who think that organizational management is the opposite of the arts. Ā
To this latter point, Helen Daltoso of the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland said that sheās found that arts metaphors work wonders in helping artists become better managers. For example, artists know how to meet deadlines because they know the show must go on and the curtain will come up at the appointed time. She even recommended thinking about developing a board of directors as similar to casting.Ā
The nonprofit management issues that derive from legal structures, donor expectations and basic human psychology are universal, and arts nonprofits should be able to learn from and with their peers in the sector. However, there are some things that are particular to arts nonprofits, for which specialized technical assistance and capacity building programs should be developed to meet that need. As grantmakers in the arts, our challenge is to determine which is which. Ā
If you were doing research in the arts, which of these would you select as your top priorities?
"Arts, no less than transportation, health, housing and human services, are essential building blocks of community." --Rip Rapson President and CEO, Kresge Foundation