Art Bridges
Evaluation

Art Bridges supports evaluation activities to promote the use of data for improvement and learning and to help our organization better understand its impact on the field. We encourage our partners to use evaluation to better understand their audiences, measure program impact, and make responsive, visitor-centered decisions.

Getting Started with Evaluation

New to evaluation? Explore this brief guide for tips and examples.

Consider questions like:

What do I need to learn about my program to know if it’s successful?
How will my planned evaluation help me measure my program’s goals or my institution’s strategic plan?
Once I have information gathered through an evaluation, how will I use it to make changes?
What do I need to know about my audience to provide the best programming?

Evaluation Services Supported by Art Bridges

Front-End, Formative, and Summative Evaluation
Survey Design
Focus Group Facilitation
Interview Protocols and Collection
Data Collection Training
Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis
Behavioral Observation and Experimentation

Note: The above list is not exhaustive. We encourage you to reach out to our team with any ideas you have to evaluate your Art Bridges project(s).

For more information, please visit our FAQ; submit a Contact Us form; or contact Brittany Vernon, Director of Learning & Engagement and Evaluation, at brittany.vernon@artbridgesfoundation.org.

Service Spotlight

Evaluation Planning and Execution

COVES (Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies) is a system that allows Art Bridges partners to learn directly from visitors about their museum experience. Participating museums will collect information from visitors and receive a validated survey, financial assistance, training, and reporting support from Art Bridges. Throughout this process, museums can bring visitor experience to the forefront of decision-making and understand how they compare to other art museums.

Learn more about COVES.

Get Started

Active Art Bridges partners using COVES

About the COVES Program

Our commitment to access includes access to insightful, actionable data. The COVES Program is designed to help your museum measure impact and ensure meaningful, accessible art experiences.

Projects We Love:

Delaware Art Museum

With the support of Art Bridges, the Delaware Art Museum (DelArt) exhibited "Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection" organized by the McNay Art Museum. DelArt also used Art Bridges Learning and Engagement funding to activate the exhibition by hosting "Healing Through the Arts," a series of workshops taught by artist Cesar Viveros and a fashion show developed and organized by Juliet Zavala, artist-in-residence. Throughout the programs’ development, Art Bridges supported DelArt’s collaboration with the Center for Audience Research and Evaluation (CARE) at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to determine and measure outcomes for its visitors.

Learn Moreabout Delaware Art Museum

DelArt’s fashion residency culminated with a fashion show on May 13th, 2023. (Credit: Delaware Art Museum)

Orlando Museum of Art

The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) hosted "Reflections," a program that paired workshops with artwork. "Reflections" served individuals with cancer, and helped them develop self-awareness, learn coping strategies, and practice therapeutic techniques with other cancer patients and survivors. Through evaluation, OMA was able to determine the positive impact of the program.

Learn Moreabout Orlando Museum of Art

Reflections included workshops near featured artwork Moving Stillness: Mount Rainier, 1979.

Bill Viola (b. 1951), Moving Stillness: Mount Rainier, 1979, 1979, color videotape playback with rear projection reflected off water surface of a pool onto a suspended screen, in a large, dark room, water disturbed by hand at intervals, and amplified stereo sound, pool: 8 in x 10 ft x 20 ft. Art Bridges. Photo: Orlando Museum of Art.

Westmoreland Museum of American Art

For The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the "Border Cantos" exhibition was an opportunity to connect with and learn from individuals in the Greensburg, Pennsylvania community. Art Bridges funding enabled The Westmoreland to contract the Center for Audience Research & Evaluation at Crystal Bridges to conduct evaluation spanning from a front-end study in fall 2019 and summative evaluation during summer 2021.

Learn Moreabout Westmoreland Museum of American Art

Border Cantos at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art

Installation view of Border Cantos | Sonic Borders at the Westmoreland Museum of Art (Greensburg, PA).

Currier Museum

Organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and supported by Art Bridges, "State of the Art: Locate" showcases artworks that interrogate individuals’ relationship with ethnicity, family, and place. The exhibition was on view at the Currier Museum of Art from October 2022 to February 2023.

Learn Moreabout Currier Museum

audience listens to choral music at the Currier Art Museum

Audience watching a music performance related to State of the Art: Locate at the Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, NH).

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