The Studio to School Initiative was a five-year grant program funded by Oregon Community Foundation (OCF). OCF invested $6 million in Studio to School— the largest and most intensive philanthropic investment in arts education in Oregon’s history. Studio to School brought together dozens of core partners in arts education to explore what made projects “work,” to identify impacts and commonalities, and encourage field-building across the state. 

As members of the OCF Research & Learning team, Kim led this evaluation, and Madeline served as a project evaluator. Over five years, we engaged well over 100 artists in the Studio to School learning community and experimented with creative approaches to learning and evaluation to reflect the values of the projects. We designed sensemaking opportunities and products for internal use to help OCF understand grantees’ work and experiences and adapt its practices over time. We created a slew of evaluation reports and materials to reach multiple audiences including grantees, arts education advocates, policymakers, and other funders. Evaluation products included principles for equitable arts education and an accompanying rubric, learning briefs, grantee and evaluation reports. The final web-based report showcases what we learned together.

Kim: This project showed me that the evaluation process is just as – and often even more – important than any report you create. Evaluation can include care and love, and it can look like a note played, a line of a play delivered, or a mosaic created together.

Madeline: This project transformed my understanding of what evaluation can be: joyful, human, and alive! Evaluations that are transparent and collaborative help us better understand each other and advocate for work that matters. Like everything else in life, evaluation is just better with artists.