Similar to Megan's analysis of the value of symphonies, arts organizations that provide education programs face similar difficulties. Theater organizations provide opportunities for underserved children to experience and often participate in the art through their education departments. Organizations in Pittsburgh provide free performances to schools, chances for students to perform on their stage and collaborative opportunities for the students from different schools to write and perform their own work.
The largest difficulty these organizations have is measuring their program outcomes. Students, teachers, parents and administrators have given feedback on the programs, mostly positive, but funders are often looking for quantitative data. Without tracking individual student participation in these programs for years, it is nearly impossible to measure the effects of the arts on their education.
Heinz College in partnership with Pittsburgh Public Theater will be completing a Systems project in Spring 2012 to find news ways to measure these outcomes. The students hope to present methodologies and tools to discover the impact of The Public's arts education programs. Consulting agencies such as Wolf Brown, have started to measure the impact of the performing arts. This project will further that research and hopefully provide The Public with the necessary, quantitative data to convince funders of their importance. This could have an important impact on arts organizations around the city and throughout the field.
Important and much needed work!
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