RMC has helped communities and worked closely with arts and culture funders to measure the impact of their work, seed ideas for new ventures, and maximize the effective use of resources. We have conducted evaluations of projects serving individual artists and arts organizations and have developed approaches to assess the cultural vitality of local communities.

Highlights

Arts and Culture Data for Planning and Economic Development Professionals
Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, RMC examined the perspectives of planning and economic development professionals on the utility of different types of arts and cultural data. Findings about collecting and presenting cultural data more effectively appear in Communicating Value: Re-framing Arts and Culture Data.

Policy Partners: Making the Case for State Investments in Culture
For the Pew Charitable Trusts, RMC designed a study, gathered data, convened meetings, and produced a hands-on guide for state arts and cultural groups. Policy Partners describes ways to communicate the public benefits of arts and culture, explore revenue sources, and create alliances that integrate the arts into public policy agendas.

Heritage Preservation Project
To compile the nation's first comprehensive inventory of our material heritage, RMC surveyed more than 3,300 museums, libraries, historical societies, scientific organizations, and archives to gather data on the extent and condition of their collections. The resulting Heritage Health Index found the collections (books, literary ephemera, sound recordings, moving images, photographs, art objects, historic and ethnographic objects, archaeological artifacts, and scientific specimens) in serious disrepair. The report was widely carried by national media.

Retrospective Reviews of Grant-Making in the Arts
RMC has conducted retrospective reviews on the effects of grant-making in the arts for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Wallace Foundation, and the Knight Foundation. Our work included designing and conducting surveys of grantees and leading discussions on grant-making successes, challenges, and opportunities.

Other Work:

• Evaluations of NEA-funded Teacher Institutes on Persian Book Arts and Kinetic Sculpture
• Arts and Community Evaluation for the Laidlaw Foundation and the Canada Council
• Creative Practice in the 21st Century for the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations
• Briefing Paper and Evaluation Design for the Working Group of the Arts and Civic Engagement Impact Initiative
• Currier Museum Afterschool Learning project brings the practice and appreciation of art to children and their families