Focus Areas
Arts Education & Engagement
Arts education outcomes can be hard to measure because they’re more qualitative than quantitative, and the learning outcomes that come from creative expression aren’t easily captured in a test score. Metis has more than 20 years of experience solving this challenge for arts educators by helping them secure external funding, strengthen implementation, track outcomes, and grow a body of evidence for their work.
We’re a national leader in arts education grant writing, with expertise across the major arts disciplines and decades of experience with the U.S. Department of Education’s Assistance for Arts Education grants (formerly the Arts Education Model Development and Demonstration and Professional Development for Arts Educators grants). Our consultants specialize in program development, grant writing, program evaluation, and customizing tools to measure outcomes, specifically in arts education.
Our Services: Tailored Solutions for Arts Education
We help arts education practitioners and advocates write successful grant applications and develop arts programs with measurable goals, while preserving the creativity at the core of your initiatives.
Grant writing
We help you get the resources you need to fund your program. Our arts education consultants help you secure external funding from federally- and privately-funded arts education programs.
Impact evaluation
If it’s about creativity, you can still measure it—you just need evaluators that understand arts education and the delicate balance between metrics and creative freedom. We design and implement rigorous impact studies of arts education programs so you can make evidence-based improvements just like educators in any other discipline.
Research studies
Beyond the arts classroom, we conduct research studies on organizations, policies, and initiatives for a diverse set of clients with an arts engagement mission. We have experience with a breadth of research methodologies, including descriptive, case study, mixed-method, participatory, and action designs.
Our Arts Education Expertise
Our arts grant consulting expertise includes the following areas:
- Audience engagement and response
- Familiarity and experience with multiple arts disciplines, including dance, music, theater, and visual and media arts
- Social-emotional learning, habits of mind, and the Four Cs—creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration
- Development and administration of content- and skills-based arts assessments
- Expertise in the areas of arts integration and STEAM, an educational approach that combines STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) with the arts
Organizations We Work With
Metis is proud to work with national and local cultural arts organizations, school districts, museums, performing arts centers, community-based arts organizations, and a number of national arts associations.
What Our Arts Education Clients Say
“Because of the Metis partnership, we were able to tell a compelling success story based on accurate data. As our evaluator for a large-scale federal grant, Metis plays an essential role in helping us to understand both the strength of our implementation as well as the impact of our work. Our Metis colleagues’ contributions to the grant design during the planning phases was critical and their on-going thought-partnership ensures that we’re meeting our overall goals and objectives. It’s a true partnership!”
Mario Rossero
Executive Director
National Art Education Association
“In arts education, data is extremely important, both in shaping policy decisions, the use of resources as well as the on-the-ground support given to arts educators to build their capacity to deliver quality arts instruction. Because of the Metis partnership, we have been able to tell a compelling success story based on accurate data. Metis Associates has provided timely, in-depth, actionable, and relevant feedback that supported both implementation and evaluation of initiatives. As an organization, Metis has both the depth and breadth to manage a wide range of projects. Their track record is outstanding!”
Maria Palma
NYC Arts Administrator
Retired
“Our partnership with Metis – and I intentionally use the word ‘partnership’ – continues to grow the organization and its impact on education and the arts. Metis helps to not only design the tools used to inform our understanding but also provides keen insight on curriculum and pedagogy to shape the very best work possible.”
David A. Dik
National Executive Director
Young Audiences Arts for Learning
Ready to make an impact?
Learn how we can support your arts education and engagement efforts.
Our Approach to Arts Education Evaluation
We are deeply familiar with arts education evaluation and understand both the challenges and the opportunities of arts programming. Our arts education and arts integration evaluation work is informed by our understanding of the National Core Arts Standards, the Studio Habits of Mind [PDF], and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework.
While our evaluation of arts education and arts integration projects follows the same general steps as our program evaluation and impact evaluation approaches, we bring our understanding of the field to all aspects of our work, including developing appropriate tools and outcomes.
Consultation
We embark on every evaluation engagement with conversations to learn the needs of your program team. We bring a deep understanding of the goals of arts education and resonate with the importance of these programs.
Evaluation planning
We conduct document and literature reviews and program leader interviews to immerse ourselves in the program design and implementation. We leverage our extensive on-the-ground experience and knowledge of the body of arts education literature in the evaluation planning process.
Evaluation design
Working with program collaborators, we finalize the evaluation design, including developing research questions and developing or refining your program’s logic model and evaluation instruments. We bring our understanding of the National Core Arts Standards and other relevant frameworks to the development of the evaluation design.
Data collection & analysis
We execute the evaluation plan, collecting data from all program stakeholders, and analyzing the data using appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods.
Reporting & continuous improvement
We convey, justify, and disseminate findings. We tailor evaluation results to your audience(s) and facilitate discussion to drive continuous improvement.
Why Partner with Metis Associates
Empower arts educators
Arts educators can be isolated in their school buildings, have fewer fellow arts educators to collaborate with, and have fewer opportunities for professional development. Much of our work in arts education is focused on evaluating programs that support and empower arts educators working in various disciplines (e.g., music, dance, arts).
Measure impact
We are deeply knowledgeable about the National Core Arts Standards and have collaborated with our clients to measure students’ progress in meeting them. We develop custom evaluation tools for hard-to-measure outcomes such as social-emotional learning (SEL), identity, belonging, and engagement as they relate to the arts education experience.
Preserve complexity
We know how to codify creative work without losing its complexity. We’re deliberate about capturing the nuance of outcomes in art-making settings and create measurement tools unique to this field.
Our Arts Education Consultants
Susanne Harnett
Susanne has nearly 25 years of experience with program evaluation, research design, and technical writing. She’s led research and evaluation projects for the New York City Public Schools’ Office of Arts and Special Projects, the National Art Education Association, Young Audiences Arts for Learning, Lincoln Center Education, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, and Studio in a School, among others.
Matt Klepfer
Matt has over eight years of experience in applied research, evaluation, data visualization, and project management. They have led and supported arts education projects for clients including Young Audiences Arts for Learning, the Cooper Union Saturday Program, Studio Institute, and Education Through Music.
Get guidance at every step.
Service your program from vision to results with seasoned consultants who know arts education inside and out.
Our Arts Education Case Studies
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs reached out to Metis to conduct evaluation activities, including the development of a logic model and the examination of outcomes for audience members and participating communities.
Center for Educational Innovation
Metis has partnered with the Center for Educational Innovation to replicate and expand their program for teachers of students with IEPs.
Case Study: Arts Programming for Students with Individualized Education Plans
Frequently Asked Questions: Arts Education Evaluation
It is not only possible but essential to examine outcomes for the arts! It’s important to be open and thoughtful about what those outcomes look like. They can go beyond measuring technical skills in the arts to include outcomes such as teamwork, persistence, feelings of belonging, better understanding of one’s self and others, and being better audience members.
We have been evaluating federally-funded arts education grants since 2002, consulting on over 25 arts education grant programs around the country. If you are interested in applying for an AAE grant, our grant writing and evaluation services can guide you through your complete proposal.
It is entirely expected that arts educators will need to adapt their implementation based on their program’s unique settings. In fact, this is where arts education evaluation support can be most helpful. At Metis, we work with you to determine, based on your logic model, which aspects of program implementation are non-negotiable and which you can customize according to the context without compromising the rigor or integrity of the evaluation.