OL-ECB TIG Week: Evaluation Capacity-Building: Reflections from Teaching Arts-Based Methods by Maya Lefkowich & Jennica Nichols

Hi! We are Maya Lefkowich and Jennica Nichols – arts-based evaluators from AND implementation in Vancouver, Canada. We’re on a mission to expand the capacity for creativity in evaluation with arts-based methods.

Arts-based data collection tools support learning, accountability, and growth in ways that quantitative and qualitative techniques can’t. Plus, arts-based tools are fun, engaging, and a terrific solution for survey fatigue! More tools in our evaluation toolboxes enable us to better respond appropriately to diverse contexts and communities.

To build creative capacity for evaluators, we teach foundational arts-based skills in in-person and online workshops, at conferences, and with a beginner arts-based methods course. We love introducing evaluators to creative techniques that can be used to elicit data, guide decision-making, and practice reflexivity. After five years of teaching (and evaluating) our capacity-building content and techniques, we have learned valuable lessons about what works (and what doesn’t) for evaluators. Below we share the top three strategies we use when teaching new skills to evaluators of all experience levels.

Hot Tips

Foster a meaningful learning space

Learning is uncomfortable. It can be scary to try – and fail at – using new techniques in front of others. Confronting our own biases, misunderstandings, and shortcomings is difficult. And, it can be discouraging not to “get it” right away. To make learning meaningful – even if it is awkward – we:

• Start slow. We use art-based icebreakers so learners can warm up and get their creative juices flowing before launching into an assignment.
• Lead with vulnerability. We show our terrible art before asking others to create or share. With cringy poems, blurry photos, and simple line drawings, we set the bar for artistic skill low so that everyone feels okay with what they make.
• Build bravery over time. We introduce learners to methods that are more familiar first. Then, over time, and as we build trust, we build content that requires more risk-taking, courage, and a willingness to let things get weird. For example, we teach photography before drawing and collage. People have likely already taken a photo, and it is less vulnerable to take a picture of an existing object. But, lots of people have never made a collage, and drawing requires evaluators to invent something from their imagination. Yikes!
• Prioritize & protect learning time. We prefer not to record sessions. Yes, we know people have big feelings about this. By not recording sessions, we preserve a space for learners to show up authentically, share courageously, and not worry about stumbling on video. We asked a recent cohort of our course if we should start offering recordings and self-paced content instead. The response was unanimous. No.

Embrace Imagination

To learn, evaluators need to imagine how to apply new skills and techniques in their own contexts. Easier said than done. We’ve learned that many evaluators need help building up their imagination muscles, which enable them to move from understanding a concept to applying it in practice. To nurture imagination, we:

• Provide case studies: Anchoring everything in real-world examples, we help learners imagine how, when, with whom, and why they might use a specific arts-based technique.
• Carve out time for practice: First, evaluators practice a new technique while role-playing as a “participant” making art and then as the “evaluator” eliciting data from that process or product. Learners can imagine what it would be like to facilitate each technique for real.

Evaluate

Our techniques are far from perfect. That’s why we evaluate ourselves – to learn, grow, and do better. Whether with a 5-minute survey or a haiku poem at the end of the session, always ask for – and use – feedback to adapt content.

We are excited to grow our capacity-building techniques alongside this evaluation community as more of our peers become curious about, develop skills for, and use arts-based methods. To connect, keep this conversation going, or have a giggle, please email us. For more free tips and resources, check out our cheeky evaluation blog.

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The American Evaluation Association is hosting Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building (OL-ECB) Topical Interest Group Week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our OL-ECB TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.