Contours of Inclusion: Frameworks and Tools for Evaluating Arts in Education

This collection of essays explores various arts education-specific evaluation tools, as well as considers Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the inclusion of people with disabilities in the design of evaluation instruments and strategies. Prominent evaluators Donna M. Mertens, Robert Horowitz, Dennie Palmer Wolf, and Gail Burnaford are contributors to this volume. The appendix includes the AEA Standards for Evaluation. (Contains 10 tables, 2 figures, 30 footnotes, and resources for additional reading.) This is a proceedings document from the 2007 VSA arts Research Symposium that preceded the American Evaluation Association's (AEA) annual meeting in Baltimore, MD

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Stories for Change

This compendium of nearly 50 best practices showcases the notable strategies that increase access to arts and culture for older adult and immigrant populations. Newcomers and older adults (65 +) are two of the fastest growing populations -- communities across the country are grappling with a demographic makeup that is increasingly diverse and proportionally older than in the past. Arts and cultural organizations have the opportunity to reach-out, to increase resources in the community, and to engage populations that are at risk for being overlooked."Stories for Change" is a compelling collection, brimming with new ideas brought to fruition by many types of organizations including: museums, libraries, community development organizations, theaters, orchestras, dance ensembles, area agencies on aging, transportation bureaus, parks, botanic gardens, universities, and more. Organizations that hope to enhance the lives of their older and immigrant residents can find approaches portrayed in these Stories that can be adapted to meet the needs of their communities.Best practices include the well-known Alzheimer's Project of the Museum of Modern Art, which has been adapted to museums around the country, and Circle of Care, a unique ride share program that partners young people with older adults to attend free arts performances in Boulder, Colorado. Stories are located in rural, mid-size, and metropolitan settings; many can be easily implemented, and do not require a major overhaul of staffing, operations, or an organization's mission

Los Angeles County Arts Commission Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative Literature Review

This literature review is intended to investigate and provide background information on how others have addressed the question of improving "diversity in cultural organizations, in the areas of their leadership, staffing, programming and audience composition", both through academic research and practitioner experience. The literature lends these concepts into a division by slightly different categories, as follows: Boards of Directors in Arts and Culture Organizations The Arts and Culture Workforce Audiences and ProgrammingAudiences and programming are closely intertwined in the literature, and thus are combined in this report. Culturally specific arts organizations and their potential contribution to diversity, cultural equity and inclusion in the arts ecology emerged as a potentially powerful but not yet fully understood set of actors, so this topic was added as a fourth section in this report: Culturally Specific Arts OrganizationsThe report begins with a background discussion on diversity, cultural equity and inclusion in arts and culture, and it concludes with a series of broad lessons that emerged from the literature that apply to all four of the areas identified by the Board of Supervisors in their motion

Conservation in Museums and Inclusion of the Non-Professional

Just as object meanings are defined by people, so too can identities of individuals, groups and communities be implicit in their relationships with particular objects. The transformative quality of the museum environment and display formats, with regard to objects and object relationships, is fundamental to the socio-cultural responsibilities of these institutions and their ability to affect social issues. To understand the potential utility of heritage conservation in this respect, it is necessary to explore the complexity of the relationships that can form between objects and people and so establish some key issues and implications of conservation activities. This paper first addresses the role of materiality and material interactions in the construction and communication of identity aspects, and considers professional conservation with regard to these relationships. It will be shown that material interactions can have great significance concerning identity and that the subjectivity of object values is a key issue in the conservation of material heritage. It will be seen that though the management of heritage can be problematic, the resonance of heritage status gives museums a unique capacity for addressing both intangible and tangible social needs

Making Connections for Community Change - The Staten Island Foundation Biennial Report: Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015

The Staten Island Foundation has released its Biennial Report for Fiscal Years 2014-2015. Highlights include:Messages from the Foundation's Chair and Executive Director: Looking Back, Looking Ahead;An infographic summarizing the Foundation's Hurricane Sandy funding to date;Stories on how the Foundation is engaging the community, cultivating leadership for an emerging future, and extending its reach through catalytic connections.The Staten Island Foundation is a private foundation established in 1997 to improve the quality of life on Staten Island. To date, the Foundation has provided over $50 million to hundreds of local nonprofits with strong relationships and deep knowledge of the borough's operating ecosystem. In partnership with the local community, nonprofit, public and private sectors, the Foundation strives to ensure this vibrant, diverse community -- especially its least advantaged -- has access to the resources necessary to maximize its potential. With a results orientation, the Foundation views its support as an investment in change, the measure of changed lives for a better community

Information Outlook, April 2003

Volume 7, Issue 4https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2003/1003/thumbnail.jp

Creating Inclusive Experiences in Children\u27s Museums for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study examined daily programming and inclusion efforts for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at a singular study site, a children’s museum located in a suburban community of Illinois. The purpose of this study was to identify, through survey, observation, and peer interviews the current accessibility barriers at the study site and suggest ways to prevent them through inclusive design strategies. Interviews with children’s museums around the country focused on how children’s museums may be able to expand their inclusion efforts to overcome these barriers including designing programming to provide inclusive experiences for children with ASD. These interviews championed the use of a variety of inclusion efforts including utilizing Universal Design for Learning Guidelines in program development and engaging community partners. Survey results showed that visitors to the site utilized these environments for leisure and supplementary educational opportunities. However, due to various barriers related to the Museum environment and characteristics of ASD, children with the disorder are not always able to have a positive experience. Observations conducted at the study site revealed that while the Museum offers many accessibility resources to visitors, its current daily programming is unsupportive of a neurodiverse audience. Outcomes from this study resulted in recommendations to improve the experiences of children with ASD at the study site by investing in staff training and resources, designing programs that comply with Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, and cultivating and maintaining community partnerships. In addition, strategies for measuring the effectiveness of these recommendations were identified. This, in turn, may be relevant and beneficial to ASD programming development and delivery at other museum sites around the country