Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
In 2006, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) launched its $1.5 million investment in the Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program that was administered by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP). The overarching strategy of the Creative Campus program was to support exemplary campus based performing arts presenters in developing programs and strategies beyond conventional practice that integrate their work across the academy. The ultimate goal of the program was to elevate the role of the arts in academic life. Eight campus presenters were funded in Round 1 to undertake a diverse array of arts-based interdisciplinary projects: Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University; Hancher Auditorium, University of Iowa; Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College; Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, Hostos Community College of the City University of New York; Lied Center of Kansas, The University of Kansas; Lied Center for Performing Arts, University of Nebraska; Carolina Performing Arts, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill; and Stanford Lively Arts, Stanford University.
In 2007, WolfBrown was asked to evaluate the grant program and to help build grantees’ capacity to evaluate their own projects. WolfBrown assisted each presenter in developing a logic model and data collection plan, and provided technical assistance throughout their project evaluations. Each logic model was developed in consultation with the respective grantee and considered the desired outcomes of each stakeholder: DDCF, APAP, and each of the eight grantees. A series of telephone and in-person interviews were conducted with a variety of campus stakeholders, including a review of the grantees’ own evaluation data to inform the program evaluation.
The final evaluation was presented through four specific outcome areas: new models, sustainability, diffusion and efficacy of program administration. By and large, the eight grantees produced excellent results in terms of delivering on their proposed activities. Several of the grantees achieved a large scale of impact through the selection of a relevant or provocative theme that could be appropriated by a larger array of campus constituencies. Under ideal conditions, this strategy allows for the possibility of transformative, campus-wide interdisciplinary dialogue at scale. Across the portfolio of Round 1 grantees, many promising new practices were developed that actively engaged students, faculty and community members in creative processes and responded to the changing conditions faced by all presenters, not just campus presenters.
Consultants: Alan Brown, Laura Mandeles, Jennifer Novak-Leonard
Year Complete: 2010