Community MusicWorks Fellows Program EvaluationDennie Wolf and colleagues at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI, share innovative approaches to tracking the impact of fellowships and networks that support young classical musicians in developing careers at the intersection of: 1) musical excellence, 2) community engagement, and 3) social justice. The full report, We Are Each Other's Magnitude and Bond: An Evaluation of Community MusicWorks' Extending Our Reach Initiative (April 2016), is available for download." />
Community MusicWorks Fellows Program Evaluation
Dennie Wolf and colleagues at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI, share innovative approaches to tracking the impact of fellowships and networks that support young classical musicians in developing careers at the intersection of: 1) musical excellence, 2) community engagement, and 3) social justice. The full report, We Are Each Other’s Magnitude and Bond: An Evaluation of Community MusicWorks’ Extending Our Reach Initiative (April 2016), is available for download.
Community MusicWorks Fellow Program Evaluation
We Are Each Other’s Magnitude and Bond: An Evaluation of Community MusicWorks’ Extending Our Reach Initiative
Dennie Wolf and Rachel Panitch
Published April 2016
Community MusicWorks, a neighborhood-embedded education and music organization, asked WolfBrown to capture the long-term impact of its Fellows program (a two-year residency in teaching, music-making, and community engagement). Using a participatory evaluation format, we worked closely with CMW staff and former Fellow Rachel Panitch (as a co-researcher with an insider’s perspective), to develop a multi-methods approach that included interviews, surveys, and observations. Through this work, we carved out a set of dimensions that captures and communicates the decade-long impact of the Fellowship. Taken together, these dimensions provide substantive measures of the long-term success of CMW’s efforts to diversify who participates in classical music, develop a set of practices that can build skills among musicians to engage in social justice issues, and sustain the organizations and individuals who undertake this challenging work. Moreover, these dimensions suggest a framework through which the wider field might begin to gauge the success of other sustained efforts.