Community Arts Schools and Conservatories
ACHF Arts Education
1. More Minnesotans are engaged in arts learning opportunities. 2. The quantity and types of arts learning opportunities available in the state increases. 1) At the end of each normal teaching year (September – May) we send out evaluation forms to our students and/or their parents. We ask questions such as: Scheduling ease, timely response from staff, did they learn what they expected or more than expected, friendliness of instructor, knowledge shared by the instructor and would they recommend the Headwaters School to their friends/family. We do receive about 70% of these evaluations back and the results are compiled and shared with the instructor and board. 2) After a grant activity has been completed, we have evaluation forms filled out by participants. This becomes a valuable tool for future planning with the artist(s) as instructors and for Headwaters School as a tool for determining if this is the type of programming we should be offering more often. 3) The third assessment process we use is with our funders and instructors. We ask them to tell about their experience with us in the planning process, the execution process and if they are happy with the outcome of the workshop/class. All three of these assessments help us to make changes in a timely fashion if needed. Everyone involved has the option to get feedback in a timely manner thus feeling more control over what happens and how it happens. Using these assessments helps us with planning for new programming, and what kind of marketing is needed to bring more participants to the Headwaters School. By using the results of evaluations we can provide arts learning opportunities that speak to what our constituents desire, therefore, more Minnesotans will be engaged in arts learning opportunities. Additionally, it is our opinion that using these evaluation methods helps to identify those artists who most likely will be successful in teaching their art form to the audiences at Headwaters School. All artists are not teachers and it is important to make sure we know that. When we have an instructor who becomes frustrated with attendance of students or has trouble getting to work – we can be pretty assured there is a problem. We can quickly contact everyone involved and try to make changes that will enhance the situation. If an instructor needs help, we can make them aware of available resources to assist him/her.
1) During fiscal year 2012, we made two new programs available at Headwaters School of Music and the Arts. One is an arts program that brings persons of retirement age together. The program is evaluated verbally. When we began this program, the group was meeting four times per month for rehearsal purposes, but only performed three times per month. Now they perform five times per month. The group has also grown from 18 participants to nearly 30. The second program that became available in 2012 was an opportunity for pre-school aged students to explore music and dance in collaboration with Bemidji Parks and Recreation. We work collectively with the city's parks and recreation department to evaluate this program's effectiveness. 2) With the additional programming opportunities afforded us by the Community Schools and Conservatories grant, we have been able to employ additional artists and bring more arts opportunities to our community.
Other, local or private