As the Wisconsin Arts Board celebrates its 50th Anniversary, we take this opportunity to gratefully recognize and thank the arts organizations and artists of our state whose work makes our own possible and meaningful. Thank you!
George Tzougros, Wisconsin Arts Board Executive Director
July, 2023
1. What Have You Done?
Briefly describe your organization in concrete terms:
• How many events do you produce/present each year (not including rentals)? • Do you pay the vast majority of the artists who perform in your productions or whose work you exhibit? • How many administrative staff people are currently on your payroll? Has that number changed over the past
three years and if so, how? • How many board/advisory committee members do you have and how often do they meet? • Provide an overview of your administrative AND artistic work to date, over your three most recently completed
fiscal years.
Elements to consider related to Question 1:
• Who was involved, what happened, and when and where activities took place;
• New or expanded artistic activities that were developed in the last year;
• Any arts education activities.
2. How Did You Do It?
Describe your organization's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats that might
affect your organization.
Elements to consider including in your response to Question 2:
• Identify the organizational strengths and assets that have made it possible for you to provide these programs and services over the past three years;
• Provide examples of particularly significant partnerships (artistic, business, etc.) that have had a strong impact on any aspect of your work;
• Identify the significant challenges that your organization faced over the past three years and how you have addressed them.
3. What Difference Did You Make?
Describe your organization’s public value to your community members, and your efforts to broaden, deepen
and/or diversify participation in your activities (see Glossary).
Elements to consider including in your response to Question 3:
• The impact that your organization has on your community as a whole;
• How your organization communicates that impact back to the community, including local leaders, state legislators and congress people, and the Governor;
• A description of how your organization participates or provides leadership on the local, state, and regional levels.
Note: Mid-Size and Large Organizations should also consider: Specific examples of how your organization is building participation in your activities by eliminating practical, perceptual and experiential barriers.*
4. How Did You Know?
Describe the ways in which your organization plans, and then evaluates, its work as an arts organization.
Elements to consider including in your response to Question 4:
• A description of your organizational planning process;
• A short list of the evaluation methods/tools used during the past three years;
• Specific examples of how information from your past evaluation work/assessment methods affected your programs and services.
Note: Mid-Size and Large Organizations should also consider: How your community was involved in that planning process at any point.
*Experiential barriers to participation – a reference to the Rand Corporation’s Study A New Framework for Building Participation in the Arts, examples could include the following. “I didn’t enjoy my last visit. The seating is too cramped. I received poor customer service the last time I visited. There was no explanation available to help me understand the art activity.”
Perceptual barriers to participation – Examples could include the following. “I didn’t think I would fit in. The arts aren’t for people like me. I wouldn’t know how to dress.”Practical barriers to participation – Examples could the following. “I didn’t have child care. I couldn’t afford a ticket. I didn’t want to come downtown after dark. Parking is too difficult there.”