Assessing the Impact of a Community-based Artist Residency Program at El Museo del Barrio

Program Strategy and Evaluation
Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: El Museo del Barrio | Location: New York, NY | Funding: National Endowment for the Arts and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs

 
 

We measured the impact of the Talk of the Town Artist-in-Residence program, designed to support Indigenous and endangered language communities in New York City.

OVERVIEW

In 2024, we partnered with El Museo del Barrio to evaluate the Talk of the Town Artist-in-Residence program, which consisted of three different residencies planned in collaboration between El Museo, resident artists, and community-based organizations throughout the city.

We designed our evaluation as the program unfolded in response to the evolving needs of each of the three different communities served by the three residencies. This was an important learning experience for Kera as well as the client as far as ways to infuse community-focused evaluation techniques into our approach.

APPROACH

Our evaluation involved a case-study approach, treating each of the three residencies as a separate case in order to best assess each one’s specific audience and outcomes. Each case included the following data collection methods:

  • Program observations

  • Pre- and post-interviews with the three artists-in-residence

  • Focus groups with program participants

  • Participant surveys

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

We found that the Talk of the Town program provided participants with opportunities to express themselves creatively through art, exchange vital resources about acclimating to life in New York City, and make connections to those with similar backgrounds, languages, and cultures.

El Museo found our recommendations helpful to consider when pursuing future community based programs: implement mutually beneficial projects that that leverage the museum’s unique qualities as well as participant knowledge base; foreground their expertise in multi-lingual program delivery; and ensure close collaboration between curatorial and education teams to extend the museum’s reach both within the galleries as well as in the community.

Cathy Sigmond

Cathy brings many years of experience in education and experience design to her role as Head of Strategy at Kera Collective. 

Having previously worked in a variety of educational settings, Cathy is driven by her constant fascination and delight at how people make discoveries about the familiar and the unfamiliar. 

Cathy loves helping to shape experiences that spark curiosity and make a difference in people’s lives. She particularly enjoys the rapid, iterative nature of design-based research and the deep insights that come from qualitative research, especially on projects exploring interactions with the digital and built environments. 

Cathy shares her passion for experience design research widely and regularly guest lectures for graduate programs, including the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Exhibition and Experience Design Program and the Pratt Institute’s School of Information. Cathy served as the co-chair of the Museum Computer Network’s Human-Centered Design special interest group from 2018-2021.

Outside of work, you can usually find Cathy playing soccer, thrifting, or making her way through her large cookbook collection. 

Cathy’s favorite museum experiences are immersive; she will always vividly remember walking through the giant heart at the Franklin Institute, being surrounded by birds at the Peabody Essex Museum, and hearing centuries-old instruments come to life at the Museum of Musical Instruments. 

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