Client: Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana Lafayette | Location: Lafayette, LA | Funding: National Endowment for the Humanities
We partnered with the Hilliard Art Museum to build staff’s evaluation knowledge and skills through an evaluation of an exhibition microsite celebrating and commemorating the brown cotton textile tradition in Acadiana.
OVERVIEW
In 2020, we partnered with the Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana Lafayette to evaluate the Acadian Brown Cotton: The Fabric of Acadiana, an exhibition available both onsite and online through a microsite developed by the museum.
Our work with Hilliard happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when many museums were having to switch to online platforms to reach their audiences. The microsite was a new endeavor for the museum and served as an opportunity for staff to learn about evaluation.
APPROACH
We designed an evaluation and capacity building project with a few interrelated parts:
Workshops to help define target audiences and the desired impact on those audiences
Trainings to share best practices in evaluation and co-develop an evaluation plan
An evaluation of the microsite led by Museum staff, with our coaching; and
Working sessions to unpack the data and strategize on how staff can use evaluation in the future
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Hilliard recognized that the pandemic necessitated a major shift in how they needed to use their resources to complement the onsite Acadian Brown Cotton exhibition (from onsite programming to an exhibition microsite). The silver lining of this shift was that staff had an opportunity to carefully consider their audiences and better understand how articulating intended outcomes can drive evaluation planning and methodology. Staff also learned what worked well (and not so well) for different audiences using the microsite—insights that they will use when designing new virtual resources.
Ultimately, the collaborative nature of our work helped Hilliard staff better appreciate how evaluation can help organizations build and strengthen relationships with audiences (even when unable to meet in person) and inform any audience initiative they develop as a team.
