Taft Museum of Art (1)
316 Pike Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Educational Programs for Students, Youth and Families
Grant Application:
The Taft Museum of Art (TMA) respectfully requests $50,000 from the Charles H. Dater Foundation to support high-impact educational programs that benefit children and families for the academic year 2021/2022. While Covid-19 has necessitated adaptation, TMA continues its mission-critical educational work to provide free and low-cost programming for students, youth and families, capitalizing on TMA's high-quality arts experiences. The overarching goal of education programming is to provide educational opportunities for diverse audiences by building relationships with scholars, artists, teachers, and other cultural organizations.
For 2021/2022, TMA redesigned educational programming to include in-person and virtual programming options for school tours, Artists Reaching Classrooms and Art for All, along with digital resources for teachers. In the upcoming year, TMA will offer a combination of in-person, virtual and hybrid programming for families to engage in art together, including Family Funday, Outreach Workshops, and Summer Art Camp.
Goals/Objectives:
The Taft’s participation goal for 2021/2022 was to reach 1,080 students through its school programs and to reach 370 youth through its youth and family programming for a total of 1,450 students and youth reached by TMA’s educational programs.
As stated in the grant application, 1) the overall goal for School Programs (a) School Experiences, b) Artists Reaching Classrooms, and c) Art for All) was to support academic content standards requirements in art, language arts, and social studies, as prescribed in the state academic standards of Ohio and Kentucky, and/or common core / national standards; and 2) the overall goal of youth and family programs was to solidify the Taft’s reputation as a family-friendly museum and create life-long learners through its educational offerings. To enable the achievement of this goal, the education team would continue to create engaging programs that reach families and youth through online virtual programming and a hybrid model of onsite/at home activities.
Grant Evaluation Report:
Even with the uncertainty of the Coronavirus, changing school circumstances and the inaccessibility of the historic house, TMA believes that it was very successful in delivering 2 of its 3 school programs, ARC and AFA. While family and youth programs were on hold for most of the year, the learning and engagement team did restart its family programming with the reopening of the historic house. The first free family event was a great success and brought 350 youth and their family members to the museum. TMA also conducted a youth outreach program with its community partner, Su Casa Hispanic Center.
To measure success against the goals established, TMA used both quantitative and qualitative data (please see comments within the report). TMA provided surveys to program participants to assess the value of the program to its audience. The evaluation form is program specific and consists of a close-ended 1-5 scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) statements.
For ARC, 100% of teachers agreed that the program helped students understand potential careers in the arts and the role of a professional artist, 90% of students agreed that they learned something new about art careers and 63% of students felt that learning to write an artist’s statement taught them to describe and write about their own art.
For AFA, 100% of the teachers strongly agreed that their students grew in visual literacy and that students felt comfortable and able to question and interpret the art they saw. 100% of eight grade students agreed that they learned something new, and for elementary students, 75-100% of students responded positively to the questions “Did you learn something new?” and “Do you feel inspired to create art based on what you learned?”
For Summer Camp, 93% of caregivers reported their camper was satisfied with their week at camp and 100% of caregivers said that they would recommend the camp to someone else.
For Bicentennial Community Day, 96% of guests who filled out a survey rated their experience at the Taft as very good or exceptional, and 98% said they felt welcome at the museum. 72% said that seeing the special exhibition with their families for free was a motivating factor in coming to the museum.
Results:
For 2021/2022, TMA continued its high-quality school programs that have been reimagined into more flexible formats to fit the new circumstances that cultural arts organizations and schools are experiencing due to the Coronavirus. The challenges of the pandemic still effected this school year with schools switching back and forth between virtual and in-person learning due to a rise in Omicron variant cases. The program adjustments made in 2020 were employed this year to remain flexible and respond to schools’ circumstances.
For 2021/22 the Taft set a goal to reach a total of 1,450 children, youth, and students through its in-person, virtual, and hybrid educational programs. TMA served a total of 1,014 children through its school, family and youth programs. While TMA did not reach its overall goal, the museum had tremendous success with Art for All and Artists Reaching Classrooms, and Summer Art Camp was sold out. TMA also executed its first in-person large scale event, Bicentennial Community Day, on June 26, 2022. It was the first free Sunday family community event the museum has hosted since the beginning of the pandemic.
Website:
http://www.taftmuseum.org Amount: $50,000
Date: September 2021
