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June 1, 2016

Summary:

The Santa Barbara County Creative Communities Project is in the middle of Phase 2 of our project to develop an arts and culture masterplan for Santa Barbara County. The team at Evaluation Specialists has recently been hired to design and administer a survey of Santa Barbara county residents’ cultural participation. We seek to 1)  assess what creative and cultural activities Santa Barbara County residents engage in and how they access or participate in these activities or practices; 2) identify the barriers that prevent or inhibit residents—including art practitioners, teachers, consumers, audiences, and learners—from engaging in creative and cultural activities, and 3) to use the data collected to identify opportunities to improve access to, resources for, and expand understanding about creative and cultural activities and opportunities across Santa Barbara County.

Our kickoff project meeting with Evaluation Specialists was on May 24, and they are at work now creating a draft of the survey. Once the study design is complete, we will work with a task force of representatives from our county’s cultural organizations to disseminate the survey to county residents. We plan to release a report on our findings by the end of 2017.

Full update:

The Santa Barbara County Creative Communities Project is in the middle of Phase 2 of our project to develop an arts and culture masterplan for Santa Barbara County. In Phase 1 we took snapshot of our cultural landscape through a series of qualitative interviews, and drafted a framework of goals. In Phase 2, we are building on that framework by gathering a broader, deeper pool of information. Ultimately we will use this analysis for Phase 3, the development of an arts and culture master plan to enrich the lives of all county residents and more fully support the arts and culture sector.

The team at Evaluation Specialists has recently been hired to design and administer a survey of Santa Barbara county residents’ cultural participation. We seek to 1)  assess what creative and cultural activities Santa Barbara County residents engage in and how they access or participate in these activities or practices; 2) identify the barriers that prevent or inhibit residents—including art practitioners, teachers, consumers, audiences, and learners—from engaging in creative and cultural activities, and 3) to use the data collected to identify opportunities to improve access to, resources for, and expand understanding about creative and cultural activities and opportunities across Santa Barbara County.

We are seeking to understand not just residents’ formal cultural participation (attending a play, taking an art class) but also how they build the county’s vibrant culture in ways that are not often measured, activities like community dances and gardening, and playing music at church. We also want to understand the wide variety of barriers residents face to their cultural participation, from an artist struggling to afford a studio to a teenager that cannot get transportation to a class. It is only with this kind of deep understanding that our cultural leaders can plan for the future and work to sustain and grow the cultural vitality of Santa Barbara County.

Jan Vanslyke, Holly Djang, and the rest of the team at Evaluation Specialists bring to the project extensive experience in survey design, implementation, and analysis, including work with the Santa Barbara Foundation Community Caregiving Initiative, The Orfalea Foundation School Food Initiative, and Education Through Music – Los Angeles. Our kickoff project meeting with Jan and her team was on May 24, and they are at work now creating a draft of the survey. Once the study design is complete, we will work with a task force of representatives from our county’s cultural organizations to disseminate the survey to county residents. We plan to release a report on our findings by the end of 2017.

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More updates will follow as the project progresses.