The best of both worlds: Using multiple evaluation approaches to build capacity and improve a museum-based arts program

Abstract

This chapter features the inter-connected stories of two evaluators who worked on improving a museum-based Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) program. The education staff was eager to evaluate the program impact and redesign the STEAM program. Initially, the two evaluators worked on separate parts of the project, but ultimately developed complementary evaluation strategies that measured program impact and made practical appraisals to guide the redesign. The evaluators discuss their designs and discuss how they influenced each other in improving the program, building evaluation capacity, and developing a potentially more useful hybrid evaluation that featured the best of both approaches.