Austin Artist in Residence Program
Strategizing for successful municipal / artist partnerships
2019
Project Overview
In 2016, Austin’s Office of Innovation launched an Idea Accelerator initiative, wherein city employees could submit ideas to improve city government. The Artist-in-Residence proposal was chosen from a broad field of ideas. The goal of this particular proposal was to embed artists within City departments to help resolve problems, provide innovative or new process improvements, and engage residents around community issues in creative ways. After Rehab El Sadek was selected at the first artist-in-residence for the Watershed Protection Department, the program launched and combined the efforts of Ms. El Sadek, the Office of Innovation, City of Austin Economic Development Department’s Cultural Arts Division, and Austin’s Watershed Protection Department.
With the hopes of harnessing lessons-learned for future project, Cultural Arts Division hopes to expand the Artist-in-Residency program in the future, the City hired Civic Arts to lead their program evaluation process. We developed a comprehensive evaluation from interviews and research that gives a window into the inaugural year of this program, the program’s successes and challenges, and makes actionable recommendations to prepare any future instantiations of the residency program for success.
About the Team
Project Location
Services Provided
Program Evaluation • Strategic Planning