Variability among museum programs is significant—programs can range from simple one-time presentations, to multiple-year programs with a constant audience, to multiple-year programs with several organizational partners and a constantly changing audience. RK&A has conducted program evaluations of all types, designing complex studies in response to the variety of museum programs. These evaluations most often examine the outcomes of a program against the program's goals and objectives; sometimes program evaluation also includes a process evaluation, which examines the interrelationship among all the partners.

FAO Schwartz Children’s Center School Programs

A program evaluation with a history museum

The Museum of the City of New York
New York, NY

RK&A program evaluation almost always entails several data collection methods such as questionnaires, open-ended interviews, group discussions, and observations. Using multiple methods, or triangulation, is an important strategy for strengthening a study design since each method reveals different aspects of a visitor's experience. Data are collected at the end of a program for one-time programs and at established intervals during multiple-year programs. When museum staff identify long-term objectives, program participants are also contacted several months after their program experience.

We recently conducted program evaluations for the following museums and organizations. For a complete list of RK&A planning, evaluation, and research projects, please see All RK&A Clients.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York, NY

Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY

National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC

Ocean Institute, Dana Point, CA

The Wild Center, Tupper Lake, NY

For additional information or to get started on a program evaluation, please see Getting Started.