Ohio Arts Council Announces Focusing The Light Now Available
by Jaclyn Reynolds
The Ohio Arts Council announces its Focusing the Light: The Art and Practice of Planning is now available! This seven-volume series provides those who work in the arts and nonprofits with strategies, tips, and techniques for successful project planning, advocacy and evaluation.
Focusing the Light was developed by the Ohio Arts Council with contributions from arts and education colleagues across the country to illustrate what is needed to create significant projects and programs for communities, secure funding for these initiatives, and evaluate the results. This seven-volume series is comprised of texts that provide strategies, tips and techniques for successful planning, advocacy and evaluation for those who work in the arts and nonprofit industry. The series covers arts advocacy and strategic planning as well as broader planning topics. In addition to the text series, the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) has developed the Focusing the Light iTool. The iTool is a logic model designed to create visual and text snapshots of programs. Logic models combine words and graphics to show how programs work. The iTool illustrates clear connections between needs, inputs, activities and desired outcomes. It can be used during the planning process and also to present, implement and evaluate a plan. This tool is available at the OAC Web site www.oac.state.oh.us. Each of the seven volumes in Focusing the Light offers clear, proven steps to help maximize efforts and steer organizations toward winning results. The series details how to: • Create a comprehensive project plan. • Define and describe a course of action. • Gain support for the plan. • Implement plan activities. • Document your program’s efforts and successes. • Evaluate and refine the plan. The complete set is available for $20 including shipping and handling. For more information and to order visit www.focusingthelight.org. A description of the seven volumes is as follows: Volume 1: Arts Advocacy and Strategic Planning – Provides an overview of the public value of arts and arts education, the importance of communicating public value through advocacy, and the essential role of strategic planning. Volume 2: Strategic Partnerships – Helps identify stakeholders for program plans and presents strategies for building successful partnerships and project teams, techniques to develop and enhance team building skills, and qualities that increase leadership effectiveness and project management. Volume 3: Understanding the Context – Offers techniques for strategic analysis that will help organizations accurately assess the needs, resources, and conditions that will impact program plans. Volume 4: Building a Program Plan – Presents the steps leading to a workable, effective program plans, including defining outcomes, identifying strategic activities, outlining the program structure, establishing a feasible project budget, and bringing all of these elements together in an action plan. Volume 5: Creating, Adapting, and Communicating a Strategic Plan – Focuses on the process of taking ideas and turning them into a finished plan, communicating the plan to varied stakeholders or audiences, and adapting components of the plan for specific funding opportunities. Volume 6: Monitoring and Implementing a Strategic Plan – Provides knowledge, strategies, and tools for monitoring plan implementation and documenting project activities and results. Volume 7: Strategic Evaluation – Examines evaluation as a tool for measuring outcomes, improving programs, and promoting organizational learning. It identifies the components of program evaluations, gives tips on how to write and conduct an effective evaluation, and explains how to interpret and use data from evaluations. The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.[top]