Kellogg Focus Group

Imagining America Releases New Research Report on
Excellence in Campus-Community Partnerships

In September 2005, Imagining America published a study of excellence in campus community partnerships, Making Value Visible, based on eight focus groups at IA campuses with academic and community collaborators. The report, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, describes the qualities that constitute excellence in partnerships as it is experienced by seasoned practitioners in the arts and humanities, and to spur the development of an evaluation culture in public scholarship.

Seven participating campuses, the University of Chicago, California State University-Bakersfield, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and Arizona State University, participated in the study. These sites were selected for diversity in regional representation, demographics, community partners, institutional type, and degree of campus commitment.

The report reveals a flourishing world of work populated by faculty artists and scholars; staff members of nonprofit organizations and public cultural institutions; and creative citizens working through robust networks. Making Value Visible opens a window on the thriving, stressful, but often invisible economy of project-based collaboration in the cultural disciplines. In this report, practitioners describe the qualities and strategies of excellent collaborations, and portray the negotiations of creativity and agency necessary to successful partnerships. The concluding section lays out a series of practical recommendations for Imagining America and describes the needs of public scholars in the field today.

To acquire copies of this report, contact the Imagining America offices at (315) 443-8590 or imaginingamerica@syr.edu.