Colley Consulting

r e m a r k s

"For years we have known intuitively that the "Arts Can Teach". We needed to prove this with facts. We needed to challenge ourselves and ask what was good about the program and how to further improve the program. Colley Consulting was the perfect match. Thanks to Bernadette Colley and the Staff we were able to confirm that the Arts can really make a difference."

Josiah A. Spaulding, Jr.
President and Chief Executive Officer
The Wang Center for the Performing Arts

"The primary strength that I witnessed over and over again is the depth of knowledge that Colley and her team bring to the evaluation process. As an evaluator, Bernadette Colley is thoughtful, thorough, methodical, organized, approachable and intelligent…I appreciated the time and attention that she invested in understanding the program before evaluating its success rate and areas for improvement. Overall, this ensured that the results were relevant to the improvement and expansion of the program. In turn, all of the evaluation’s suggestions were valid, attainable, and reflective of the ACT (Arts Can Teach) program’s goals."

Anne Norton
Director of Education
The Wang Center for the Performing Arts, Boston, MA

"Colley Consulting provided us with thoughtful and careful research along with genuine insight that shaped our planning process concerning a Music Education program. Bernadette Colley was a pleasure to work with."

Michael Nash, Dean
The Boston Conservatory
Boston, MA

" I was continually impressed with your way of working, and also of your assistants - especially in dealing with the program staff and participants... we came away from our meetings with you feeling energized and ready to take the next step... We learned so much from you and your assessment process. The results of the final report more than exceeded our expectations."

Lorri B. Berenberg
(former) Associate Director
Outreach Division of Education and Public Programs
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"Your knowledge of the field and of what other models were working was the most valuable... also your knowledge of what information was needed in order to make a relevant assessment of what we were already doing, and your ability to choose and justify the option you chose for us. The Maine Arts Commission gave your concept a thumbs up. Chairman Peter Plumb thought the proposal would be a good advocacy tool with the legislature... The freshness of the approach you presented has stirred all our thinking..."

Nancy Salmon
Arts in Education Associate
Maine Arts Commission

"You listened first, did not make any assumptions about how to meet our evaluation goals, and then strategically designed an evaluation that was both cost-effective and brilliant. You knew when to take the project and just run with it, and knew when to check in for feedback and advice on sensitive issues. You were professional in contacting interviewees on behalf of the Arts Council. The report was very user- friendly. The quality of the work was strong - I still quote that evaluation project now twelve years later.

Susan Bonaiuto
(former) Director
New Hampshire State Council on the Arts

"You were smart, conscientious, competent, and a pleasure to work with. You also write - as well as think - very well."

Professor Irwin Shapiro
Director
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
(TEAMS-BC Evaluation Project)

"I can't really say enough good stuff about Colley Consulting. You were always such a pleasure to work with. Your feedback and insights were almost always right on the mark! The way you ran the final teacher/administrator advisory meeting was just brilliant. You did a marvelous job of drawing out the meaty comments and ideas from a difficult group of people. I always found your written work really easy to navigate... Bernadette Colley is a strong and direct person, and I really like that in an evaluator! I know that she is always going to tell me straight out what her view of something is - and that is critically important...I felt like you always asked the right questions - the tough questions - and probed our thinking in really good and provocative ways. In short, there is no doubt in my mind that our collaboration with Colley Consulting greatly improved the quality of our programs, and helped us to not only hear the feedback of our constituencies, but to make meaningful adjustments to the way we did things."

Gretchen Dietrich
(former) Coordinator of Education
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
(current) Director of Education
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

"Bernadette Colley's insights were invaluable on our project, and her approaches to evaluation imaginative. She is always grounded in the application of ideas, in the down-to-earth ways that educators, students (and in our case museum personnel and artists) can truly function within genuine time frames, moderate budgets, and common places in which they work... Bernadette Colley has a rich amount of experience in conducting large and small evaluation projects using diverse strategies to collect both qualitative and quantitative data...She designs interesting instruments...is an excellent interviewer who asks piercing and insightful questions...writes well with economy and focus (rare in educational documents)...and has a quick mind which sees relationships between various sets of materials with varying and complex outcomes."

Dr. Jo-Anna J. Moore
Associate Professor of Art Education
Tyler School of Art, Temple University
Philadelphia, PA

"The Museum staff and teachers who worked with you found your approach pleasant and interactions helpful. The high quality report is an extremely useful tool for both improving our program and using as ammunition in proving our case for funding. We also plan to use your well thought-out post-visit survey as a means for follow-up evaluation. Most of all, the process has taught us the value of taking a hard look at our programs through new eyes. The process gave us fresh insight and generated exciting new ideas."

Nina Carlson
Curator of Education,
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art