Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) was chartered in 1971 to oversee the City’s grant funding and public art programs. With a 2017 budget of $12 million and a staff of 34, ARTS continues to manage seven different funding programs and the installation of dozens of public art projects throughout the city. In recent years, ARTS work has grown significantly in several areas that are more policy-focused. These areas include issues of space affordability, racial equity and social justice, and arts education and creative youth development. In particular, ARTS has launched an arts education partnership with Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Foundation called The Creative Advantage, with a goal of ensuring access to high quality arts learning for all students in Seattle. As the work of ARTS has expanded, new measures and metrics are needed to accurately assess the impact of the office’s work. The Impact and Assessment Manager will report to ARTS’s director, and will be part of the projects team, which includes the growing program areas of arts education, cultural space, racial equity, and creative industries. S/he will work with staff to research and develop strategies that will inform The Creative Advantage’s expansion into Skill Centers and Creative Industries pathways. The candidate will provide evaluation and feedback about The Creative Advantage’s current program and planning, and will identify performance indicators, develop quality assurance strategies, train program employees, maintain contact with program partners, and ensure all program aspects comply with institutional requirements. The candidate will also work with program staff throughout the office to explore new and innovative way to assess and evaluate the impact of ARTS’s work more broadly.