Helping funders and arts organizations realize their vision since 1996.

The whole process of your consultancy with us has been compelling, frank, to the point, realistic, positive, and extremely helpful. The report you created will be an important resource for us for years to come. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

—Septime Webre
Former Artistic Director, The Washington Ballet

CLIENT COMMENTS

Our conversations… took the project to a different level…. I felt a real sense of connection with you. You cared. 

— Gina Gibney
Artistic Director, Gibney Company

Planning

Your work has been invaluable in completing a cohesive, broad, and manageable plan for Movement Research to engage in over the next three years… not only is the plan well laid out and thorough, but it sends us on our way to implementation.
—Barbara Bryan
Executive Director, Movement Research

The whole process of your consultancy with us has been compelling, frank, to the point, realistic, positive, and extremely helpful. The report you created will be an important resource for us for years to come. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
—Septime Webre
Former Artistic Director, 
The Washington Ballet

In working with you, we were able to get a really good assessment of our standing in the field. It got into the heart of what makes our organization tick. And, we sense your ongoing concern.
—Jawole Zollar
Artistic Director/Chief Visioning Partner, 
Urban Bush Women

Our conversations… took the project to a different level… I felt a real sense of connection with you. You cared.
—Gina Gibney
Artistic Director,
 Gibney Company

Thank you for the tremendous job you did facilitating our planning meetings… without the interest and support of people like yourself who contribute so much to the field, the work we do would be much harder.
—M.K. Wegmann
Former Board Chair and Former CEO, National Performance Network

Your report and plan were extraordinary. This was exceptional work. We never thought we would get so much from working with you.
—Kay Kendall, Eve Lilley and Aldie Chapin
Former Board Members, 
The Washington Ballet
Regarding Strategic Planning Process for TWB@THEARC

This is a knockout report… It is an incredible resource and gives us a road map to act. We are blown away by it.
—Bonnie Brooks, Dance Center of Columbia College
—Laura Samson, Alphawood Foundation
Regarding Strategic Planning Process for the Chicago Dance Community

Philanthropic Counsel

DFA was a watershed experience for me in learning how funding silos can and should be broken down more. You provided a stellar model. I have valued our talks and exchanges and learned so much from you about program management. I could have never imagined a better outcome.
Lily Kharrazi, Director of Special Initiatives, Alliance of California Traditional Arts, and advisor to Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists

You went out of your way to ensure that diverse voices were included in the program design. Every time I advocated, my voice was heard.  I saw how you nimbly navigated the days of the grant panel, continuing to listen and adjust our process.
—Anne Huang, Executive Director, World Arts West, advisor to Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists, and Board Chair-Elect, Dance/USA

Callahan’s brilliant approach and forethought resulted in a far more successful program than any of us imagined. The proof is in the pudding: NCCI was re-funded by the NEA…and may impact curriculum in higher dance education into the future
—Andrea Snyder
Former Executive Director, 
Dance/USA
Regarding management of the National College Choreography Initiative

We were thrilled to work with you. You helped us discover and clarify our role in fulfilling artist needs, and in replicating the program for future years.
—Linda Shelton and Martin Wechsler
The Joyce Theater
Regarding launching the Joyce Soho Residency Program

I loved your report. It’s wonderful to have our impact confirmed.
—Sarah Solotaroff 
Former Vice President of Programs, 
Chicago Community Trust
Regarding Report on Impact of Past Funding

Fundraising

Your firm is a great resource on funding and keeps us up to date on the thinking in the foundation world. You grasped the essence of what we wanted to do and communicated it effectively.
—Vicki Kimble
Former Director of Development, 
Washington Performing Arts Society

Research and Evaluation

As the national arts service organization for the performing arts presenting, booking and touring field, APAP often conducts studies and convenings to understand and respond to the issues facing our field and our diverse membership. We trust the skill and sensitivity Suzanne and Callahan Consulting for the Arts bring in crafting large-scale and complex research studies that are immediately usable, understandable and relevant to our field. She prioritizes our vision and our input throughout the entire process, swiftly transforming our goals into action, and her experience and insights made our conceived project richer and more impactful than we had hoped. Her rapport with the arts community, gifted facilitation of interest and research groups and keen curatorial eye allow her to craft answers to relevant questions and provide opportunities to address underrepresented topics and viewpoints. She is a valued colleague and an important leader in our community.
Krista Bradley, Director of Programs and Resources, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP)

Callahan’s depth of understanding and commitment to the field provides us with an essential text that translates intimidating concepts into manageable practice.
—Kim Chan
Former Director of Programming, 
Washington Performing Arts Society

[Since your training] People are beginning to see program in a new light — as truly centered on the student’s experience rather than from a functional, administrator’s or instructor’s perspective. And we owe so much of our success in this work to you. Thanks again for lighting the fire!
—Scott Lundius
Former Director of Education, 
Marwen

Our special thanks go to Callahan Consulting For the Arts, whose written text and generous advice and collaborative work have added important substance and clarity to the [Impact Arts] site as a whole. Callahan’s extensive research for and annotation of the launching database of resources, tools, and frameworks forms the heart of the site.
—Pam Korza and Barbara Schaeffer Bacon,
Animating Democracy
Regarding their Impact Arts website

Thanks for two days of superb workshops, with great information, energy and insight. We gained clarity about our Creative Campus Initiative and a deeper understanding of outcome measurement. We continue to consult the evaluation products you developed for us, which provide sanity to our vision. And, we’ve shared this new way of thinking with other departments.
—Hank Lazer
Associate Provost, Creative Campus Initiative
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

I wonder if you know what an enormous service to the field you have provided through your work with evaluation. You have helped to shape our thinking about the process, teaching us that it should begin and end with us.
—John Killacky
Former Program Officer for Arts, 
The San Francisco Foundation

Through training in evaluation, Callahan gave our members new tools and strategies to improve their work. They are now empowered to define success for themselves and have deepened the impact of their programs.
—Jacob Yarrow
Former Education Director, 
Association of Performing Arts Professionals

Publishing

About Singing Our Praises

Bravo, Suzanne Callahan, for writing a comprehensive guide to arts evaluation that clarifies the process for arts and cultural organizations and pushes the evaluation conversation further.
— Norma Fleischman and Kathlyn M. Steedly
American Journal of Evaluation

A great addition to a woefully lacking canon of literature on this subject as it pertains to the unique joys and pitfalls of arts presenting.
—Amy Dupain Vashaw
Center for the Performing Arts, Pennsylvania State University

The subject matter was so comprehensively covered. The author took complex terms and made them relevant to us. And best of all — I can’t say this enough — it was presented in a way that really works in our industry. This is a super great work!
—Laura Levy
Lied Center for the Performing Arts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The benefits of fashioning and executing an evaluation process in the arts, as clearly as Ms. Callahan has, cannot be underestimated… I have no doubt that Singing Our Praises will be a resource to be found on the shelf of every forward-thinking arts professional.
—Julia Ward
Consultant and Former Professor, 
George Mason University