Helping funders and arts organizers realize their vision since 1996.

Practice Page

Just wonderful…fabulous…we are thrilled…terrific work.

—Septime Webre.
Artistic Director, 
The Washington Ballet

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


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 Their New Facility


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


This is a knockout report… one of the best things we’ve read… 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


Thank you for all your support, energy, and expertise… I truly appreciate your patience, tenacity and guidance… and for not only being on the journey, but for guiding it so generously.

—Beth Davis 
Artistic Director, 
In Good Company (Rockville, MD)
Regarding Feasibility Study and Planning Process


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, 
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, 
Gina Gibney Dance


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 Chair, 
NPN Board of Director

Philanthropic Counsel

I loved your report. It’s wonderful to have our impact confirmed.

—Sarah Solotaroff 
Vice President of Programs, 
Chicago Community Trust
Regarding Report on Impact of Past Funding


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

Fundraising

Just wonderful…fabulous…we are thrilled…terrific work.

—Septime Webre 
Artistic Director, 
The Washington Ballet


Working with you was seamless. My writing improved enormously in a short time.

—Paul Irving
Former Executive Director, 
Joe Goode Performance Group


Your help was invaluable. I was living in my own world for too long.

—Andrew Chiang
Executive Director, 
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company


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


Thank you for being such an important part of our Smithsonian Foundations Day workshop… the buzz at the end of the day was totally positive and the development staff is energized, thanks to you…

—Mark Thoreson
Smithsonian Institution

Evaluation

Our special thanks go to Callahan Consulting, 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


[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


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 and Scott Bridges, Director, Creative Campus Initiative
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa


I have never come across a better tool or reference than Singing Our Praises for giving organizations not only a powerful set of tools to conduct evaluation, but a sense of capability, reinforcing the message that measuring progress is within their capacity.
I am thankful for Callahan’s invaluable service to the arts field.

—Rory MacPherson
Former Senior Program Officer, 
The Wallace Foundation

 

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 Presenters

 

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

 

Your workshop was enthusiastically presented… your presentation and materials were well developed, detailed, and engaging. And your delivery as always was concise, gently humorous and personable. We look forward to future collaborations that offer our members access to your knowledge and thoughtful insight.

—Bob Fogelgren
Former Director of Programs, 
Dance/USA
Regarding the workshop The Art of Evaluatio

Publishing

About Singing Our Praises

Congratulations on this fine book. It is a really important and useful publication that I’m very proud to be associated with.

—Rory MacPherson
The Wallace Foundation


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


About Our Guides and Other Publications


Your article, The Art of Evaluation, is really great work and much needed in the arts.

—Vickie Benson
Former Senior Program Officer, Jerome Foundation


Thank you for your publication. As a participant in the contemporary performing arts industry, it is essential that I know about the issues and needs of the NPN, which has an important part in the ecology of making work for large-scale venues.

 —Joseph Melillo
Former Artistic Director, Brooklyn Academy of Music
Regarding the NPN’s Reaffirming the Tradition of the New