Austin Arts Commission hears Measure evaluation as Nexus grant shifts to single annual cycle

Commissioners at the Austin Arts Commission meeting on Jan. 27 received combined briefings and analysis on the city’s cultural arts funding programs, the forthcoming Nexus grant round and an independent evaluation of Hotel Occupancy Tax-funded cultural programs from research nonprofit Measure.

City staff said Nexus will move from a biannual to an annual cycle, that the application will use multiple-choice scoring instead of long narrative questions, and that Nexus awards will be nominally $5,000 each. Jesus Pantel, cultural funding supervisor with the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department (EDD), said the Nexus application opens Jan. 28 and closes March 6; awarded activities may occur between May 1 and April 30 of the contract year, and final reports are due no later than May 30.

Measure, a local research and data-advocacy nonprofit, presented results of a mixed-methods evaluation of programs supported by the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT). The Measure team said its quantitative analysis and eight qualitative focus groups (31 participants) indicate areas for improvement in application accessibility and in how the city documents program impact. Measure recommended simplifying applications, expanding and standardizing technical assistance, creating community advisory panels, collecting consistent multi-year data and adopting broader “community impact” metrics (testimonials,…