In article <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] says: > I have to make a recommendation about how > much money, what percentage of the total project budget for each > exhibition, should be set aside for evaluation (front-end and > formative). > > What do other institutions do? Do you have any policies about how much > money to spend on evaluation? What percentage of your exhibition > budgets have you spent on evaluation in the past? > > Ballpark figures are more than acceptable! Linda, I had a similar question when I started evaluating for a museum. No one really had any figures for me then, but there should be better figures available now that there are so many in-house evaluators and project managers that use evaluation. Here's my 2% worth: The technically correct answer is, "As much as it takes to answer the questions you truly need to answer to safely proceed in your project." Your question is like asking, "What percentage of the budget should go towards drywall, or nails, in the renovations?" If there is an architectural plan that lays out the amount of floor space, etc., then this question can be answered fairly accurately by an estimating process. I suspect your museum does not have a detailed marketing plan that outlines what information you currently have, and what you need to get, to achieve your clearly stated visitor goals. If I am wrong, please excuse me. If you know the research questions, then any local research provider can give you an idea of the per capita cost of surveying, interviewing or studying people (I'm not familiar with costs in your part of the world). For in-depth qualitative work, it may be up to $500. a head. Closed-question surveys might cost $20. a head (this includes research set-up, analysis and reporting. The field work cost varies tremendously depending on whom you have to study. If there is no plan, then you will have to go with empirical averages: institutional buildings consist of 1 pound of nails for every 50 pounds of lumber, for every 100 pounds of drywall, etc. Not a very accurate value, and maybe difficult to get, but essentially valid, assuming you are building a typical building. You have to ask yourself if you are building a typical museum with your redevelopment program. Or will it "push to envelope", advance the state of the art", or otherwise have expensive computer interactives. If so, the standard values may not apply. To end the suspense, it seems to me that projects spend from .5% to 3% of their budgets on evaluation. This may be misleading, since museum staff also give time to the evaluation process, and the total cost of a project, including hidden costs, is rarely available, given typical government accounting procedures. So, if your project is a repeat of the same old thing, with no controversy likely, spend nil to 1% on evaluation. If it is risky, the team is new at this, or there has been a political promise to achieve a certain public response, I'd spend 3 to 5% of the budget on audience research. There is also a size effect: small projects don't necessarily have small evaluations, so the % may be higher than for a mega-project with a lot of fabrication cost. Again, it costs what it costs, and a plan to guide you is a much better way to go. Good luck!