Cooperative Extension is part of the land-grant university system and works through local communities to provide education, resources, and support. Community arts programs, in Extension and beyond, often help strengthen connection, identity, participation, and community life. In Kentucky, Community Arts Extension reflects those same goals, but the outcomes of this work are not always easy to capture through standard evaluation and reporting systems.

This dissertation examines how evaluation practices for Community Arts Extension can be strengthened through the development and pilot testing of a practical tool for Kentucky agents. The study addresses a persistent challenge in arts-based public programming: how to document outcomes in ways that are meaningful in practice and credible within public reporting systems. Guided by Theory of Change and Open Systems Theory, the project considers both how programs are intended to create change and how evaluation functions within a larger organizational environment. Together, these frameworks help connect program goals, local context, agent practice, and reporting expectations.

The presentation will share the motivation for the study, the process used to develop the tool, and key findings from its pilot use in Kentucky. It will also reflect on what these findings suggest for arts-based programming in community settings, where important outcomes such as belonging, connection, skill development, and community engagement are often difficult to measure using conventional approaches.

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In rural Appalachia, limited institutional support for arts and cultural development has contributed to economic stagnation and declining civic pride. Addressing these challenges is critical for fostering economic resilience, preserving cultural heritage, and improving quality of life within Appalachian communities. Strategic leadership and policy development may play an important role in creating environments where creative spaces and cultural initiatives can emerge and sustain long-term community impact.

This study investigates the organizational and leadership strategies that support decision-making processes for developing creative spaces and cultural policy initiatives in Central Appalachia, with a specific focus on Morehead, Kentucky, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Using a qualitative case study approach, this research incorporates multiple data sources, including individual interviews with community stakeholders, site observations, and analysis of secondary documents. These data provide insight into the leadership processes and strategic decisions that contributed to the establishment of the Battson-Oates Drive area within the downtown Morehead entertainment district. Open Systems Theory provides the analytical framework for examining the findings, which are organized into three primary themes: people, community, and government.

Findings suggest that strategic leadership decisions, collaborative partnerships, and adaptive cultural policies played a critical role in supporting sustainable creative community development and strengthening connections between cultural activity and local economic development.

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