SOCIAL INITIATIVES

Fifth House Ensemble is devoted to providing resources and experiences to social service organizations within their community - showing the fundamental good that arts experiences can provide a diverse population, while also creating documentation and research that can be utilized by society at large.

Four years of research with Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning has taught us that the most important thing we're accomplishing is advancing personal transformation: mindfulness, agency, empowerment, collective decision-making, and creativity - all through music composition, improvisation, and Deep Listening exercises that teach us to connect to ourselves and to one another.

Read our annual reports here:

Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5

After four years of work together, we’ve co-designed evaluation and design toolkits for use by artists and their partners for guidance in co-creating arts programming and in measuring the effectiveness of their work. Going beyond skills-based accomplishments, we put personal transformation at the forefront of our artistic practice and evaluation efforts to show why everybody can, and everybody should make art.

Download the evaluation toolkit

Download the design toolkit

Read the article published in Social Work with Groups:
Brian L. Kelly & Jonathan Niedorf (2021): Teaching artists’ adaptability in group-based music education residencies.

Interested in learning more about evaluating arts programs in social service settings? We’d love your feedback on the toolkit, and look forward to hearing more about your projects. Contact us to schedule a time to talk about how we can support your work!