On-Site Review Program

The On-Site Review program samples the programming of Sustained Support recipients to help our peer panels evaluate the next round of applications.

About the Program

Through our Sustained Support programs, 4Culture funds hundreds of organizations as diverse as King County itself—from long-standing institutions to newcomers, classicists to genre-busters, cultural celebrations to education programs, heritage mainstays to pop culture explosions.

Peer panels consisting of arts and heritage community members make these funding decisions. Among the criteria they use to evaluate applications is the quality of an organization’s programming in relation to their stated mission and constituencies. The goal of the On-Site Review Program is to supplement Sustained Support applications and support a thoughtful panel process with first-hand reports on the programming of organizations we fund.

On-Site Reviewers are selected through a competitive process; they then attend events and complete written reports that address the overall program experience, including artistic/cultural quality, audience engagement, and observable management indicators. These written comments serve as support materials during the next panel process for Sustained Support.

Interested in becoming an On-Site Reviewer?

You do not need to be an arts or heritage professional in order to be an On-Site Reviewer, but you do need to show some evidence of experience with or knowledge of one or more artistic or heritage disciplines, as well as demonstrating that you can communicate effectively in writing.

If you become an On-Site Reviewer, you will be expected to do the following:

Communicate promptly with the person scheduling reviews. When you’re offered a review, reply to accept or turn it down within two days. If you’ve accepted a review but are unable to attend the event because of illness or a conflict, notify the scheduler as soon as possible.
Attend events you’ve agreed to review and write a short but substantial summary of your experience. Because these reviews can have a significant impact on the funding of the organization under review, both praise and criticisms need to be supported with specifics and clear arguments. If you feel the quality is poor, you need to say why, keeping in mind that there may be an audience for this work that is not you.
Submit your review within two weeks of the event.
Generally behave as a representative of 4Culture, with respect for and interest in the organizations you review.

If you have questions about becoming an On-Site Reviewer, contact Bret Fetzer at bret.fetzer@4culture.org.

For On-Site Reviewers

Here’s the process of On-Site Reviews:

On-Site Reviewers fill out a form to tell the program manager what they feel qualified to review or have an interest in reviewing. An On-Site Reviewer can request to review a specific event or organization, but should not expect this. Because of all the factors that go into scheduling hundreds of reviews over the course of a year, it’s difficult to match up reviewers with requested events.
On-Site Reviewers will need to create an individual account on 4Culture’s online portal. They will submit their reviews directly into the portal.
The program manager will contact an On-Site Reviewer with an offer of an event to review. The goal is to contact reviewers at least two weeks before the event, but sometimes this isn’t possible. Accept or turn down a review as quickly as possible.
Once an On-Site Reviewer agrees to a review, the program manager will contact the organization and arrange for two tickets or otherwise secure the reviewer’s ability to experience the event. In most cases, these tickets will be waiting for the reviewer at the event. The program manager will confirm that the organization is expecting them.
On-Site Reviewers do not have to interact with the organization beyond what is needed to get entry to the event. However, you should feel free to ask questions about any aspect of the event.
The program manager will create a review form that will appear in the On-Site Reviewer’s 4Culture account. Reviews are entered directly into this form and submitted. The program manager will look the review over; if the manager has questions or thinks an aspect of the review needs to be expanded or edited, they will contact the reviewer. Otherwise, the review will be marked ‘Approved’ and the review is complete.
Three times a year, the program manager will submit payment requests for the reviews that have been completed in the previous four months. Payment is $40 for each review. On-Site Reviewers are only paid for completed reviews.

If you are interested in becoming an On-Site Reviewer, please fill out this form. If you do not have an account with 4Culture, you will need to create one.

If you have questions about becoming an On-Site Reviewer, contact Bret Fetzer at bret.fetzer@4culture.org.

For Sustained Support Organizations

If your organization is receiving funds through Arts or Heritage Sustained Support, one of your obligations is to participate in the On-Site Review program. If your organization is going to apply for Sustained Support and there is time before the panel meets to arrange an On-Site Review, it will be to your advantage to set one up.

This is a two-step process:

Use this form to tell us 1-4 events each year that you feel best represent your organization.
Provide two free tickets (or otherwise allow entry) to whichever event an On-Site Reviewer will attend. The program manager will contact you to set up these tickets.

4Culture sees the organizations we fund as collaborators in making King County a more vibrant place to live, so the On-Site Review program is not a ‘secret shopper’-type review. We don’t want to catch you by surprise—we want to evaluate you on what you think is your best or most representative work.

You can download an On-Site Review Information Form here. Fill this out and send it to Bret Fetzer at bret.fetzer@4culture.org.