Agnieszka Chalas

Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream

phone: 416-978-1305

Email: a.chalas@utoronto.ca

Office: BL 650

Agnieszka Chalas is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Faculty of Information. Agnieszka studied Fine Art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University before first obtaining a B.Ed. from the University of British Columbia followed by both a Masters degree specializing in Art Museum Education from Concordia University and a Ph.D. in Education from Queen’s University.

Agnieszka has many years of experience working in museums across Canada where she was responsible for educational and public program development and delivery, exhibition curation, as well as conducting and using research and evaluation information to improve museum teaching and learning. Her most recent professional museum experience includes having worked as the Director of Education and Public Programming at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

Specialization:

education and public programming in museums; museum interpretation; museum visitor studies including educational program evaluation
Research:

Agnieszka’s research has two main branches. The first branch of her research focuses on examining visitor studies practice, capacity, and building efforts in museums within and across a range of national/accountability contexts as well as a range of different museum types (e.g., art, science, and heritage). The second branch of her research explores key themes and issues in art museum education with particular emphasis placed on participatory museum education pedagogy.
Publications:

Selected Articles:

Shulha, L. M., Poth, C. N., Searle, M., & Chalas, A. (in press, 2019). Stakeholders weigh in on collaborative approaches to evaluation. In J. A. Chouinard & I. Bourgeois (Eds.), Growing the knowledge base in evaluation: The contributions of J. Bradley Cousins. Information Age Publishing.

Chalas A. (2019). Painting a portrait of organizational evaluation capacity in the Canadian art museum sector (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada.

Searle, M., Merchant, S., Chalas, A., & Lam, C. (2017). A case study of the guiding principles for collaborative approaches to evaluation in a developmental evaluation context. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 31(3) [Special Issue], 350-373.

Chalas, A. (2016). Toward evaluating art museum education at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Canadian Review of Art Education: Research and Issues, 43(1) [Special Issue], 60–69.

Chalas, A. (2015). The architect, the museum and the school: Working together to incorporate

architecture and built environment education into the curriculum. Teaching Artist Journal, 13(2), 74-83.

Lam, C., Chalas, A., Searle, M., Shulha, L. M., Merchant, S., & Wearing, J. (2015). An evaluation of the Ontario technology and learning pilot. Evaluation report produced for the Ontario Ministry of Education, Toronto: ON.

Chalas, A. (2015). Meaningful participatory engagement techniques. GEM Case Studies, 15, 4-5.

Chalas, A. (2012). Museum-architect partnerships in learning: Summary of findings from the graphic map project. GEM Case Studies, 9, 6-7.

Selected Conference Presentations:

Chalas, A. (2019). Examining art museum educators’ program evaluation practices and capacities: A pan-Canadian study. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, April 5-9, Toronto, ON.

Chalas, A. (2018). Program evaluation practice and capacity in the Canadian art museum sector: Findings from a national study of museum practitioners. Paper presented at the Visitor Studies Association annual conference, July 19-21, Chicago, IL.

Chalas, A. (2017). Elaborating on a new evaluation capacity framework for use in the art museum sector. Paper presented at the American Evaluation Association annual conference, November 6-11, Washington, DC.

Chalas, A. (2017). Examining program evaluation practice and capacity in museums: A new conceptual framework. Paper presented at the Visitor Studies Association annual conference, July 18-22, Columbus, OH.

Chalas, A. (2017). Painting a picture of educational program evaluation: One art museum’s journey. Paper presented at the 45th Canadian Society for the Study of Education annual conference, May 28-31, Toronto, ON.

Chalas, A. (2017). The && collective residency: A case study. Poster presented at the 45th Canadian Society for the Study of Education annual conference, May 28-31, Toronto, ON.

Chalas, A., & Reid, N. (2017). Why it matters: Supporting change through educational program evaluation in two art museums. Paper presented at the National Art Education Association annual convention, March 2-4, New York, NY.

Chalas, A. (2016). Reflections on a pre-service museum methods course: An arts-based heuristic inquiry. Poster presented at the annual Artful Inquiry Symposium, October 15-16, McGill University, Montreal, QC.
Courses:

Special Topics in Museum Studies: Foundations of Visitor Research

Interpretation and Meaning Making in Cultural Institutions

Public Programs and Education

Exhibition Project

Program Evaluation

Agnieszka Chalas

Agnieszka Chalas

Specialization:

Research:

Publications:

Courses: