A poet-friend of mine runs a blog that carries, as its tagline, “Would it kill you to read a #$%&% book?” To my ears, the slogan has come to sound less like a writer’s rant, or the crude appeal of a beleaguered parent, than a knee-jerk reaction to federal stats about reading in the U.S. Most recently, survey results from three different sources—the U.S. Bureau of Labor … [Read more...] about Federal Data on Reading for Pleasure: All Signs Show a Slump
Quick Study: Arts and Cultural Managers
In this episode, we discuss government statistics about arts managers, based on forthcoming results from an analysis to be posted to the NEA website. A transcript is available here. … [Read more...] about Quick Study: Arts and Cultural Managers
Remembering the Works of Stephen Sheppard, Cultural Economist
Last March, we lost a dear colleague and innovator in the field of cultural economics. Stephen Sheppard, a professor of economics at Williams College, died at the age of 69. This is an overdue attempt to pay some sort of tribute to Dr. Sheppard and his abiding influence. Personally, I got to know him 12 years ago, when the NEA partnered with the Brookings Institution to … [Read more...] about Remembering the Works of Stephen Sheppard, Cultural Economist
Multidisciplinary Artists and Game Designers Merit Inclusion in U.S. Labor Data Codes, Study Finds
The very first research report from the National Endowment for the Arts, nearly half a century ago, discussed employment and unemployment rates of artists. From that time onward, when analyzing trends for artists and other cultural workers, the NEA’s Office of Research & Analysis has relied on jobs data collected by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor … [Read more...] about Multidisciplinary Artists and Game Designers Merit Inclusion in U.S. Labor Data Codes, Study Finds
Strengthening Adoption of Arts/Health Practices through Research: A Five-Point Plan
At an event last weekend, I spoke at the invitation of that rarest of entities—a coalition of brain scientists, foundations, and venture capitalists. This group, BrainMind, held a forum inspired by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross’s bestselling book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Sessions at the forum covered such topics as the neurophysiology of one’s brain “on … [Read more...] about Strengthening Adoption of Arts/Health Practices through Research: A Five-Point Plan