Arts & Culture at NORC

Overview

We provide high-quality yet adaptive national, community, and audience research for the arts and culture field.

Arts & Culture at NORC brings together two long-standing practices: NORC’s decades of experience in conducting large-scale, national research on arts participants, artists, and the cultural field, and Slover Linett, a locally focused, community-based thought partner to organizations in the cultural sector for more than 25 years, and part of NORC since 2023. The two strengthen each other: national-level research gives our locally focused consultative work broader context, and our work alongside individual organizations grounds our national research in community collaboration.

Our team supports arts and culture organizations of all sizes and kinds to build their capacity for research-informed decision-making. Our studies explore why and how people engage with arts and culture, and illuminate the ways that engagement strengthens personal and public life.

We are part of The Bridge at NORC, a multidisciplinary research center housed at the University of Chicago that delivers adaptive, cross-sector research that explores human thriving across the life course and champions place-based and community-oriented research.

Get in Touch

Have a research question? Let’s talk.

opens in new tab Email the Arts & Culture Team

How We Work

Arts & Culture at NORC is defined by our nimbleness to work across many project types, scopes, and scales.

We listen.

Our work with clients is an active partnership. We start by listening: first to you, to understand your vision, questions, and challenges. Then we listen to communities and audiences to understand their experiences and needs. Research generates more value when it happens in conversation.

Children playing the drums with parent looking at musical instrument.
Open Streets is a movement created towards behavioural change around the role of streets in the life of the city. The streets are closed to traffic, where people can integrate and socialize.

We contextualize.

Because we work across many arts and culture sub-fields and communities, we connect dots and bring cross-contextual insight to each project. What we learn from a perceptions study at a science museum can shape an evaluation of a folk arts program. A qualitative study with Native performing artists can inform a national survey of working artists. To us, it is all interconnected.

An Elderly Native American Woman (Navajo) Wearing Turquoise Rings on Her Fingers Touches a Woven Navajo Basket

We include.

We collaborate with our research partners and stakeholders, including those overlooked or misunderstood within the cultural sector. We use culturally responsive and community-based methods to acknowledge multiple perspectives and ways of knowing. The result is a clearer and more nuanced picture of aspirations, needs, engagement, and impact.

We inform.

Our large-scale national studies address critical questions and data needs to guide programmatic and strategic priorities for arts and culture organizational leaders, funders, and policymakers. Our local consultative practice provides valuable insight towards strategic planning, audience development, communications strategy, experience design, and evaluation.

aerial image of people sitting and standing on a park lawn

We inspire action.

Whether we are working with a small museum, a citywide cultural agency, or a national funder, our reports do more than describe. We translate findings into strategy, pointing to new pathways for programming, audience development, community partnership, and growth.

Three women in white dresses dancing on a black stage

Research that Shapes the Field

We conduct national research on arts participants, artists, and cultural organizations, working with funders, government agencies, foundations, arts service organizations, and other nonprofit organizations whose support shapes the field.

The National Survey of Artists

A nationally representative portrait of working artists in the United States

Client:

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Outcomes of Arts Engagement for Individuals & Communities

A research review to bring evidence to the discussion about benefits of the arts

Client:

William Penn Foundation

Enhancing Native Representation in National Arts Participation Measures

Redesigning survey questions to more accurately reflect the lived experiences of Native people

Client:

The Wallace Foundation

More Arts & Culture Projects

Consultative Research for Cultural Organizations

We partner with museums, performing arts groups, libraries, parks, and public media outlets to answer questions about audiences, programs, and community.