NEA Research Labs: The Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation
Overview
Each of our Labs on the “Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation” focus on:
- How are arts organizations adapting and innovating as they anticipate and address new and emerging demands in a post-COVID era?
- How do entrepreneurship and innovation reveal themselves differently in the arts relative to other sectors? What about similarly?
- What is the link between artists (including designers) and broad societal innovation, particularly with regard to economic and job growth?
- How does the nonprofit arts sector contribute directly to innovation in commercial settings, within or outside the arts?
- What role do arts and cultural assets play in promoting civic and/or corporate innovation in a community?
- What individual, organizational, or regional characteristics can positively affect the arts’ relationship to entrepreneurship and innovation?
- In which industries, sectors, or geographic areas is arts-driven innovation visible and measurable?
- How do nonprofit and for-profit organizations; federal, state, and local governments; and/or fiscal sponsorships affect how artists and/or arts organizations function and innovate?
- How do arts-based entrepreneurship and innovation benefits and related outcomes compare with those achieved by non-arts approaches?
Current NEA Research Labs
Boise State University, Boise, ID
Principal Investigator: Amanda Ashley, PhD
Researchers from the Place, Arts, and Cultural Systems Lab (PACS) at Boise State University will examine whether and how arts and cultural districts (ACDs) support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The lab's research questions will investigate how such districts can become effective drivers of economic and social change while remaining diverse, inclusive, and equitable places. To support integration of evidence-based DEI practices with ACD development and operations, PACS will assemble a team representing national, regional, and local organizations in the arts, planning, and economic and community development.
Using a mixed-methods research approach, the lab will conduct a national survey. PACS will learn from and serve ACD organizations and their communities by creating classifications and national public database of ACD characteristics. The lab and its partners, such as Surel's Place, an artist community in Idaho, will use this database to analyze existing patterns of DEI practice; identify promising practices for different district types, geographies, and capacities; and design a flexible ACD toolkit for communities exhibiting different resources and needs. Future research activities may include case studies of ACDs in the Intermountain West and Midwest and beyond. The project will enrich the understanding by local economic and community planners and developers of how to improve DEI practices within arts and cultural districts; the resulting knowledge also may benefit funders and policymakers who support creative placemaking strategies in the United States.
Other Key Personnel
- Carolyn Loh, PhD
- Jonathan Jae-an Crisman, PhD
- Leslie Durham, PhD
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Principal Investigator: Joanna Woronkowicz, PhD
Researchers from Indiana University, Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis will create Arts Entrepreneurship and Innovation (AEI) Lab to conduct studies on the role of artists in civic innovation; artists and new economies (including crowdfunding patterns for artists); digital media growth; and other topics. The Lab will 1) use experimental research designs to study embedded artists-in-residence in a public sector context; 2) analyze artists' careers by using various large datasets, such as the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, and the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, and using statewide survey data in partnership with the Indiana Arts Commission; 3) perform research on conditions that foster successful artistic entrepreneurship and audience development; 4) publish the research conducted during the initial Lab award in top journals and other outlets; and 5) organize and sponsor panels at national and international research convenings.
The research agenda aims to address the following research questions:
- What is the artist's role in civic innovation?;
- What leadership role do artists play in emerging "platform" and "gig" economies?;
- Where does innovation and economic growth occur in the digital media sector?; and
- Which arts sectors are linked to broader societal innovation, as reflected by U.S. economic and job growth?
Other Key Personnel
- Douglas Noonan, PhD
- Thomas Guevara, MA
For more information on this Lab, see their Research Lab webpage.
New York University, New York, NY
Principal Investigator: Alex Ruthmann, PhD
New York University, in partnership with the New World Symphony (NWS) in Miami, Florida, will establish the Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Performing Arts Lab to investigate methods and characteristics that foster entrepreneurship and innovation within the classical music ecosystem in the United States. Researchers will evaluate outcomes from musician fellows in NWS BLUE (Build, Learn, Understand, Experiment), an entrepreneurial training program. The Lab researchers will capture, describe, and map emerging entrepreneurial mindsets, skills, and practices among NWS BLUE fellows, as well as organizational characteristics that support sustainable innovation in their communities. Future studies will involve data collection from current employers, educational feeder organizations and schools, and the local communities they serve. Products likely to result from this Lab include: quarterly podcasts; conference presentations; a Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Arts Summit event; and academic publications.
The research agenda aims to address the following research questions:
- What individual and organizational characteristics and practices best support sustainable, culturally and locally relevant entrepreneurial activity and innovation among current and former New World Symphony (NWS) Fellows, their employers, and feeder organizations and schools?; and
- What role might performing arts training organizations such as the NWS play in promoting artistic and civic innovation among early-career musician artists within their communities and "feeder" organizations?
Other Key Personnel
- Bruce Carter, PhD
- Tanya Kalmanovitch
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Principal Investigator: Charles Fluharty, MDiv
Supported by the Arts Endowment from 2017-2019
The Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) at the University of Iowa, in partnership with the organization Art of the Rural, will look at the intersection of “The Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation” in rural contexts. RUPRI also will work with its Rural Intracultural Policy Council to develop pilot studies of rural "cultural ecologies." The pilot studies may use social network analysis, structured interviews, and respondent-driven survey sampling to test hypotheses about cultural and social capital as preconditions to innovation.
The research agenda aims to address the following research questions:
- What is the link between artists (including designers) and broad societal innovation, particularly with regard to economic and job growth?; and
- What role do arts organizations play in promoting civic innovation in a community?
Other Key Personnel
- Kiley Arroyo, MA
- Sam Cordes, PhD
- Matthew Fluharty, PhD
- Thomas Johnson, PhD
For more information on this Lab, see their Research Lab webpage.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Principal Investigator: Stanislas Renard, DMA, DBA
University of Texas at San Antonio will partner with the Americans for the Arts to develop an Arts Entrepreneurship Research Lab, which will focus on studying arts incubators to understand the economic potential of artists as non-conventional entrepreneurs and the impact of the digital divide for arts-based entrepreneurs. Researchers will use a mixed-methods approach to assess best practices of national arts incubators as well as assess arts entrepreneurs' digital skills and entrepreneurial skills, artist recognition, and economic impact; as well as incubator output through standardized metrics.
The research agenda aims to address the following research questions:
- How do entrepreneurship and innovation reveal themselves differently in the arts relative to other sectors?
- In which industries, sectors, or geographic areas are arts-driven innovation visible and measurable?
- How do arts-based entrepreneurship and innovation benefits and related outcomes compare with those achieved by non-arts approaches?
Other Key Personnel
- Gianluca Zanella, MA
- Randy Cohen
For more information on this Lab, see their Research Lab webpage .
The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
Principal Investigator: Nathaniel Stern, PhD
To address high unemployment among neurodiverse populations, researchers in art and design, sociology, and mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee will partner with the nonprofit organization, Islands of Brilliance, to create the Autism Brilliance Lab for Entrepreneurship. The keystone study will include a longitudinal analysis of participant outcomes from the Islands of Brilliance program, which offers creativity-focused workshops, mentorships, on-the-job training, consulting, and other programming to help neurodiverse students acquire skills that prepare them to succeed in post-secondary and workplace opportunities. Data sources include online surveys of students and their parents/guardians and mentors, as well as video-recorded observations of student-mentor interactions. Products likely to result from this lab will include academic journal publications, conference presentations, exhibitions, and new, evidence-based programming for job training.
The research agenda aims to address the following research questions:
- What role might arts-based education in design and technology play in amplifying the employability of neurodiverse youth, in both arts and non-arts based sectors?; and
- What larger roles do arts and cultural assets play in promoting civic innovation and entrepreneurial efforts in and around neurodiverse communities?
Other Key Personnel
- Celeste Campos-Castillo, PhD
- Ilya Avdeev, PhD
- Mark Fairbanks
For more information on this Lab, see their Research Lab webpage.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
Principal Investigator: Benjamin Knapp, PhD
In partnership with Leonardo (an international network of transdisciplinary scholars, artists, scientists, technologists, and thinkers), researchers at the Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology (ICAT)
will address three questions: a) what is the link between artists (including designers) and broad societal innovation, particularly with regard to economic and job growth?; b) in which industries, sectors, or geographies is arts-driven innovation visible and measurable?; and c) what individual, organizational, or regional characteristics can positively affect the arts' relationship to entrepreneurship and innovation?
The lab will use a mixed-methods research approach to collect evidence of historical and current arts-integrated entrepreneurship and innovation activities. This effort will entail three separate phases of inquiry: a systematic literature review, interviews with businesses nationwide that are incorporating arts-integrated practices; and convenings of leading thinkers and practitioners of arts-based innovation within industries. Data gleaned from these methods will be used to create and evaluate a pilot program that will embed creative professionals within various industries to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Planned lab products will include evidence-based publications and best practices for arts-integrated innovation and a compilation of scholarly articles. Additional partners will include Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (A2RU), the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for Study of Invention and Innovation, and corporate entities.
Other Key Personnel
- Thomas Martin, PhD
- Lisa McNair, PhD
- Diana Ayton-Shenker, LLM
- Termeh Rassi, MA