NEA Research Labs
Introduction
Through a series of awards, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has established a national program that permits transdisciplinary research teams, grounded in the social and behavioral sciences, to engage with the NEA's five-year research agenda. The National Endowment for the Arts Research Labs (NEA Research Labs) program will yield empirical insights about the arts for the benefit of arts and non-arts sectors alike.
Each of the NEA Research Labs will design a research agenda, conduct a program to implement its own agenda, and prepare reports and other products that contribute substantively to a wider understanding several areas of special interest to the National Endowment for the Arts. Sustained methods of inquiry into these topic areas will have distinctive benefits for the arts community, but also for sectors such as healthcare, education, and business or management. Our Labs cover the following topic areas, with more to come in alignment with our current Research Agenda:
Each of our Labs in “Arts, Health, and Well-Being" focus on research questions such as:
- What changes in physical or mental health outcomes are experienced by participants receiving arts-based interventions (e.g., via creative arts therapies or arts-in-health programs) to address various health conditions?
- How do changes in outcomes vary by age, socioeconomic characteristics, other demographic and behavioral patterns, and/or by health status?
- How do changes in outcomes compare with those achieved by other health and wellness strategies or interventions?
- What physiological or psychological mechanisms are activated by arts-based interventions in affecting health-related outcomes?
- What are the social, emotional, physiological, or physical health benefits of arts participation (including arts learning)?
- To what extent—and under what conditions—are specific art forms and activities invoked in positive relationships between arts participation and health and well-being?
- How do characteristics such as frequency, duration, or intensity of an arts-based intervention relate to individual or program-level outcomes?
- What is the comparative cost-effectiveness of an arts-based intervention and one or more non-arts-based interventions?
- How do arts-based interventions benefit caregivers or family members?
Each of our Labs on the “Arts, Cognition, and Learning ” focus on research questions such as:
- What are the cognitive, social or emotional, or physiological processes of arts participation—for various types of arts activity (including creating or performing art)— and how do they affect learning-related outcomes?
- How do learning-related outcomes associated with arts participation vary by age, socioeconomic characteristics, other demographic and behavioral patterns, and/or by health status or disabilities?
- How do these changes in outcomes compare with those achieved by non-arts approaches to learning (e.g., non-arts extracurricular programs; non-arts integrated curricula)?
- What changes in learning-related outcomes are associated with specific approaches to arts instruction in formal or informal settings?
Each of our Labs on the “Arts, Economic Growth, and Innovation” focus on:
- What is the nature, direction, and strength of the relationship between the arts and economic and job growth? How has this relationship changed over time, and how does it differ by geography and industry?
- How do place-based investments in the arts contribute to local and regional economic outcomes?
- How do artists and arts organizations contribute measurably to innovation in the public and private sectors? What individual or organizational characteristics or behaviors can mediate these outcomes?
- How do formal and informal places of arts education—and the competencies they cultivate—contribute to innovation in the public and private sectors?
- In which industries, sectors, or geographic areas is it possible to measure economic outcomes from arts-led innovation, and how so?
- How do the benefits and related outcomes of arts-based entrepreneurship and innovation compare with those achieved by non-arts approaches?
- How does the presence of artists in the non-arts workforce influence the dynamics of the workplace and affect work products, including development of new technologies and other innovations?
Each of our Labs on “Monitoring and Improving Systems” focus on research questions such as the following:
Community Health and/or Revitalization
In what ways do the arts contribute to the healing and revitalization of communities? What factors mediate these contributions, and for the benefit of which populations? What are common elements of such programs or practices, and what are appropriate measures of success?
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Arts
What is the state of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the arts? What progress has been made in achieving these outcomes for arts administration, employment, learning, and participation? What are some promising practices and/or replicable strategies in these domains, and what are appropriate markers of success?
Other Aspects of the Arts Ecosystem
How is the U.S. arts ecosystem (e.g., arts organizations and venues, artists and arts workers, and participants and learners) adapting and responding to social, economic, and technological changes and challenges to the sector, including trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic? What are promising practices and/or replicable strategies for responding to such forces, for different segments of the arts ecosystem?
The Labs
Convenings
NEA 2024 Research Labs Summit: Meet the Authors (June 4, 2024)
All-Labs Summit: Building and Sustaining Capacity for Arts Research (June 4, 2019)
As the federal agency of record on arts research, the National Endowment for the Arts, through its Office of Research & Analysis, produces accurate, relevant, and timely analyses and reports that reveal the conditions and characteristics of the U.S. arts ecosystem and the impact of the arts on our everyday lives. The NEA Research Labs add important cross-sector resources to the agency’s collection of publications such as Arts Participation Patterns in 2022: Highlights from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, funding opportunities such as Research Grants in the Arts, and producing other data resources. The NEA Research Labs initiative will help to fulfill milestones of a five-year research agenda, available on the National Endowment for the Arts website.