National Standard Guide, History

The National Standard for Arts Information Exchange is a long-standing taxonomy of data fields and definitions used to collect and analyze information about arts constituents, projects, activities and resources. NASAA and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) have published a full National Standard Reference Guide and revisions history along with historical documentation on National Standard revisions. These materials and additional resources about the most recent changes to the National Standard and NEA reporting requirements are available at NASAA’s National Standard Reference Center.

This documentation is useful in both current and historical contexts. The reference guide documents the current National Standard in its entirety and the revisions history logs each change made to the standard from 1984 to 2014. All changes, codes and systems related to the National Standard are now all in one place.

Keeping track of data standards and reporting requirements and figuring out which pieces are relevant to your agency isn’t easy. NASAA can provide help in navigating these evolving systems in ways that are relevant to your operations and planning. Ultimately, these systems are in place to help you gain a deeper understanding of state arts agency and regional arts organization activities over time. NASAA is more than happy to assist with technical questions relating to data standards and to analyze current and historical SAA grant-making data. Please contact NASAA Research Director Ryan Stubbs or NASAA Grants Data Associate Kelly Liu with any of your data questions or needs.