From the Field

How Arts Participation Renews Civic and Community Engagement

A recently published report from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Great Connector: How Arts Participation Renews Civic and Community Engagement, examines the links between arts participation and broader community engagement. By analyzing statistical data from three nationally representative surveys—the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) and the Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey (HTOPS), both administered by the U.S. Census Bureau; and the General Social Survey (GSS), administered by NORC at the University of Chicago— the report enlarges public understanding of whether and how taking part in arts events and activities can strengthen social and civic engagement.

Among other key findings, the analysis demonstrated that the two surveys administered by the Census Bureau yielded clear and consistent evidence of a strong and positive relationship between arts participation and civic/community engagement. These links persisted even after researchers statistically controlled for factors such as education level and household income. Moreover, within the SPPA sample, adults who participated in the arts exhibited a nearly fourfold increase (386%) in their likelihood of civic/community engagement—such as attending community meetings or events, volunteering or doing charity work—relative to adults who did not participate in the arts. Findings from the HTOPS sample were more modest, but still significant. Arts participants showed a 17% increase in their likelihood of civic/community engagement relative to adults who did not participate in the arts. Findings from the GSS did not find a significant relationship between arts participation and community engagement when controlling for other demographic factors, however. For more key findings, read the full report.

Federal Data Field Guide

University of California Berkeley recently published a Federal Data Field Guide, a free resource that explains how data collection works across the federal government. The guide is organized into eight categories of federal data, including statistical, administrative, geospatial, accountability, scientific research, and navigation and reference. The federal government maintains hundreds of thousands of distinct data sets across hundreds of agencies, with some individual data sets containing billions of records spanning decades of continuous collection. This guide can help those interested in arts and culture research and policy find their bearings among the sheer volume of available data. Read the full guide.