NEA Research: Art Works, FY 2015

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“The Arts Endowment’s support of a project may start on May 1, 2015, or any time thereafter.” In September 2012, the NEA's Office of Research & Analysis published its five-year research agenda, supported by a system map and measurement model. Titled How Art Works, the report offers a framework for studying research topics critical to a broader public understanding of the arts' value and/or impact for individuals and communities. The How Art Works map (see below) presents several different research areas, each ripe for fresh inquiry. To obtain an accurate understanding of each area of the map, researchers can collect and analyze data on a host of variables. Research areas include the system's core components of Arts Participation and Arts Creation; the system's inputs (Arts Infrastructure and Education & Training); and the system's main outcomes, e.g., cognitive or emotional benefits to individuals, or civic or economic benefits to communities. The map is not prescriptive. It is intended primarily to communicate to potential applicants a cluster of topics and relationships that the NEA aims to explore.

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