Recently, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) celebrated 25 years of sponsorship of the arts and they decided to celebrate the public art way. Since they wanted greater logo real estate as corporate sponsors, they decided to commission original works and installations on their own. This session presented a case study of UTC’s sponsored public art in Madison Square Park, NYC and Broadgate Arena, London, UK. The most interesting component of this case was how they used surveys, conducted by Audience Research & Analysis, to measure the impact of this endeavor.
How to you measure the value of public art, which by nature, has a more elusive, serendipitous, and iterative visitor experience than say a theatre or museum?
How can you design an assessment survey that documents valued added to both the consumer as well as the sponsor? (The presenters generously shared their powerpoint with me for this blog). (more…)
Tagged with: BusinessFundraisingPublic-ArtResearch
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:12pm
Rebecca Borden
Well, the slow days of summer, as always, prove to be anything but slow. And probably like all of you I am continually snowed under by mountains of articles, magazines, newspapers, books, research studies and other reading material that seem to sit there threatening me with some dire consequence if I don’t get to them. Herewith, in no particular order of priority, a round-up of what I have been reading and clipping:
Cause-related Marketing Fatigue - As reported in Business Week (July 9/16, 2007) consumers seems to be losing interest in cause marketing campaigns that link products to social causes. Of course, the big “(Product) Red” campaign designed to raise money for African Aids victims got a lot of press for failing to hit its goals, and perhaps serving corporate marketing goals more effectively than fundraising goals. And the support of Avon and others have helped push breast cancer awareness and the pink ribbon into the public consciousness (and has also in some ways suppressed awareness of National Arts and Humanities Month, since both causes share October). According to the research firm Cone, in May 36% of consumers said they had bought a product during the prior 12 months after learning of the manufacturer’s commitment to a cause they believed in. This is down from 43% in 2004. Only 14% said they intentionally paid more for a product that supports a cause, down from 28%. And only 30% said they told a friend or family member about a product or company committed to a social issue, down from 43% three years ago. This may make it harder for arts groups to build these relationships in the future. On the other hand, the numbers are probably still high enough to make it worth a company’s while to engage in cause marketing relationships.
Breakthrough Creativity - The same issue of Business Week reviews a new book, “Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas.” The book attempts to provide new insights into how creative breakthroughs happen, and covers great leaps of genius and creativity in science, business and the arts. Without commenting on the merits of the book, which I have not yet read, it is another example of the growing recognition that creativity and innovation in science, business and the arts are linked, and that this holds great promise for efforts to persuade business and educators that the arts matter if we are to generate the next Francis Crick and James Watson (who discovered the structure of DNA) or Picasso. Todd Siler, an artist with a PhD from MIT who is now working with our Creativity Connection program, does creative training and brainstorming sessions for business using the visual arts, and addresses how creativity intersects science and art in his book Think Like a Genius , which was published back in 1999, so this is not entirely a new idea. However, “creativity” now appears to be hot, and that should be good for the arts.
Tapping Retiring Boomer Volunteers - Again from that same issue of Business Week, is an article (”Pro Bono Perfection“) about the gratification that early retiring boomers are finding through volunteer work. People that don’t volunteer indicate it is only because they have not found the right opportunity or don’t know where to begin. The article comments how many younger retired Boomers jump into too many superficial volunteer opportunities at once to stay busy, but find themselves unsatisfied. It also cites the mis-perception by many groups using these volunteers that they “just need to keep the old folks busy” and don’t really take advantage of their often high-level skills. Many of this new breed of volunteers eventually find themselves working in highly professional virtually staff-like capacities. The article is major ammunition for a program like Business Volunteers for the Arts, which matches business-people with arts groups as pro bono management consultants. While it focuses on working professionals, there is no reason why it can’t also target recent retirees, who have so much time, expertise, and energy.
Is Second Life Still Alive? - Articles about Second Life continue to populate the business, technology and arts press, describing a bustling, growing “virtual world” with its own economy, businesses, art (and naughtiness). At the same time, a recent Wired magazine article described a Second Life that appears to be vastly underpopulated, with most “users” creating an avatar, looking around and then leaving, never to return. In The Art Newspaperon July 4th, however, an article was posted that described how Second Life is becoming a viable place for artists to interact and actually sell their work. The Andy Warhol Foundation has funded exhibits in Second Life, and the MacArthur Foundation has just announced a new grant program designed to explore the world of this new digital society. The Art Newspaper has assembled video tours of exhibitions and performances on Second Life here. It reports that there are now hundreds of galleries in Second Life selling work, both real and virtual. Dealers collect a 30% commission, just like in the real world, and one gallery reports that about 200 avatars a day visit the gallery. Another artist reports making abut $10,000 in recent months from Second Life generated sales. So maybe Second Life is not so dead after all, and we should all be exploring how to have a presence in this community? I am sure this is not the end of the story.
The Art of Diagnosis - The Carnegie Museum of Art, Andy Warhol Museum and the University of Pittsburgh Medical School recently launched Art and Medicine, a new four-week course for medical students designed to hone visual thinking and observation skills through the study of art in the museum’s galleries. A similar program has existed for some time at the Metropolitan Museum working with one or more of the major NYC medical schools. These sorts of innovative programs help highlight the critical role the arts can play in the lives of non-artists, in ways that can make them better at their jobs. While this is not the same “instrumental vs intrinsic” value argument, it points out how artificial that supposed dichotomy is. A strong arts education may or may not (as recent research suggests) help a student get higher math scores that will get them into medical school, but it WILL help that young person develop visual acuity and observation skills that will make them a better doctor. I think this one example highlights how the applied skills developed through the arts have an even impact that we are only just beginning to quantify and communicate.
Okay, my stack is still a few feet tall, but this is already way too long for a Blog entry, so I will spare you further reports. More to come in the coming weeks. Of course, by the time I get around to this again, the pile will have mysteriously replenished itself!
Tagged with: BusinessFundraisingLeadershipPartnershipsResearchVolunteerism
August 17th, 2007 at 09:53am
Gary Steuer
A letter-to-the-editor from Bob Lynch was recently published on the New York Times website.
The letter calls for a reunification in the debate among arts education professionals about which benefits of arts education should be researched by scientists, designed for by providers, and touted by advocates.
The letter is online.
Guest blogger Nick Rabkin has also offered his thoughts.
Tagged with: AdvocacyArts-EducationPresident-and-CEOResearch
August 13th, 2007 at 05:02pm
John Abodeely
By Nick Rabkin
Center for Arts Policy
Columbia College Chicago
August 8, 2007
It is so rare that arts ed or arts ed research gets coverage in the daily press. The recent article in the New York Times about the “Studio Thinking” research project (1) is significant first because of its rarity. It is already generating a buzz about arts education that we rarely feel.
It is important for another reason as well, though. For the last decade or more a debate has raged about the “intrinsic” vs. the “instrumental” value of arts education. Ellen Winner, one of the “Studio Thinking” researchers, played a very big role in that debate several years ago, when she and colleagues published a “meta-analysis” of arts education research in which she found no evidence that arts learning contributes to student academic achievement. (2) Hence, she argued, it was scientifically irresponsible to make a case for the arts’ place in schools because they improve student performance in other subjects. Furthermore, she suspects that education policymakers will reason that if they want to improve math achievement, they will teach more math, not more arts. In the end, the arts are important in their own right and should be justified in terms of the important and unique kinds of learning that arise from the study of the arts.
Some researchers who believed that there was good evidence the arts did contribute to higher achievement across the curriculum criticized Winner’s meta-study, arguing that it excluded good research from its scan. As one of many places in the country where teaching artists were inventing new ways to improve schools by connecting the arts to other subjects, many folks here in Chicago felt Winner’s study simply ignored their work and contributions. Others, more committed to arts education traditions, thought Winner bolstered their argument against “arts integration” and for “sequential and discipline-based instruction” in the art forms.
(more…)
Tagged with: AdvocacyArts-EducationResearch
August 9th, 2007 at 10:46am
John Abodeely
I recently had the pleasure, with an Americans for the Arts colleague, of participating in a “stakeholders convening” for The Conference Board on the issue of workforce readiness. Their recent study, “Are They Really Ready to Work,” found that businesses rate their incoming workforce (college educated, 2-year college educated, and high school educated) as poorly prepared with the skills needed in the workplace today. In contrast to the national obsession of the past few years on “basic skills” (see No Child Left Behind) - particularly math and science - the corporate folks surveyed (mostly HR execs) rated “applied skills” as particularly critical, and relatively poor in their incoming new workers. These include creativity and innovation, communications skills and teamwork. Sound familiar? We arts and arts education advocates often press our case based on the role the arts can play in building these skills, and in fact many of the HR leaders interviewed for this research cited the arts in talking abut the importance of creativity. But one thing made clear by this stakeholders meeting (the actual content of which I can’t report on because confidentiality was promised in order to foster an open dialogue) was that we don’t seem to have enough data to support this linkage.
Do we really know that the arts foster creativity, innovation and imagination, in ways that make people more creative, innovative employees? (Not just in creative industries, but creative scientists, or financiers or factory supervisors.) It may seem obvious to us - one of those “duh!” questions - but can we prove it? What about the other applied skills - teamwork, collaboration, cultural sensitivity, communications, etc. Again, seems obvious that the arts build these skills, but what research do we have that backs it up, particularly in a workforce context?
Americans for the Arts is now looking at how we might partner with the Conference Board and others to do some research that might build a clearer definition of creativity and innovation in a business context, and more clearly show how the arts can foster the so-called applied skills. The relationship between the arts and workforce development was also one of the themes of our MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum Series this year. And our Creativity Connection program fosters the use of arts-based learning with the current workforce - but this is different than making a case that arts education better prepares workers for 21st Century business challenges.
I would love to know if any of our ArtsBlog readers know of any good existing research in this area; if so, please share it with us. This could even include case studies - for example, a business that finds that new hires that have studied a musical instrument and played in a school orchestra or band excel in some measurable way in the workplace over those without such a background. The more data and tangible examples we can gather, the more powerful a case we can make for the arts and arts education as critical to business competitiveness. Making this case better could be the key to reversing the slippage in corporate arts support we have seen over the past ten years.
Tagged with: AdvocacyArts-EducationBusinessPartnershipsResearch
July 16th, 2007 at 09:32am
Gary Steuer
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