“evaluation scale” by flickr user billsoPHOTO

Many people have asked about the process we use to identify and evaluate research worthy of our literature reviews and feature articles. While we don’t use a rigid scoring system to make those selections, we do provide our research team with a “guide to evaluating research” to lend some structure to the process. The evaluation guide draws on four primary criteria: the relevance of the research, the transparency of the process, rigor of design, and the soundness of the interpretation. The full guide provides detailed challenge questions relating to each of these criteria and some general considerations to keep in mind when reviewing research. As always, we welcome feedback on any of our research materials.

Reading by Flickr user Moyan Brenn

This summer we have returned to the topic of the arts and wellbeing. Our previous work in this area served as an introduction to wellbeing (and its importance to the arts) for us and our readers. Our current investigation focuses more directly on the following research questions:

1. What are the wellbeing-related outcomes that have been theorized to be related to arts activities?
2. For each of those outcomes, what is the state of the evidence about the relationship?

For this investigation we are reviewing literature reviews on aspects of this topic, as well as major theoretical works about the mechanisms through which the arts improve wellbeing. We are also continuing to consider if the term quality of life is a better fit for our work in this area instead of wellbeing. (If you have an opinion, your input is very welcome).

Below is our current list of resources we are reviewing.

Arts Council England. (2014) The Value of Arts and Culture to People and Society: An Evidence Review. Retrieved from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/The-value-of-arts-and-culture-to-people-and-society-An-evidence-review-TWO.pdf

Arts Midwest, & Metropolitan Group. (2015). Creating Connection: Research Findings and Proposed Message Framework to Build Public Will for Arts and Culture. Retrieved from http://www.artsmidwest.org/sites/default/files/ArtsMidwest_BPWReport.pdf

Brown, A. (2006). An Architecture of Value. GIA Reader, 17(1). Retrieved from http://www.giarts.org/article/architecture-value

Carnwath, J. D., & Brown, A. S. (2014). Understanding the Value and Impacts of Cultural Experiences: A Literature Review. WolfBrown and Arts Council England. Retrieved from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/Understanding_the_value_and_impacts_of_cultural_experiences.pdf

Crossick, G., & Kaszynska, P. (2016). Understanding the Value of Arts and Culture: The AHRC Cultural Value Project. United Kingdom: Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Wolf, D. (2016). Why Making Music Matters. WolfBrown and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. Retrieved fromhttp://www.carnegiehall.org/uploadedFiles/Resources_and_Components/PDF/WMI/WhyMusicMatters.pdf

Development Services Group, Inc. (2016). Arts-Based Programs and Arts Therapies for At-Risk, Justice-Involved, and Traumatized Youths. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/litreviews/Arts-Based-Programs-for-Youth.pdf

Fujiwara, D. (2013). Museum’s and Happiness: The Value of Participating in Museums and the Arts (The Happy Museum). Retrieved from http://www.happymuseumproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Museums_and_happiness_DFujiwara_April2013.pdf

Fujiwara, D., Kudrna, L., & Dolan, P. (2014a). Quantifying and Valuing the Wellbeing Impacts of Culture and Sport. Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/304899/Quantifying_and_valuing_the_wellbeing_impacts_of_sport_and_culture.pdf

Fujiwara, D., Kudrna, L., & Dolan, P. (2014b). Quantifying the Social Impacts of Culture and Sport. Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/304896/Quantifying_the_Social_Impacts_of_Culture_and_Sport.pdf

Jackson, M. R., & Herranz, J. (2002). Culture Counts in Communities: A Framework for Measurement (Research Report). The Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310834_culture_counts.pdf

Jackson, M. R., Kabwasa-Green, F., & Herranz, J. (2006). Cultural Vitality in Communities: Interpretation and Indicators. The Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/projects/cultural-vitality-indicators/publications.cfm

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. (2010). Soul of the Community – Overall Findings. Retrieved fromhttp://www.knightfoundation.org/sotc/

Jones, S. (2010). Culture shock. London: Demos.

Guetzkow, J. (2002). How the Arts Impact Communities: An introduction to the literature on arts impact studies. Presented at the Taking the Measure of Culture Conference, Princeton University: Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/~artspol/workpap/WP20%20-%20Guetzkow.pdf

Stern, M., & Seifert, S. (2007). Culture and Urban Revitalization: A Harvest Document. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved from https://www.reinvestment.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Culture_and_Urban_Revitalization_A_Harvest_Document-Report_2007.pdf

Matarasso, F. (1997). Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts. Comedia.

McCarthy, K., Ondaatje, E., Zakaras, L., Brooks, A., & RAND. (2004). Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts (p. 104). RAND. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG218.pdf

Medeiros, K. de, & Basting, A. (2014). “Shall I Compare Thee to a Dose of Donepezil?”: Cultural Arts Interventions in Dementia Care Research. The Gerontologist, 54(3), 344–353. http://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnt055

Menzer, M. (2015). The Arts in Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Benefits of Participation. National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved from https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/arts-in-early-childhood-dec2015-rev.pdf

National Endowment for the Arts. (2012). How Art Works. Retrieved from http://arts.gov/sites/default/files/How-Art-Works_0.pdf

National Endowment for the Arts. (2013). The Arts and Aging: Building the Science.

Noice, T., Noice, H., & Kramer, A. F. (2013). Participatory Arts for Older Adults: A Review of Benefits and Challenges. The Gerontologist, gnt138. http://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnt138

Scottish Government, S. A. H. (2006, January). Quality of Life and Well-being: Measuring the Benefits of Culture and Sport: Literature Review and Thinkpiece. Retrieved January 24, 2015, from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/13110743/0

Sen, A. (n.d.). How does culture matter?’. In V. Rao & M. Walton (Eds.), Culture and Public Action. Stanford UP.

Stern, M. J., & Seifer, S. C. (2013). Cultural Ecology, Neighborhood Vitality, and Social Wellbeing – A Philadelphia Project. University of Pennsylvania Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP).

Tepper, S. (2014). Artful living: Examining the relationship between artistic practice and subjective wellbeing across three national surveys. The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. Retrieved from http://arts.gov/sites/default/files/Research-Art-Works-Vanderbilt.pdf

The National Endowment for the Arts. (2011). The Arts and Human Development. Retrieved fromhttps://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/TheArtsAndHumanDev.pdf

Topos Partnership for the Fine Arts Fund. (n.d.). The Arts Ripple Effect: A Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.theartswave.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/The-Arts-Ripple-Report-January-2010.pdf

Urban Institute. (n.d.). The Validating Arts & Livability Indicators (VALI) Study: Results and Recommendations. Retrieved January 23, 2015, from http://arts.gov/sites/default/files/VALI-Report.pdf

WolfBrown & The National Endowment for the Arts. (n.d) Audience Impact Study Literature Review. Retrieved from http://arts.gov/sites/default/files/Audience-Impact-Study-Literature-Review.pdf

“Study” by Flickr user Moyan Brenn

Cultural Equity Primer
As reported in our last update, our history project on the expansion of the definition of art to include non-western art forms has evolved into an article making sense of divergent visions of success within the sector related to cultural equity. Through our review of the literature (and some conversations with researchers and advocates) we have developed a list of four major visions of success put forward historically and today. This month we have spent some time internally thinking about the arguments and assumptions behind each vision and how they align with our individual understandings of the sector and our definition of a healthy arts ecosystem. All this will be shared in the upcoming article, which is in the draft phase. We’re really excited about this project!

Wellbeing Part 2
As our two spring research tracks wrap up, we are beginning initial work on our next topic for the summer, a second look at wellbeing and the arts. This research will build on our previous investigation of wellbeing and its implications for the arts sector by digging deeper into the existing literature on how various kinds of arts participation affects wellbeing in various ways. If you have any literature to recommend on this topic, please comment or email us at info@createquity.com.

Research Methods and Process Documentation
Over the past several months, we’ve had the privilege of getting to know Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University who has written several books on the topic of research synthesis methodology. With the benefit of study of Dr. Cooper’s work and conversations with him and other advisors, we’ve begun to formalize and further document our own research process. We expect to post an update to the Research Process page on the website this summer, and may write more about this on the main feed once our materials are further along in their development.

“Richard’s photography class notes” by Terry Madeley

March and April were busy months for us at Createquity. While we had ambitious research agendas for investigating both the history of the arts ecosystem and the labor market for artists and creative entrepreneurs, we found that it took some tweaking to refine our hypotheses and research questions so that we could find the types of sources and information that would make for impactful feature articles that add value to the current literature.

History of the Arts Ecosystem: Expanding definition of the arts

We have wrapped up our reading on this topic and are beginning work on an article.

After our initial research and some productive conversations with some experienced researchers in this area, we re-focused our work on this topic. The general framework for our history investigations has been to examine how change is made within the sector through the history of some major shifts. For this particular article we set out to explore the expanding definition of “the arts” within the mainstream cultural establishment since the middle of the 20th century.

We found that this change was inextricably related to many of the issues around cultural equity and diversity currently being discussed in the sector, and that exactly what had changed and to what extent was not as clear as in our previous investigation on the growth of the modern nonprofit arts sector. Accordingly, we’ve shifted to working on an article that attempts to make sense of the divergent visions of success for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts sector in the United States by identifying the assumptions and values underlying those visions. The article will incorporate an attempt to reconcile these visions of success with Createquity’s own definition of a healthy arts ecosystem, and define areas for future empirical investigation.

Artists’ Labor Markets and Entrepreneurship

After completing our initial review of the literature and sharing our internal report, the responses to our research questions separated into three distinct areas. Because of this, we are currently planning three separate, shorter articles to be published on the topic of economically disadvantaged populations making their livings as artists.

We are currently editing the first article, which will focus on higher education and the arts and the challenges that economically disadvantaged people face when pursuing arts training. From there, we will move on to a discussion of artists’ labor markets and the risks that artists face in their careers. Our last article on this topic will consider policy alternatives that governments around the world have attempted to mitigate some of the risks that artists face in their careers, along with how those policies have affected artists’ work.

Books! by Kirrus

Our research on the history of the arts ecosystem continues with our investigation of the expanding definition of the arts and the recent history of support and recognition for artists of color. We have decided to focus this research on the period covering 1980-today, with an emphasis on trends related to equity and multiculturalism within the arts ecosystem.

Here are the resources we have reviewed last month.

Bryan, B. (2008). Diversity in Philanthropy: A Comprehensive Bibliography of Resources Related to Diversity Within the Philanthropic and Nonprofit Sectors. Foundation Center. Retrieved from http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/topical/diversity_in_phil.pdf

Campbell, M. S. (1998). A New Mission for the NEA. TDR: The Drama Review, 42(4), 5–9.

DeVos Instititute of Arts Management. (2015). Diversity In The Arts: The Past, Present, and Future of African American and Latino Museums, Dance Companies, and Theater Companies. Retrieved from http://www.devosinstitute.umd.edu/What-We-Do/News-and-Announcements/Announcements/Announcements/Diversity%20in%20the%20Arts%20paper

Garfias, R. (1991). Cultural diversity and the arts in America. In Public money and the muse, ed. Stephen Benedict. New York: Norton.

Gordon, A., & Newfield, C. (1996). Mapping multiculturalism. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.

Haft, J. (n.d.). Article: Voices from the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural Equity Through Critical Analysis. Retrieved from https://roadside.org. October 22, 2015. https://roadside.org/asset/article-voices-battlefront-achieving-cultural-equity-through-critical-analysis

Hartmann, D., & Gerteis, J. (2005). Dealing with Diversity: Mapping Multiculturalism in Sociological Terms. Sociological Theory, 23(2), 218–240.

Jensen, R. (1995). The Culture Wars, 1965-1995: A Historian’s Map. Journal of Social History, 29, 17–37.

Jewesbury, D. D., Singh, J., & Tuck, S. (2009). Cultural Diversity: Language and Meanings. The Arts Council of Ireland. Retrieved from http://www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/Main_Site/Content/Artforms_and_Practices/Arts_Participation_pages/Cultural_Diversity_language_meanings.pdf

Koch, C. (1998). The NEA and NEH Funding Crisis. Public Talk: Online Journal of Discourse Leadership, (2). Retrieved from http://www.upenn.edu/pnc/ptkoch.html

Lowry, W. M. (1991). How many muses? Government funding for the multicultural. Journal of Arts Management & Law, 21(3), 264.

Marta Moreno Vega. (1993). Voices from the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural Equity. Trenton, N.J: Africa World Pr.

Matlon, M. P., Ingrid Van Haastrecht, & Kaitlyn Wittig Mengüç. (2014). Figuring the Plural: Needs and Supports of Canadian and US Ethnocultural Arts Organizations. Chicago, IL: Plural. Retrieved from http://www.pluralculture.org/programs-services/figuring-the-plural-book/

Moore, M. (1990). The politics of multiculture. Journal of Arts Management and Law, 20(1), 5–15.

Pankratz, D. B. (1993). Multiculturalism and public arts policy. Bergin & Garvey.

Race & Ethnicity in Independent Films: Prevalence of Underrepresented Directors and the Barriers They Face. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Research-Art-Works-Sundance.pdf

Sidford, H. (2011). Fusing Arts, Culture, and Social Change. National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Retrieved from http://www.ncrp.org/files/publications/Fusing_Arts_Culture_Social_Change.pdf

Ravitch, D. (1990). Multiculturalism: E pluribus plures. American Scholar, 59(3), 337.

Voss, Z. G., Voss, G., Louie, A., Drew, Z., & Teyolia, M. R. (n.d.). Does “Strong and Effective” Look Different for Culturally Specific Arts Organizations? Retrieved from http://www.smu.edu/~/media/Site/Meadows/NCAR/NCARWhitePaper01-12

Meanwhile, we have also focused our literature review and searching on artists’ labor markets and on entrepreneurship. Studies that we reviewed last month appear below:

Alper, Neil O. (n.d.). ARTISTS’ CAREERS AND THEIR LABOR MARKETS*. Retrieved from http://faos.ku.dk/pdf/undervisning_og_arrangementer/2010/ARTISTS__CAREERS_191010.pdf

Abbing, H. (2008). Why Are Artists Poor? : The Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=340245

Caves, R. C. (2000). Creative Industries: Contracts between art and commerce. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=imfTUHj8uVcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=poor+students+pursue+art+careers&ots=1ETnN5opB8&sig=Ra2jkWr15h47wDmdwJjpfhBmKcY#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dimitrialdi, N. (2009, May). THE EMERGENCE OF PRACTICE: MOTIVATION AND DECISION MAKING AMONG CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTISTS. University of Brighton. Retrieved from http://eprints.brighton.ac.uk/12291/1/Thesis_%20Nina_Dimitriadi.pdf

Galligan, A., & Alper, N. (2000). The Career Matrix: The Pipeline for Artists in the United States. In The Public Life of Arts in America.

Jackson, M.-R. (2004). Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for US Artists. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 34(1), 43–58. Retrieved from https://phillyartistssummit.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/investing-in-creativity.pdf

Menger, P.-M. (1999). Artistic Labor Markets and Careers. Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 25, 25. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/223516.pdf

Throsby, D., & Zednik, A. (2011). Multiple job-holding and artistic careers: some empirical evidence. Cultural Trends, 20(1), 9–24. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09548963.2011.540809

Wadhwa, V., Aggarwal, R., Holly, K., Salkever, A. (n.d.). The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation. Retrieved from http://www.kauffman.org/~/media/kauffman_org/research%20reports%20and%20covers/2009/07/anatomy_of_entre_071309_final.pdf

Our research questions include:

• How does economic disadvantage decrease access and knowledge of working arts opportunities?

• How many low-SES people who might want to be artists cannot be artists because of barriers to participation?

Literature from our initial scan includes:

Anderson, A. R. (2003). Class matters: human and social capital in the entrepreneurial process. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 32(1), 17–36. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105353570300009X

Beattie, I. R. (2002). Are All “Adolescent Econometricians” Created Equal? Racial, Class, and Gender Differences in College Enrollment. Sociology of Education, 75(1), 19–43. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090252?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Benhamou, F. (n.d.). Artists’ labour markets. In A Handbook of Cultural Economics (pp. 53–57). Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eyXQbYAXCBQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA53&dq=time+and+money+required,+successful+artist,&ots=808sTBgr7J&sig=p1sN51mGV3lieGBaFekB8ppBHLM#v=onepage&q=time%20and%20money%20required%2C%20successful%20artist%2C&f=false

Bui, Q. (2014). Who Had Richer Parents, Doctors Or Artists? NPR Planet Money. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/03/18/289013884/who-had-richer-parents-doctors-or-arists

Cox, R. D. (2016). Complicating Conditions: Obstacles and Interruptions to Low-Income Students’ College “Choices.” Journal of Higher Education, 87(1), 1–26. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_higher_education/v087/87.1.cox.html

Filer, R. K. (1986). The “Starving Artist”–Myth or Reality? Earnings of Artists in the United States. Journal of Political Economy. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1831960

Hans, A. (2008). Why Are Artists Poor? : The Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=340245

Jahoda, S., Murphy, B., Virgin, V., & Woolard, C. (n.d.). Artists Report Back: A National Study on the Lives of Arts Graduates and Working Artists. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/N2AYyx

Luftig, R. L., Donovan, M. L., Farnbaugh, C. L., Kennedy, E. E., Filicko, T., & Wyszomirski, M. J. (2003). So What Are You Doing after College? An Investigation of Individuals Studying the Arts at the Post-Secondary Level, Their Job Aspirations and Levels of Realism. National Arts Education Association, 45(1), 5–19. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1321105

Minniti, M., & Nardone, C. (2007). Being in Someone Else’s Shoes: the Role of Gender in Nascent Entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 28(2), 223–238. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-006-9017-y

Mullen, A. L. (2014). GENDER, SOCIAL BACKGROUND, AND THE CHOICE OF COLLEGE MAJOR IN A LIBERAL ARTS CONTEXT. Gender & Society, 28(2), 289–312. Retrieved from http://gas.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/17/0891243213512721

Rampell, C. (2014). The Most Expensive Colleges in the Country are Art Schools, Not Ivies. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2014/03/28/the-most-expensive-colleges-in-the-country-are-art-schools-not-ivies/

Simon, R., & Barry, B. (2013). A Degree Drawn in Red Ink. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324432004578306610055834952?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424127887324432004578306610055834952.html

SNAAP. (2013). An Uneven Canvas: Inequality in Artistic Training and Careers. Retrieved from http://snaap.indiana.edu/pdf/2013/SNAAP%20Annual%20Report%202013.pdf

Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. (n.d.). Spotlight on First-Generation Artists (PART 2). Retrieved from http://snaap.indiana.edu/databrief/vol4no1.html

Meanwhile, we have also begun work on a new research area, continuing our investigation into the history of the arts ecosystem.

History of the Arts Ecosystem: expanding definition of the arts

Arts institutions and organizations that constitute the core of the formally recognized “cultural sector” were—and continue to be—dominated by Eurocentric artists and art forms. While this bias persists, the definition of what counts as art, and what is deemed worthy of study and support by formal institutions, appears to have expanded considerably over the past 50 years.

Createquity is investigating this shift as part of our larger project on the history of change in the arts ecosystem, with an emphasis on the role of changemakers. A few of the questions we will be exploring in this research process are:

• What are some examples of artistic activities and traditions pursued by artists or communities of color that have seen an increase in prestige and recognition from the 1950s to today?
• Is there any data or method of quantifying this increase in prestige?
• How much has the amount of monetary support available for noncommercial artistic activities and traditions pursued by artists or communities of color changed from the 1950s – today?
  • How does this contrast this with the general increase in support available for nonprofit arts activities, and with demographic shifts in the same period?
• Have artists of color working in the commercial sector seen increases in the resources they personally gain as a result of their artistic work?
• Who are some of the most important actors from within communities of non-Eurocentric artistic practice who have deliberately organized to increase the visibility of their work and their peers?
  • What was their original intention when they started the work that led to this change?
  • How did they gain attention or resources for their activities beyond the norm for their time?
• What are some identifiable moments of reform from within institutional funding communities?
  • How did they start?
  • Who made the ultimate decision to change institutional policies and why?
• Has the bulk of this shift been in recognition and prestige as opposed to monetary resources?
• How have artist-driven movements or projects and funder-led initiatives interacted with one another on this issue?

We have begun our initial literature search, and we are also looking for suggestions from our readers. Read more about that here.

“Qualitative research step by step” by Sam Ladner

This month we looked more closely at the idea of television addiction and the choices that people make with regard to their television viewing. The literature appears to agree that television addiction does exist, and that it describes a particular set of behaviors that resemble drug or alcohol addiction. We found that television choices are influenced by a variety of external factors, and the way that people justify or explain their television viewing to others is also affected by outside influences. The research indicates that for some people, television is a fulfilling activity that they actively choose from a set of other activities, but for others, television takes the place of other activities that would be more meaningful to them.

Gupta, V., Nwosa, N., Nadel, T., & Inamdar, S. (2001). Externalizing behaviors and television viewing in children of low-income minority parents. Clinical Pediatrics, 40(6), 337–41. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11824177

Hendriks Vettehen, P., Konig, R. P., Westerik, H., & Beentjes, H. (2012). Explaining television choices: The influence of parents and partners. Poetics, 40(6), 565–585. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X12000605

Horvath, C. W. (n.d.). Measuring Television Addiction. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 48(3). Retrieved fromhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15506878jobem4803_3?journalCode=hbem20#.Vji50KL88gg

Lampard, A., Jurkowski, J., & Davison, K. (2012). Social-cognitive predictors of low-income parents’ restriction of screen time among preschool-aged children. Health Education & Behavior: The Official Publication Of The Society For Public Health Education, 40(5), 526–30. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23239766

McCoy, C. A., & Scarborough, R. C. (2014). Watching “bad” television: Ironic consumption, camp, and guilty pleasures. Poetics,47, 41–59. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X14000576

Simons, N. (2015). TV drama as a social experience: An empirical investigation of the social dimensions of watching TV drama in the age of non-linear television. Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 40(2), 219–236. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/279280934_TV_drama_as_a_social_experience_An_empirical_investigation_of_the_social_dimensions_of_watching_TV_drama_in_the_age_of_non-linear_television

Sussman, S., & Moran, M. B. (2013). Hidden addiction: Television. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2(3), 125–132. Retrieved from http://www.akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/JBA.2.2013.008

Thompson, D., Matson, P., & Ellen, J. (2013). Television viewing in low-income latino children: variation by ethnic subgroup and English proficiency. Childhood Obesity, 9(1), 22–8. Retrieved from http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/chi.2012.0113

Van der Goot, M., Beentjes, J. W. J., & van Selm, M. (2015). Older adults’ television viewing as part of selection and compensation strategies. Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 40(1), 93–111. Retrieved fromhttp://www.researchgate.net/publication
/277930457_Older_adults_television_viewing_as_part_of_selection_and_compensation_strategies

Xu, J., Forman, C., Kim, J. B., & Van Ittersum, K. (2014). News Media Channels: Complements or Substitutes? Evidence from Mobile Phone Usage. Journal of Marketing, 78(4), 97–112. Retrieved from http://journals.ama.org/doi/abs/10.1509/jm.13.0198

We also began conducting phone interviews with adults of low socio-economic status to investigate why people make the choices they do when it comes to watching television vs. attending arts events. This qualitative information will help us to flesh out the preliminary conclusions we arrived at in our feature article “Why Don’t They Come?” So far the interviews have been quite revealing in terms of what types of programs people like and deem relevant, as well as identifying barriers to entry or participation. We are currently seeking more interviewees, so if you or someone you know is above the age of 25 and has achieved some college or less, please email info@createquity.com with the subject line “TV Watcher” and we will be happy to schedule a 30 minute phone interview. In exchange for your/their time we can offer a small sum.

Meanwhile, we continued our bibliographic research on the history of change in the arts ecosystem in two areas: the expansion of the nonprofit arts sector and technological change and the arts. Given the breadth of the topics we’re addressing in these reviews, we’ve started to narrow our focus somewhat by prioritizing certain turning points, trends and developments, based on our preliminary review of the available literature. In the expansion of the nonprofit sector we are focusing on the are the growth of private and public funding for arts nonprofits since 1950 and professionalization within the nonprofit arts sector. We are currently prioritizing and reviewing resources that were added to Zotero last month during our initial scan of the literature. In the technology area, our research has focused primarily on music this month. New additions to our Zotero library in this area include:

Aguiar, Luis, and Bertin Martens. “Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data.” Digital Economy Working Paper. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, 2013. tp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC79605.pdf.

Albright, Dann. “The Evolution of Music Consumption: How We Got Here.” MakeUseOf, April 30, 2015. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-evolution-of-music-consumption-how-we-got-here/.

Bahanovich, David, and Dennis Collopy. “Music Experience and Behaviour in Young People 2009 and 2011.” University of Hertfordshire’s Music and Entertainment Industries Research Group.

Bert Weijters, Frank Goedertier. “Online Music Consumption in Today’s Technological Context: Putting the Influence of Ethics in Perspective.” Journal of Business Ethics 124, no. 4 (2014): 537–50.

Beuscart, Jean-Samuel, and Thomas Couronné. “The Distribution of Online Reputation: Audience and Influence of Musicians on MySpace.” Proceedings of the Third International ICWSM Conference (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence), 2009.

“Edison Research Conducts First Ever Share of Ear Measurement For All Forms Of Online And Offline Audio – Edison Research.” http://www.edisonresearch.com/edison-research-conducts-first-ever-share-of-ear-measurement-for-all-forms-of-online-and-offline-audio/.

Huang, Chun-Yao. “File Sharing as a Form of Music Consumption.” International Journal of Electronic Commerce 9, no. 4 (July 1, 2005): 37–55.

“IFPI DIgital Music Report 2015: Charting the Path to Sustainable Growth,” 2015.
Madden, Mary. “The State of Music Online: Ten Years After Napster.” Pew Research Center, June 15, 2009. http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/06/15/the-state-of-music-online-ten-years-after-napster/.

Midem, and Nielsen. “The Hyper‐fragmentedworld of Music: Marketing Considerations and Revenue Maximisation,” 2011. http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2011/hyper-fragmented-world-of-music.html.

Morris, Jeremy Wade. Selling Digital Music, Formatting Culture. Univ of California Press, 2015.
Nielsen. “2014 Nielsen Music U.S. Report,” 2014.

O’Hara, Kenton, Barry Brown, and Michael Bull, eds. “Investigating the Culture of Mobile Listening: From Walkman to iPod.” InConsuming Music Together: Social and Collaborative Aspects of Music Consumption Technologies. Springer Science & Business Media, 2006.

Prior, Nick. “The Rise of the New Amateurs: Popular Music, Digital Technology and the Fate of Cultural Production.” https://www.academia.edu/354591/The_Rise_of_the_New_Amateurs_Popular_Music_Digital_Technology_and_the_Fate_of_Cultural_Production.

Suskind, Alex. “15 Years After Napster: How the Music Service Changed the Industry.” The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/06/15-years-after-napster-how-the-music-service-changed-the-industry.html.

Tavana, Art. “Democracy of Sound: Is GarageBand Good for Music?” Pitchfork, September 30, 2015. http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9728-democracy-of-sound-is-garageband-good-for-music/.

Tschmuck, Peter. “Is Streaming the Next Big Thing? – What Consumers Want | Music Business Research.” https://musicbusinessresearch.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/is-streaming-the-next-big-thing-what-consumers-want/.

Voida, Amy, Rebecca E. Grinter, and Nicholoas Ducheneaut. “Social Practices around iTunes.” In Consuming Music Together: Social and Collaborative Aspects of Music Consumption Technologies, edited by Kenton O’Hara and Barry Brown. Springer Science & Business Media, 2006.

Witt, Stephen. How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy. New York: Viking, 2015.

———. “The Man Who Broke the Music Business: The Dawn of Online Piracy.” The New Yorker, April 27, 2015.http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business.

“Study” by Moyan Brenn

This past month, Createquity continued conducting research for our follow-up to the article “Why Don’t They Come?” and our investigation of the history of change in the arts ecosystem over the past half-century.

Arts and Economic Disadvantage

This month, we looked closely at studies exploring reasons for lack of interest among people who do not attend arts events. To this end, a series of case studies from the Wallace Foundation on building new arts audiences shed light on how arts organizations have successfully attracted new audiences from groups with historically low attendance rates. Common themes in these case studies included revisiting marketing approaches to attract new audiences, finding ways to make sure that the arts content was relevant to the target audiences, and ensuring that audiences felt as though they had friends at the organization.

Additionally, we have begun to investigate why people make the choice to watch television, including whether or not people consciously choose to watch television over participating in arts activities, and why. To investigate this question, we are reading literature on how and why people make the choice to watch television.

To inform our thinking on this article, we’ve been attempting to identify interview subjects from the target population of low-SES adults who watch several hours of television a day. We have posted flyers in public libraries and on craigslist in several cities. Several people have responded to the query, and we are determining next steps for outreach.

Below are the articles and reports that we have reviewed this month:

Harlow, B. (2015). Staying Relevant in a Changing Neighborhood: How Fleisher Art Memorial is Adapting to Shifting Community Demographics. New York, NY: Wallace Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/strategies-for-expanding-audiences/Documents/Staying-Relevant-in-a-Changing-Neighborhood-How-Fleisher-Art-Memorial-is-Adapting-to-Shifting-Community-Demographics.pdf

Harlow, B., & Cox Roman, C. (2015). Someone Who Speaks Their Language: How a Nontraditional Partner Brought New Audiences to Minnesota Opera. New York, NY: Wallace Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/strategies-for-expanding-audiences/Documents/Someone-Who-Speaks-Their-Language.pdf

Harlow, B., & Heywood, T. (2015a). Getting Past “It’s Not For People Like Us”: Pacific Northwest Ballet Builds a Following with Teens and Young Adults. Wallace Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/strategies-for-expanding-audiences/Documents/Getting-Past-Its-Not-For-People-Like-Us.pdf

Harlow, B., & Heywood, T. (2015b). Opening New Doors: Hands-on Participation Brings a New Audience to a Clay Studio. New York, NY: Wallace Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/strategies-for-expanding-audiences/Documents/Opening-New-Doors-Hands-On-Participation-Brings-a-New-Audience-to-The-Clay-Studio.pdf

Lee, B., & Lee, R. S. (1995). How and Why People Watch TV: Implications for the Future of Interactive Television: Implications for the Future of Interactive Television. Journal of Advertising Research, 35(6). Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/242362719_How_and_why_people_watch_TV_Implications_for_the_future_of_interactive_television

Rosenstein, C. (2005). Diversity and Participation in the Arts: Insights from the Bay Area. The Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/311252-Diversity-and-Participation-in-the-Arts.PDF

Stevens, L. K. (1996). Motivating opera attendance : comparative qualitative research in 10 North American cities, 1996. Washington, D.C.: ArtsMarket Consulting. Retrieved from http://www.worldcat.org/title/motivating-opera-attendance-comparative-qualitative-research-in-10-north-american-cities-1996/oclc/35633527

History of Change in the Arts Ecosystem

We launched into bibliographic research in all three of our focus areas this month. The process is still very much underway (particularly in the “Expansion of the Definition of Art” and the “Technology” areas) and we appreciate any additional suggestions that Createquity Insider readers might want to add to our list. Here’s what we’ve dug up so far (grouped by content area):

Change Area 1: Expansion of the nonprofit arts infrastructure as seen in the proliferation of nonprofit arts organizations, government arts agencies, and philanthropic support, as well as growth in the number of arts administrators

Abramson, Alan J. “Nonprofit Sector and the New Federal Budget, The.” Text, January 1, 1986. http://webarchive.urban.org/publications/201452.html.

Burlingame, Dwight. Philanthropy in America: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2004.

Chartrand, Harry Hillman. “Toward an American Arts Industry.” The Public Life of the Arts in America, 2000, 22–49.

Cherbo, Joni Maya, and Margaret Jane Wyszomirski. The Public Life of the Arts in America. Rutgers University Press, 2000.

Constantino, Tracie. “The Impact of Philanthropy on Arts Education Policy.” Arts Education Policy Review 105, no. 1 (September 1, 2003): 25–32. doi:10.1080/10632910309600749.

“Cultural Economics: The Arts, the Heritage and the Media Industries. Volume 2.,” 1997, xi + 769 pp.

Curti, Merle. “The History of American Philanthropy as a Field of Research.” The American Historical Review, 1957, 352–63.

Dewey, Patricia. “From Arts Management to Cultural Administration.” International Journal of Arts Management 6 (2004): 13–23.

DiMaggio, Paul J., and Helmut K. Anheier. “The Sociology of Nonprofit Organizations and Sectors.” Annual Review of Sociology 16 (January 1, 1990): 137–59.

Gray, Charles M., and James Heilbrun. “Economics of the Nonprofit Arts.” The Public Life of the Arts in America, 2000, 202.

Hall, Peter Dobkin. “A Historical Overview of Philanthropy, Voluntary Associations, and Nonprofit Organizations in the United States, 1600–2000.” The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook 2 (2006): 32–65.

———. “Historical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations in the United States.” The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management 2 (2005): 3–38.

———. “ Inventing the Nonprofit Sector” and Other Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations. JHU Press, 2001. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=T36LiAL1bGAC&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&dq=%22nonprofit+organizations%22+infrastructure+history&ots=NgdmM_rWvX&sig=iy9vneIATjEF_vbG13ocSAEJAhY.

Hammack, David C. “Nonprofit Organizations in American History Research Opportunities and Sources.” American Behavioral Scientist 45, no. 11 (July 1, 2002): 1638–74. doi:10.1177/0002764202045011004.

Hansmann, Henry. “Nonprofit Enterprise in the Performing Arts.” The Bell Journal of Economics 12, no. 2 (October 1, 1981): 341–61. doi:10.2307/3003560.

Hutchens, James, and Vivian Zöue. “Curricular Considerations in Arts Administration: A Comparison of Views from the Field.” Journal of Arts Management and Law 15, no. 2 (June 1, 1985): 7–22. doi:10.1080/07335113.1985.9942154.

Hwang, Hokyu, and Walter W. Powell. “The Rationalization of Charity: The Influences of Professionalism in the Nonprofit Sector.” Administrative Science Quarterly 54, no. 2 (June 1, 2009): 268–98. doi:10.2189/asqu.2009.54.2.268.

Ivey, Bill. “America Needs a New System for Supporting the Arts.” Chronicle of Higher Education 51, no. 22 (2005): B6–9.

Jeffri, Joan. “Philanthropy and the American Artist: A Historical Overview.” The European Journal of Cultural Policy 3, no. 2 (April 1, 1997): 207–33. doi:10.1080/10286639709358046.

Markusen, Ann, Sam Gilmore, Amanda Johnson, Titus Levi, and Andrea Martinez. “Crossover: How Artists Build Careers across Commercial, Nonprofit, and Community Work,” 2006. http://works.bepress.com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/amanda_johnson1/3/.

McCarthy, Kathleen D. “American Cultural Philanthropy: Past, Present, and Future.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 471 (January 1, 1984): 13–26.

McCarthy, Kevin F., Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, and Jennifer L. Novak. Arts and Culture in the Metropolis. Rand Corporation, 2007. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG477.

Mulcahy, Kevin V. “The State Arts Agency: An Overview of Cultural Federalism in the United States.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 32, no. 1 (2002): 67–80.

Murphy, Thomas P. “Internships and the Professionalization of Arts Administration.” Performing Arts Review 7, no. 3 (July 1, 1977): 328–55. doi:10.1080/00315249.1977.9943419.

O’Neill, Michael. Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America. John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
Powell, Walter W., and Richard Steinberg. The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook. Yale University Press, 2006.

Salamon, Lester M. “The Nonprofit Sector at a Crossroads: The Case of America.” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 10, no. 1 (March 1999): 5–23. doi:10.1023/A:1021435602742.

Toepler, Stefan, and Annette Zimmer. “The State and the Non‐profit Sector in the Provision of Arts and Culture: The Cases of Germany and the United States.” The European Journal of Cultural Policy 3, no. 2 (April 1, 1997): 289–304. doi:10.1080/10286639709358050.

Urice, John K. “The Future of the State Arts Agency Movement in the 1990s: Decline and Effect.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 22, no. 1 (March 1, 1992): 19–32. doi:10.1080/10632921.1992.9944392.

Wyszomirski, Margaret Jane. “Philanthropy, the Arts, and Public Policy.” Journal of Arts Management and Law 16, no. 4 (January 1, 1987): 5–29. doi:10.1080/07335113.1987.9943084.

Change Area 2: Broadening of the definition of “art” in the nonprofit arts establishment to be more inclusive of non-European cultural traditions, popular culture, and new artistic disciplines

Banks, Mark, David Calvey, Julia Owen, and David Russell. “Where the Art Is: Defining and Managing Creativity in New Media SMEs.” Creativity and Innovation Management 11, no. 4 (2002): 255–64.

Crowther, Paul. “Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt,” 2007. http://philpapers.org/rec/CRODAC-2.

Dewey, John. Art as Experience. Penguin, 2005. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aAbqAGo5MwwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=info:yBAdBtITDv4J:scholar.google.com&ots=XU490IwbyN&sig=pVNNzAFxgomd59nXYipzvDN1fAc.

Dutton, Denis. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, & Human Evolution. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009.http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jqb6WrXS68kC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=info:fqI-Jnj57qcJ:scholar.google.com&ots=Og4BnrMX_E&sig=273NaF3513P9kfzzOX5rUgO6H2Y.

Huber, Robert. “Defining Sculpture: Beyond the Expanded Field.” International Journal of the Arts in Society 6, no. 5 (2012). http://ija.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.85/prod.860.

Kim, Ji-Hoon. “Animating the Photographic Trace, Intersecting Phantoms with Phantasms: Contemporary Media Arts, Digital Moving Pictures, and the Documentary’s’ Expanded Field’.” Animation, 2011, 1746847711417780.

Lauter, Estella. “Re-Enfranchising Art: Feminist Interventions in the Theory of Art.” Hypatia 5, no. 2 (June 1, 1990): 91–106. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1990.tb00419.x.

Merritt, Davis. “Public Journalism-Defining a Democratic Art.” Media Studies Journal 9, no. 3 (1995): 125–32.

Rendell, Clare. “Sonia Delaunay and the Expanding Definition of Art.” Woman’s Art Journal, 1983, 35–38.

Rowe, Keri. “Elevating the Other: A Theoretical Approach to Alexander McQueen.” All Theses and Dissertations, March 1, 2015. http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4394.

Truxes, Anna. “The Art World Expanded.” The University of Utah, 2008. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=12732768178662981768&hl=en&oi=scholarr.

Wieand, Jeffrey. “Defining Art and Artifacts.” Philosophical Studies 38, no. 4 (1980): 385–89.

“Researching.” Photo by Steve Hanna

Our latest feature article, “Part of Your World,” explored the relationship between the arts and the meta-concept of wellbeing. While much of the work for this investigation occurred earlier this year, below are some new sources that we reviewed in preparation for the article.

Arts & Wellbeing Research Update

Cobb, C & Rixford C. (1998). Lessons learned from the history of social indicators. San Francisco, CA: Redefining Progress.

Dodge, R., Daly, A. P., Huyton, J., & Sanders, L. D. (2012). The challenge of defining wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(3), 222–235.

Easterlin, R. (1974). Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence. In David, P. A. & Reder, M. W. (Eds.), Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz. New York. Retrieved from http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/16/business/Easterlin1974.pdf

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.well-beingindex.com/

GDP: A Flawed Measure of Progress | New Economy Working Group. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.neweconomyworkinggroup.org/visions/living-wealth-indicators/gdp-flawed-measure-progress

Langlois, A., & Anderson, D. E. (2002). Resolving the Quality of Life/Well-being Puzzle: Toward a New Model. Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 25(3), 501–512.

Noll, H. (2004). Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research: Background, Achievements and Current Trends. In N. Genov (Ed.), Advances in Sociological Knowledge (pp. 151–181). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

The Hangzhou Declaration: Placing Culture at the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies. (2013). Presented at the Hangzhou International Conference China. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/images/FinalHangzhouDeclaration20130517.pdf

The Story of GNH | GNH Centre Bhutan. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org/what-is-gnh/the-story-of-gnh/

Follow-Up Research on “Why Don’t They Come?” Update

Our research on the arts and wellbeing has led us in some interesting directions. After an initial scan and review of the literature on television, wellbeing, and the arts, we are drawing some initial conclusions about how television impacts health and subjective wellbeing. Our findings thus far include strong evidence that television is associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes, and not just because of sedentary behavior. Some researchers have suggested that the content of television that people watch and the behavior or mindsets it inspires might contribute to poor health.

The association between television and subjective wellbeing is a bit murkier. Researchers have pointed out that findings related to subjective wellbeing may seem counterintuitive because they don’t quite correlate with what you might expect to be significant drivers of wellbeing like income or health, which means that even though television might create poor health, it does not necessarily create poor subjective wellbeing. We can say with confidence that people tend to rate television relatively low compared to other activities, and that because it occupies such a significant portion of free time, television does tend to “crowd out” other, more satisfying activities. The overall effect on subjective wellbeing, however, remains somewhat unclear.

In the coming month, we plan to look more closely at our research questions related to the drivers of watching television vs. attending arts events among economically disadvantaged people. We will look at the degree to which this group is making a conscious choice to substitute television for attending arts events and will seek to better understand the lower interest in arts event attendance through market research analyses and interviews.

The articles and reports that we’ve read this month include:

Bruni, L., & Stanca, L. (2008). Watching Alone: Relational goods, television, and happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 65(3-4), 506–528. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268106002095

Cardwell, S. (2014). Television Amongst Friends: Medium, Art, Media. Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 9(3), 6–21. Retrieved from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/manup/cstv/2014/00000009/00000003/art00002

Dempsey, P., Howard, B., Lynch, B., Owen, N., & Dunstan, D. W. (2014). Associations of television viewing time with adults’ well-being and vitality. Preventative Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25230366

Guetzkow, J. (2002). How the Arts Impact Communities: An Introduction to the Literature on Arts Impact Studies (No. 20). Taking the Measure of Culture Conference: Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/~artspol/workpap/WP20%20-%20Guetzkow.pdf

Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2006). Would You Be Happier if You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion. Science, 312(5782), 1908–1910. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/312/5782/1908.short

Kataria, M., & Regner, T. (2011). A Note on the Relationship Between Television Viewing and Individual Happiness. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 40(1), 53–58. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535710000892

Muennig, P., Rosen, Z., & Johnson, G. (2013). Do the Psychological Risks Associated with Television Viewing Increase Mortality? Evidence from the 2008 General Social Survey – National Death Index dataset. Annals of Epidemiology, 23(6), 355–360. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662979/

Robinson, J. P., & Martin, S. (2008). What do Happy People Do? Social Indicators Research, 89(3), 565–571. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11205-008-9296-6

Schneider, L. (2013). A Note on Income Aspirations, Television, and Happiness. Kyklos, 66(2), 301–305. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/kykl.12022/abstract

Uslaner, E. M. (1998). Social Capital, Television, and the “Mean World”: Trust, Optimism, and Civic Participation. Political Psychology, 19(3), 441–467. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3792173

Wheeler, K. S. (2015). The relationships Between Television Viewing, Behaviors, Attachment, Loneliness, Depression, and Psychological Well-Being (Undergraduate Honors Thesis). Georgia Southern University, Georgia. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/honors-theses/98/

World Health Organization. (2012). Social Determinants of Health and Well-Being Among Young People. Retrieved from http://www.hbsc.unito.it/it/images/pdf/hbsc/prelims-part1.pdf

Meanwhile, because of our recent focus on our investigation of wellbeing and the arts, we have been mostly in the research planning phase of our investigation into the history of change in the arts ecosystem.

History of Change in the Arts Ecosystem Research Update

Having identified three areas of the arts ecosystem that have experienced major changes over the past 50 years, we’ve assigned one member of our research team to conduct the initial bibliographic research in each area. Katie will be exploring the expansion of the nonprofit arts infrastructure, Fari will investigate the broadening of the definition of “art” in the nonprofit arts establishment, and John will be looking for literature on the impact that new technologies have had on both nonprofit and for-profit forms of expression.

To get an initial sense of the literature, we’re going to search Google Scholar and JSTOR, and add literature to our Zotero library based purely on titles and abstracts. In doing so, we’re going to keep track of the search terms we’ve used, monitor the time we’ve spent on each database, and make note of general observations.

After that we’ll discuss what additional research may be necessary. This might include searching additional databases (EBSCO Host, ProQuest Dissertations and Abstracts, ProQuest News and Newspapers, discipline specific databases), searches for books (Academic Library catalogs, WorldCat, Google Books), or specific academic journals that we should review. Alternatively, we might start pulling some of the literature and checking out the works they reference in their bibliographies.

“Maslow’s Real Hierarchy” by Mike Kline

Note: Createquity’s original definition of a healthy arts ecosystem included references to self-actualization as one of the benefits of the arts. We weren’t sure about how self-actualization and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs were viewed in the research field, however, so we conducted a bit of due diligence to come to a stronger understanding. This work eventually led us to a large body of research on wellbeing, about which we published a feature article in August 2015.

These initial research reports were completed in 2014 by members of the Createquity editorial team. They are intended to give a sense of our (very) preliminary thoughts on the topic in question. We welcome discussion and debate. – IDM

A bit about our process

Rather than generating specific hypotheses regarding the relationship between self-actualization and the arts, we did a scan of existing literature on self-actualization, wellbeing, and identity to get a rough sense of possible answers to the following questions:

• How seriously do psychologists and social theorists take self-actualization today?
• If it does have currency today, does self-actualization have a generally accepted scientific meaning and if so, what is that meaning?
• What is the relationship between self-actualization and more “basic” needs? Is it possible to reach self-actualization without other needs having been met first?

After doing a preliminary “data dump” into Zotero, compiling articles and reports on Maslow’s theory of self-actualization and alternate theories, we paused to determine the best way to move forward. Falling down the rabbit hole of “Was Maslow right or not?” was tempting, but we decided to expand beyond self-actualization specifically while refocusing our energies in two broad areas: examining literature related to the arts and psychological wellbeing, and literature related to the arts and identity. We also each read a handful of articles that emerged during our initial scan and seemed to be particularly relevant.

Extent to which existing research addresses our research questions, and extent to which there seem to be areas of consensus and debate

We found a lot of literature on Maslow’s theory of self-actualization and its application to a range of disciplines (i.e. management theory, mental health). As noted above, whether or not Maslow was “correct” is still hotly contested. Wahba and Bridwell’s literature review of research on Maslow concludes that his theory has been generally disproven. That review, however, focused on research inside the workplace. Another seminal report, Tay and Diener’s “Needs and Subjective Well Being Around the World,” found there are specific categories of need that are consistent across cultures, and there is some suggestion of a needs “hierarchy” that is more fluid than Maslow suggested. They did not explicitly mention self-actualization in their survey, choosing instead of examine individuals’ feelings of mastery/pride in work, self-direction, and autonomy. However, in speaking about the study, one of its authors did refer to self-actualization, noting, “An important departure from Maslow’s theory is that we found that a person can report having good social relationships and self-actualization even if their basic needs and safety needs are not completely fulfilled.”

In short,  while the term continues to be bandied about with some regularity, there does not appear to be one agreed-upon definition of self-actualization and there is a lack of empirical support for Maslow’s hierarchy. In popular literature, Maslow’s pyramid is referred to “quaint and old-fashioned and badly in need of updating.” There is also another, more philosophical critique of the self-actualization idea that questions Maslow’s assumption of there being a stable Self that merely needs to be “actualized.” We didn’t find studies that directly take Maslow to task for this (and we may be  exaggerating his essentialism as we haven’t read his work ourselves), but it seems inherent in the way that postmodern theorists and identity studies scholars talk about identity formation.  From our vantage points as neophytes in psychological research, however, it appears that the concept of self-actualization has been folded into broader discussions of psychic wellbeing, and may be the cornerstone of the burgeoning field of “positive psychology,” which studies the conditions that make people happy as opposed to the conditions/symptoms of psychological distress.

Lacking an agreed-upon definition of what self-actualization is and how it can be achieved, we had difficulty moving forward on the majority of our other research questions. However, we did find a few tidbits here and there.  A rough summary of  questions and relevant notes follows:

• What is the relationship between self-actualization and overall life satisfaction? Have there been any studies looking at both?
  • A 2004 study by Vitterso argues that self-actualization and subjective wellbeing are two separate things. The author cites a lot of literature in outlining the two concepts. Interestingly, Vitterso doesn’t cite Maslow on self-actualization and indeed we’re not sure how closely Vitterso’s use of the term resonates with Maslow (Vitterso certainly isn’t interested in the hierarchy of needs). For Vitterso, SWB is a form of happiness that is related to “being” while self-actualization is related to “doing.” Without reading up on the literature that Vitterso cites, we can’t tell how/if “self-actualization” differs from a more general sense of “personal development.” Vitterso’s use of the term certainly seems to imply that its the process of self-actualization that is important (i.e. that makes people happy) rather than being self-actualized.  Vitterso concludes that “that traditional measurements of SWB are insensitive to important aspects of human lives, and that the concept misses important aspects of psychological well-being.”
  • Tay and Diener’s international survey of subjective wellbeing doesn’t mention self-actualization at all, but instead uses terms of self-direction and autonomy.

• What is the relationship between self-actualization and more “basic” needs? Is it possible to reach self-actualization without other needs having been met first?
  • From article on “Renovating the pyramid of needs”: The researchers state in the article that while self-actualization is interesting and important, it isn’t an evolutionarily fundamental need. Instead, many of the activities that Maslow labeled as self-actualizing (artistic creativity, for example) reflect more biologically basic drives to gain status, which in turn serves the goal of attracting mates.
  • Tay and Diener found that while there is some evidence of a consistent hierarchy across countries, it is indeed possible to fulfill “higher” needs first — i.e. to report strong social relationships and feelings of love and belonging without necessarily having all basic needs secured.

• How do scholars who specialize in self-actualization see the arts fitting in? What are examples of other pathways to self-actualization that don’t involve the arts
  • There doesn’t seem to be much research that addresses this specifically. (We found a few articles that purport to look at the relationship between a specific art form and self-actualization, but they did not not appear to be robust studies.) The closest parallel might be Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of “flow,” which is frequently brought up in discussion of creativity and education. Flow is not specific to the arts, however; it can be achieved through any individual activity provided that activity triggers the right combination of passion and challenge in a given person.

• Do we have any idea how many people are self-actualized, whatever that means? How would one go about estimating this?
  • If the initial scan of the Vitterso study is correct, self-actualization doesn’t refer to a state which some people have reached and others haven’t, it refers to the a person’s relationship to a particular task/experience. Vitterso cites the theory of “flow” experiences which roughly states that people are most happy when they are challenged but able to fulfill the task.

Where do we go from here?

Unless we want to come up with our own definition of the term, self-actualization may be a dead end. However, further investigation of how psychologists and other researchers characterize subjective wellbeing, and the relationship between SWB and autonomy and creativity may be warranted. It may also be worth looking into how SWB manifests across communities, not just individuals — one critique of Maslow’s pyramid is that it is oriented to an individual’s experience at the expense of collective experience. Arts engagement cultivates both, and Tay and Diener’s work touches on how the attributes of a specific country or community can influence the likelihood of individuals reporting higher SWB.