Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (ICPSR 36540)

Principal Investigator(s):
Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University School of Education; College of Fine Arts, The University of Texas at Austin; College of Fine & Applied Arts, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Arts + Design Alumni Research, dba SNAAP

This is an external resource to which ICPSR links as a courtesy. These data are not available from ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via Strategic National Arts Alumni Project ) directly for details on obtaining these resources.

Slide tabs to view more

Alternate Title

SNAAP

Summary

For over a decade, the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) has gathered, analyzed, and reported on survey data from arts and design graduates of degree-granting, postsecondary institutions to understand the professional experiences, educational satisfaction, and personal fulfillment of these alumni.

These data have informed scholarly insights about many topics including needs for expanded curricula; the value of paid internships and other co-curricular pursuits; inequalities in arts training and careers; and entrepreneurial traits of artists. In addition, data gathered through SNAAP assists government entities, funding organizations, and arts leaders in making investment decisions in education, training, and resource allocation.

The SNAAP website offers publicly available reports and presentations on the SNAAP survey and insights its data offer. The first national SNAAP survey administration occurred in fall 2011 and was repeated in 2012 and 2013, creating a database of nearly 100,000 respondents. SNAAP's second three-year cycle took place in 2015, 2016, and 2017. The latest SNAAP survey was administered in 2022 and incorporated notable updates to its sampling and questionnaire. Over 61,000 alumni responded to SNAAP's 2022 survey administration, resulting in nearly 300,000 alumni responding since SNAAP's inception. Technical documentation for the 2022 survey administration is slated for public release in late 2023.

Citations for data from earlier survey administrations:

Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (2017). SNAAP 2015, 2016, and 2017 Combined Data. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.

Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (2013). SNAAP 2011, 2012, and 2013 Combined Data. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.

Subject Terms

Hide

Data Collection Notes

  1. SNAAP's 2022 survey administration was made possible through support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. SNAAP is also sustained by revenue from participating schools which provides its core support. These funds are supplemented by public and private grants for specific research initiatives.

  2. SNAAP data are made available to qualified researchers on approved request. SNAAP data from years 2011-2013, 2015-2017, and prior years of pilot data are housed at Indiana University, Center for Postsecondary Research, and are currently accessible via a formal data-sharing agreement with the institution. Under participation agreements with institutions that fielded the SNAAP survey during these years, data that identify individual institutions or individuals cannot be shared. Open-text responses to questions are not shared because they risk identifying alumni or institutions. The data-sharing process typically takes between six weeks to four months. Additionally, a fee may be requested to offset the time that SNAAP analysts will need to prepare the data for transmission. Please contact info@snaaparts.org for information about accessing data from 2007 through 2017.

    SNAAP data from 2022 are housed at The University of Texas at Austin; SNAAP aims to make data from the fall 2022 survey available by approved request in 2025. Starting in 2025, contact info@snaaparts.org to inquire about access to the SNAAP 2022 survey data.

  3. More details about the funding history for SNAAP can be found here.

    For more information, contact SNAAP here.

Hide

Study Purpose

The mission of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) is to maximize the success and impact of creatives in society by driving evidence-informed change in training and illuminating the value of arts and design education.

The purpose of SNAAP's national survey is to gather information to benefit arts training institutions, policymakers, and arts stakeholders, as well as parents and students considering intensive arts training and provide a national profile of how arts alumni prepare for and fare in their careers and lives.

Study Design

SNAAP administers a web-based survey that collects data from alumni through questions that make use of drop-down menus, checkboxes, and open-ended text box questions. Institutions that choose to participate provide alumni data to SNAAP through a secure interface, and alumni receive a personalized invitation (sent by SNAAP) from their institution to participate in the study. The Informed Consent Statement is presented as the first page of the survey with the option to decline.

Sample

Survey administrations in the years 2011-2013 and 2015-2017 used convenience sampling of alumni of arts magnet high schools and post-secondary institutions that chose to participate in the survey.

For the 2022 survey administration, a sampling frame was developed from the National Center for Educational Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and probabilistic sampling methods were implemented. Arts high schools were not included in the 2022 survey. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Grant #1891787-38-22), technical documentation for the 2022 survey administration will be publicly released.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend / Repeated Cross-section

Universe

Former arts and design students and alumni of degree-awarding institutions.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual, arts program

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Hide