2015 Local Arts Agency Census, United States (ICPSR 37041)
Version Date: Jun 1, 2018 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Americans for the Arts (Organization);
National Endowment for the Arts;
Randy I. Cohen, Americans for the Arts;
Graciela Kahn, Americans for the Arts;
Ben Davidson, Americans for the Arts
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37041.v2
Version V2 (see more versions)
Summary View help for Summary
The purpose of the 2015 Local Arts Agency (LAA) Census was to characterize the different ways that LAAs perform their vital roles in every community. LAAs share the goals of enabling diverse forms of arts and culture to thrive locally, ensuring broad accessibility to the public, and building healthier communities through the arts.
The census provides details about LAA staffing and oversight, services and programs, partnerships and collaborations in the community, grantmaking, diversity within staff/volunteers/board and diversity in programming, marketing and communications practices, arts education, services for the military, and operating revenues and expenditures, and more. For a more detailed listing of question groups, please refer to the Description of Variables below.
This study contains data from the two forms of the surveys (Full and Abbreviated--a subset of the Full survey). These surveys were distributed online to 4,377 individual Local Arts Agencies in the United States which were known to Americans for the Arts in 2015. A total of 1,127 LAAs responded to the census survey. 641 submitted the Full survey; 486 completed the Abbreviated survey. The overall response rate was 26%.
The data is contained in two separate datasets comprising results from the two surveys. The Full Survey (dataset 1) contains data from the 641 respondents who completed the long survey. The Combined Surveys (dataset 2) contains responses from both the 486 respondents of the abbreviated survey as well the corresponding 641 responses from the full survey for a total of 1,127 respondents. The rate of response from large and mid-sized LAAs was very high, while small and volunteer-driven LAAs were underrepresented in the survey respondents.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
City
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
In 2015, Americans for the Arts partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to conduct The Local Arts Agency Census, the most comprehensive survey of the local arts agency (LAA) field ever conducted. Its purpose was to characterize the diverse roles that LAAs play in ensuring the arts have a vital presence in every community. The LAA Census sheds light on the intricacies of the field, detailing how each LAA conducts its own local services and programs to enable diverse forms of arts and culture to thrive, ensure their broad accessibility to the public and build healthier communities through the arts.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The survey process was designed by a task force of local arts agency, research, and policy leaders to ensure relevance and rigor. The census was composed of both a long-form survey and a short-form survey that were sent to the 4,377 LAAs in the United States known to Americans for the Arts.
A total of 1,127 LAAs responded: 641 submitted the long-form and 486 participated via the short-form with overall response rate was 26 percent. The rate of response from large- and mid-sized LAAs was very high, while small and volunteer-driven LAAs were under-represented in the survey respondents.
The dataset from the full survey contained 1,482 variables, while the dataset from the abbreviated survey contained 79 variables. The data is contained in two separate datasets. The Full Survey (dataset 1) contains data from the 641 respondents who completed the long survey. The Combined Surveys (dataset 2) contains responses from both the 486 respondents of the abbreviated survey as well the subset of corresponding 641 responses from the full survey for a total of 1,127 respondents.
Sample View help for Sample
The Census was composed of both a Full survey and an abbreviated version (a subset of Full) survey that were sent to the 4,377 LAAs in the United States that were known in 2015 to the organization, Americans for the Arts.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
All local arts agencies across the United States known to Americans For The Arts.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Variables were grouped into sections:
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
26%
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
None
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2018-05-31
Version History View help for Version History
2018-06-01 Updated ICPSR codebooks for both data files.
2018-05-31 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.