Research: Art Works category supports research projects to analyze the value and impact of the arts in the United States

Research into the value and impact of the arts is a core function of the National Endowment for the Arts. Through accurate, relevant, and timely analyses and reports, the NEA elucidates the factors, conditions, and characteristics of the U.S. arts ecosystem and the impact of the arts on other domains of American life. To advance this work further, the NEA welcomes grant applications for projects seeking to use novel research questions and/or techniques to analyze high-quality datasets containing arts variables. The NEA encourages applicants from diverse research fields (e.g., sociology, economics, anthropology) and diverse areas of expertise, including, but not limited to, health, education, and urban and regional planning. Although applicants must be nonprofit organizations, they may partner with for-profit entities, and/or use commercial and/or administrative datasets.

Grant Program Description

Background

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.

PPLICATION CALENDAR

Category	Application Deadline	Earliest Announce- ment of Grant Award or Rejection	Earliest Beginning Date for Arts Endowment Period of Support
Research: Art Works	November 5, 2013	April 2014	May 1, 2014

You are required to use Grants.gov. See "How to Prepare and Submit an Application" for further information.

Before you apply through Grants.gov for the first time, you must be registered. Registration with Grants.gov: Is a multi-step process. Takes time; allow two weeks. Must be completed before you can submit your application.