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relevance
connections
support
friends
fans
participation
moments
insight
transformation
vitality
action
loyalty
experiences
impacts
success
engagement
innovation
equity
power
places
social change
revelation
inclusion
passion
meaning
progress
community.
We’re a social research firm for the cultural sector.
We use rigorous research & evaluation methods to shine new light on how people connect to the arts, museums, media, science, stories, ideas, creativity, and community. And how they could connect.
Explore the links below, or scroll down to see what we’re up to lately.
The research has the capacity to be transformational for the O’Keeffe Museum. Slover Linett took the time to listen, understand our needs, and integrate their work with another consultant team… As a result, the staff is eager to develop and implement experimental programs to attract and retain new audiences. Peter and his team are not only experts in audience research; they are experienced, thoughtful, and sophisticated partners who are willing to think with my team.”
Featured Projects
New, free toolkit for DIY audience surveys, with OF/BY/FOR ALL
We're right there with community innovator Nina Simon when she says, "Collecting good demographic data can help you smash stereotypes. It can help you make smarter strategic decisions and better programs." Well, we would believe that — we’re researchers....
READ MOREWhere is Folk Music Heading? A New Survey for Folk Alliance International
Slover Linett has done considerable research on classical music audiences and innovations over the years. But other kinds of music are also vital, evolving art-forms, with their own communities of creators and consumers. So we’ve been delighted...
READ MOREContinuing Our Inquiry with Two Wallace Foundation Arts Grantees About Audiences’ Connection to New, Unfamiliar Works
In 2019, we’ve been working again with Ballet Austin and the Goodman Theatre on related research questions: How do audiences decide to take the leap of attending dance or theater performances that they don’t know much about? Both organizations are...
READ MOREHow Can Science Connect to More Millennials? A Survey for the National Academy of Sciences
In 2018, the National Academy of Sciences closed its science museum in Washington, DC and announced a new program aimed at millennials, LabX. The LabX team engaged Slover Linett to conduct a groundbreaking national study of how science is perceived by...
READ MOREMapping the Future of the Arts at Cornell University
Slover Linett has long worked with museums and arts presenters based on college and university campuses. But until recently we hadn’t helped a major educational institution look at the big picture: What roles can the arts and creativity play in...
READ MORESupporting and studying a learning community of arts organizations in California
We’re excited to be entering the homestretch of one of our most rewarding and complex engagements: an ongoing evaluation and capacity-building project with the James Irvine Foundation and its fifteen grantee-partners in the New California Arts Fund (NCAF)...
READ MORENews & Notes
Not long ago, it wasn’t considered necessary to ask “why?” Museums, the arts, and other nonprofit cultural enterprises were an assumed good, self-evidently valuable and categorically worth participating in. Culture was an end in itself. Today, though…
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Most museum and arts professionals think of personality as something that enlivens and humanizes an organization’s brand, a flavoring to be added to the message. Few treat it as a unifying principle of experience design. Yet this last P in our framework may be the most important…
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Is marketing part of the museum or arts experience? From the audience member’s point of view, yes. The promises your organization makes in its branding and communications — explicit and implicit — do more than get people in the door (or not)…
READ MORE
What are the written and unwritten rules that shape cultural experiences? How can we use policies as a strategic instrument of experience design in cultural organizations, a tool to deepen engagement, diversify participation, and increase relevance?
READ MORE
Place is another big determinant of cultural experiences, and it has two obvious components: Geography (where in the community does the cultural experience take place? on whose turf?) and setting (what’s the envelope for the experience, and what kind of engagement does it encourage?)…
READ MORE
Welcome to the second P, which is about the “who” of a cultural experience. There are two whos, actually (with apologies to Dr. Seuss): the people who attend the cultural experience, for whom it is designed and marketed, and the people who create and staff it…
READ MORELatest Tweets
I am more and more intrigued by the arts and culture scene in Hudson Valley by the day! via @nytimesarts @SloverLinett
Review: A Nose by Any Other Name in a Hudson Valley âCyrano‘
Jason O‘Connell and Brenda Withers‘s adaptation of ”Cyrano de Bergerac” at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival asks us not ...
www.nytimes.com
"For us, it's about serving more people."
We're thrilled to see our neighborhood friends at the Old Town School of Folk Music expanding to the South Loop, providing more #access to music programs to people across Chicago.
Old Town School of Folk Music Takes Over Operations of South-Loop Music School
Old Town is taking over the business operations from Columbia College Chicago, which acquired Sherwood in 2007.
www.npr.org
#tbt to a beautiful July night under the whale at @amnh, catching a glimpse of @dave_malloy & @rachelchavkin's #MobyDickMusical.
It's always a treat to witness the development of new work, & was particularly cool to see Dave perform.
I still have that encore stuck in my head...
The @MuseeLouvre will soon be requiring advance reservations. We love that so many folks are interested in #art! But will this present another entry barrier for some people? How can institutions manage crowd-control while keeping #accessibility in mind?
https://t.co/nKAZmv2LAV
"Each point on the map is clickable, with a photo, description & sometimes a link to a story about the mural. You can zoom in to focus on a particular neighborhood or suburb."
We love this interactive map of Chicago #murals & #mosaics!
An interactive map of Chicago’s murals and mosaics
Chicago and the suburbs are home to hundreds of murals and mosaics. Take a virtual tour of the best of them here.
bit.ly
"Research across the #cultural sector shows that infrequent attenders depend even more than others on recommendations from those who are closest to them...what if there was a way to help get the word out to more people, especially to newer #audiences?"
Getting the word out: brand ambassadors to amplify word-of-mouth | Slover Linett
sloverlinett.com
Yay for libraries! Intentional design, innovative programming, tapping into the “now” to truly serve as community hubs. via @nytimes @SloverLinett
Where Libraries are the Tourist Attractions
In the past few years dozens have opened across the world, resembling nothing like the book-depot versions from the past.
www.nytimes.com
“We are shining a light on the immense artistic talent of Chicago’s young people...we celebrate this year’s #RisingStars as the artists & arts leaders of the future. They inspire other young people to take a #creative path.”
35 Young Artists Receive 2019 Rising Star Honors Presented by Allstate
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, First Lady Amy Eshleman and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) are pleased to announce the...
www.chicago.gov