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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
A major national research initiative about how Americans have been connecting to culture, creativity and community
Our pandemic-era research collaboration with Culture Track® and Yancey Consulting has been all about equity and transformation. Read the reports from our 2021 phases: “A Place to Be Heard,” which centers Black voices, and “Rethinking Relevance,” findings from a large-scale national survey...
READ MOREThe Building Blocks of Welcome: Lessons Learned from Interviews with Black and Latinx Theatergoers for Signature Theatre
By Emily Bray & Jen Benoit-Bryan In early 2021, the Signature Theatre in NYC shared that they wanted to learn about the experiences of Black and Latinx audiences in their theater around welcome and belonging with the goal of making the theater a more...
READ MOREA toolkit for DIY audience surveying, 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 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
A few days ago I shared a point on LinkedIn that has gotten a fair amount of affirmation and attention (at least, by my humble standards). So I thought I’d share it here, along with a few of the comments…
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We’re full of mixed emotions today as we share the news that Jen Benoit-Bryan, Slover Linett’s president, will be moving on to a wonderful new position…
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As we shared in our March newsletter, some project milestones in our community research work around arts & culture sector, all in the hope of advancing equity.
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Madeline Smith’s career at Slover Linett is unique in the range of roles she’s held and the depth of experience she’s gained across eight pivotal years with us. So I’m delighted to announce her well-earned promotion to vice president. As VP, Madeline will continue to direct projects and will join the firm’s management circle…
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Riffing on a point made by Kyle Bowen of Museums as Progress, some thoughts about how cultural organizations can see their communities not just in terms of needs — the holes and gaps in the latticework — but in terms of assets: the connective tissue of place, relationships, creativity, culture, history, and vision that that holds the whole thing together…
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A few weeks ago I was in DC for a gathering of a hundred or so leaders from around the museum field, organized by the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services. I’d been invited to join a keynote conversation with IMLS’s director, Crosby Kemper, and Zannie Voss, director of SMU DataArts. Here are a few thoughts and observations from those two days…
READ MORELatest Tweets
Great to hear that this resonates across the pond... Thank you, Roger!
Peter Linett @SloverLinett makes telling points about working with communities: make them a full partner, see their assets as well as needs, help them achieve their goals: https://sloverlinett.com/news-notes/community-as-full-partner-in-the-inquiry/
Big, bittersweet news for us: @jenbenoitbryan will be stepping down from her role as president to become dir. of #research at @SMUDataArts and a prof. @smumeadows School of the #Arts.
We're always thrilled for colleagues who go on to amazing things... 1/2
Special staffing announcement: An evolution in our leadership | Slover Linett
News post announcing that Slover Linett’s president, Jen Benoit-Bryan, PhD, is stepping down from her position t...
sloverlinett.com
...but we're sad to be losing Jen as a leader, mentor, coach, and co-creator here.
Stay tuned for some personal reflections from Jen and @plinett in the coming weeks.
#congratulations! #artsresearch #culturalpolicy #museums
Yep, along with what I learned about the soon-to-be-announced President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities, research as advocacy (for change, not the status quo!), and more.
Would love to hear your thoughts, whether or not you were at this gathering in DC.
@PLinett's four takeaways from a recent #museumleadership gathering in DC, including:
What happens when "large museums and arts institutions are now being funded generously to do the kinds of community work that smaller and culturally specific organizations have long done..."? https://twitter.com/PLinett/status/1640389711809376256
All the attention now being paid to #arts orgs & #museums of color is because community purposes & identities are their founding principles; they didn’t come fashionably late to those, like many large, predominantly white #cultural institutions.
New post:
Four takeaways from the IMLS museum leadership gathering | Slover Linett
A few reflections by Peter Linett from the recent IMLS convening, Museum Leadership in Dynamic Times, held in Washington, DC in March 2023.
sloverlinett.com
Yes. Language can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
#artsequity #artsequity #culturalsector
Can we stop calling our largest #museums & #arts institutions "flagship" and smaller-budget, community-based organizations "scrappy"? Given inequities in #philanthropy and the power of language to shape policy, those terms perpetuate the status quo and keep small orgs small.
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Can we stop calling our largest #museums & #arts institutions "flagship" and smaller-budget, community-based organizations "scrappy"? Given inequities in #philanthropy and the power of language to shape policy, those terms perpetuate the status quo and keep small orgs small.
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Talking about this otherwise great piece by Brett Sokol about Alberto Ibarguen's transformative tenure at @knightfdn. His inclusive vision will leave a hole.
But great to see @swampspace & other #communityarts innovators shouted out here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/arts/design/alberto-ibarguen-retiring-knight-foundation.html
And @museumprogress, this was sparked by your post that @PLinett's riffing on - thanks for the smart provocation!
https://museumprogress.com/letters/do-museums-need-to-stop-trying-to-meet-community-needs