With a lot of pride and more than a little shock, I’m happy to report that this year we’re celebrating 20 years of partnering with cultural organizations to help them understand their audiences and communities.

Back in the late ’90s, when I left my brand management position at United Airlines, I decided to do some consulting while I figured out my next career move. My first client was the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, which you might imagine would have plenty of quantitative research and analysis chops in house—but they wanted an independent researcher to dig into some tricky questions.

Then, in 1999, I started working with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Peter joined me fresh from his graduate work in philosophy of art, bringing complementary skills and questions. Neither of us could’ve imagined that our work with the CSO would be the start of a national consulting practice in the arts and culture sector, one which, over the next two decades, would involve 30+ academic and professional researchers and serve 150+ nonprofit organizations and foundations.

It’s been a fun, fast journey in the company of terrific people. As 2019 begins, we’re concocting plans to celebrate this milestone throughout the year. Stay tuned, and we hope you’ll join the festivities!