Deeper resources. New tools. And a continuing commitment to arts & culture research that advances equity, community, and change.

Dear friends,

We’ve shared big news before about our people, our practice, and our reports. But today we have some news that’s truly transformational for us — and for our ability to inform change and amplify community voices across the arts and culture field.

We’re thrilled to announce that Slover Linett Audience Research is joining NORC at the University of Chicago, one of the largest and most respected nonprofit research organizations in the US.

As our new logo reveals, our practice will now be called Slover Linett at NORC, and our whole team has become staff members of The Bridge at NORC — the department where NORC’s own exciting research projects in arts and culture are based. (The Bridge is NORC’s connection between research and on-the-ground practice in the social sector and is home to NORC’s Center on Equity Research — a vital future partner in Slover Linett’s arts, culture, and community work.)

Our move to NORC gives us new resources, additional tools, and expert colleagues to bring to our clients, such as AmeriSpeak, NORC’s representative panel of research participants across the US; advanced statistical and population-sampling techniques; new data-visualization and mapping tools; and intersectional collaborations with researchers working in culture-adjacent areas. Together, Slover Linett and NORC will be a preeminent provider of research and evaluation about cultural engagement, and we’ll be able to offer cutting-edge insights that go deeper than either organization could have offered on its own.

If you know us well, you won’t be surprised to hear that we’ll still be dedicated to advancing equity in and through the arts and culture field. As our co-founder Peter Linett puts it:

“For years now, we’ve been learning and unlearning with our clients, partners, and funders, and we’ve been trying to use equitable social research and evaluation methods to support system-level change. It’s been a huge gift to find in NORC a team of like-minded researchers who are trying to inform similar shifts — including in their arts and culture projects. So this move is an incredible fruition of what we’ve been building toward at Slover Linett.” (Read Peter’s blog post about the merger here.)

Our vice president and director of research, Tanya Treptow, PhD, agrees. “I’m already seeing how NORC’s amazing work in other areas — health and wellness, child development, community vibrancy — can help extend our own research in exciting new directions. Together, we’ll be able to take new risks and explore new intersections where culture and the arts meet other social movements.”

Welcoming Slover Linett into its organization deepens and builds on NORC’s commitment to arts and culture research, which has been part of its portfolio for many years. NORC has led major studies for the Poetry Foundation, Irvine Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and William Penn Foundation, and its current work includes a national survey of artists with the Mellon Foundation, a study of Indigenous and community arts participation with the First Peoples Fund, and projects with other national and place-based organizations and funders.

In that new home, our full Slover Linett team will continue working with small and large organizations across the spectrum of cultural institutions, places, and producers, from museums and the performing arts to parks and public spaces, public media, science engagement, libraries, and philanthropy. And we’ll still provide customized, in-depth research and evaluation services and nuanced thought partnership that supports experimentation, relevance, and growth.

So you can rest assured that our practice will continue to serve, inform, and grow — now with an even stronger foundation and exciting new resources!

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us via hello@sloverlinett.com.