Culture & Community in a Time of Transformation: Focus on MA aims to connect the cultural sector in Massachusetts with the experiences and needs of Massachusetts communities and audiences during the pandemic and beyond. In this report, we share highlights of the kinds of change and transformation that MA residents want to see in the arts & culture sector, building blocks for a more resilient and relevant sector, and the impacts of online and offline experiences in our cultural lives, among other themes.  This research has been generously supported by the Barr Foundation & it builds upon the national Culture & Community in a Time of Transformation study.

In this report, we highlight how Massachusetts residents are similar and different in attitudes, behaviors, and hopes for the arts and culture sector compared to the country as a whole. And there are some fascinating points of divergence between MA residents and the nation overall:

• MA residents are much more likely to rate arts and culture organizations as important compared to Americans overall (65% MA vs. 56% nationally)
• MA residents have been engaging with online arts and culture content at much higher rates than the country as a whole (74% MA vs 64% nationally)
• A year into the pandemic, nearly all (92%) of MA residents wanted to see changes among arts or culture organizations in the state (compared to 89% nationally)
• And many more – read the full report for all the details.

This research has a robust methodology with more than 8,000 responses collected from MA residents and more than 75,000 responses nationally to this Culture & Community survey conducted in April, 2021.

Cultural organizations often operate within a regional community context; therefore, we’ll also be publishing a mini region-focused report for each of nine regions across the state of Massachusetts in early 2022. Please click here to sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about that upcoming regional report release.

We’ll also be releasing a detailed national report of Culture & Community in a Time of Transformation Wave 2 findings in January 2022; you can already find a summary of key findings from that work through Culture Track.

Click here to read and download the report, and as always we welcome your thoughts.