Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.

"The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) is an online survey, data management, and institutional improvement system designed to enhance the impact of an arts school education.1 In 2015, SNAAP developed a Topical Module with in-depth questions about arts entrepreneurship and career skills. Career skills are increasingly regarded as a crucial element of higher education, and researchers have noted the importance of such skills in assuring successful post-college career outcomes. For example, students who report using schools’ career resources are less likely to work in unskilled occupations after graduation (Arum & Roksa, 2014). Reflecting this topic’s importance, the module was selected and appended to the core SNAAP questionnaire by 50 out of 53 (94%) of the participating institutions. Over 30,000 arts alumni of all ages with undergraduate or graduate level degrees responded to the questions, creating a rich database of information. For this report, Canadian and certain other institutions were excluded from analysis due to nonstandard administrations. For this “norms” group, over 26,200 alumni from 43 institutions responded." [Introduction, p.3]

"Career skills are increasingly regarded as a crucial element of higher education, and researchers have noted the importance of such skills in assuring successful post-college career outcomes. For example, students who report using schools’ career resources are less likely to work in unskilled occupations after graduation (Arum & Roksa, 2014). Reflecting this topic’s importance, the module was selected and appended to the core SNAAP questionnaire by 50 out of 53 (94%) of the participating institutions. Over 30,000 arts alumni of all ages with undergraduate or graduate level degrees responded to the questions, creating a rich database of information." [Introduction, p.3]

Report
Skaggs, Rachel
27
January, 2017
Publisher Reference: 
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project
Research Abstract
Image Thumbnail of Pub Cover: 
2017