Slover Linett is a research firm for cultural and educational institutions.

We help universities, museums, and arts organizations understand their audiences so they can connect to more people, more deeply. First time visiting? Start here »

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April 27, 2012

Irvine Foundation Selects Slover Linett to Review Arts Innovation Fund

 » The James Irvine Foundation, a leading California philanthropy, has engaged Slover Linett to conduct a review of one of its key funding programs for cultural organizations, the Arts Innovation Fund. Our team, which includes consultants Nick Rabkin and Laura Samson, will be interviewing grantees about their experiences with the program and talking with other arts leaders in California and elsewhere about adaptive change in the nonprofit arts sector.  More »
April 09, 2012

Job Opening for Higher Education Researcher

 » As the general election gears up, we’re all hearing that small businesses are the real job creators. We at Slover Linett are trying to do our part, this time by creating a new, mid-to-senior position on the higher education side of our practice. Know any great research professionals who live and breathe the college and university worlds? More »
March 01, 2012

Melissa Reeves to Manage Slover Linett Chicago Office

 » We’re pleased to welcome Melissa Reeves to the firm as our office manager. A multi-talented individual, Melissa has degrees in acting and creative writing and experience in higher education management. So she’s a natural fit at Slover Linett, and we’re delighted to have her on the team. More »
February 29, 2012

Hayward and Lee to Offer Workshop at AIR Conference in June

 » To help higher ed professionals broaden their research skills, vice president Bill Hayward and associate Anne Lee will lead a pre-conference workshop at the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) 2012 annual conference in New Orleans. Their half-day workshop will introduce IR professionals to qualitative research methods that can complement and extend the insights gained through traditional survey research. More »
February 28, 2012

Dr. Rachelle L. Brooks Joins Higher Education Team

 » We’re pleased to announce that Rachelle Brooks, who has been affiliated with Slover Linett as a research fellow since 2010, has joined the firm as senior associate for higher education. Dr. Brooks will direct research and assessment studies for our college and university clients, creating new knowledge about outcomes, experiences, and needs across the student life cycle — prospects, enrolled students, and alumni. More »
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Blog

May 02, 2012 | Peter

Alan Alda warms up science communication with the Flame Challenge

 » How would you explain flame — what is it? what’s going on in there? — to an 11 year old? I grew up watching Alda play an army doctor on M*A*S*H, but his acting and PBS interviewing work have led him to some real-world questions about how science is conveyed to us laymen. In partnership with Stony Brook University, where Alda teaches scientists how to improvise and “be more authentically themselves” with the public, he has organized a contest for scientists and anyone else who wants to enter. Submissions are now being judged...by an 11 year old near you. More »
April 20, 2012 | Peter

Universities amp up the arts. But who’s helping whom?

 » The arts on campuses seem to be entering a period of unprecedented investment and attention, with ‘arts districts’ and strategic initiatives and a new profile even at institutions famous for cultivating the other regions of the brain. Maybe it’s no coincidence that this comes at a time when the value and relevance of higher education and the value and relevance of the traditional arts (especially to young people) are being challenged  from all directions. More »
April 10, 2012 | Melissa

Happy Arts Advocacy Day! Go bake a cake

 » Whether you know it or not, your life is affected by some form of art in every waking minute of every day. Architects design the buildings in which you live and work; graphic designers create the signs that guide you and the logos that bombard you; writers create the sitcoms and dramas that make you cry with laughter or just plain cry; chefs create the meals that look so good you almost don’t want to eat them (and the desserts you don’t have room for but you eat anyway). So, who needs Arts Advocacy Day? You do. More »
April 06, 2012 | Peter

Do cultural institutions tell stories? A new bestseller gets me thinking

 » The rise of live storytelling in recent years is remarkable, both for its bottom-up, scrappy scene (headquartered in Brooklyn, of course) and its rehabilitation of a historical form of entertainment and conviviality. A few storytelling events are held at museums, but that’s not the same as museums telling stories in their own exhibitions or programs. A new hiking memoir, of all things, just reminded me what the recipe has always been. More »
March 31, 2012 | Peter

Good research isn’t about asking audiences what they want

 » There’s been a thoughtful discussion lately about whether arts organizations are leading or following their audiences, which they ought to be doing, and whether the two are actually opposites. But a sour note can be heard in that chorus on both sides of the debate: the idea that audience research is a tool for pandering. (Cue the Steve Jobs quote about consumers not knowing what they want.) There’s a better way to think about this. More »
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How can you frame your brand in terms they care about?

One of our university clients wanted to articulate a unified message that would resonate with all the minds that matter: faculty, students, prospects, and alumni. We conducted interlocking focus groups, surveys, and interviews, the results of which helped the leadership team link what they thought was wonderful about the school to what their stakeholders and audiences valued. Call it empathetic branding. It’s the best way to be sure your message is both well-differentiated and emotionally powerful. And it starts with deep-dive research.

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