Slover Linett's e-newsletter about audiences, arts, culture, and education

 

This month, Cheryl Slover-Linett was in San Francisco presenting findings from our second annual study of how colleges and universities are using social media. From the buzz about the presentation and our report, it’s clear that nonprofit marketing, fundraising, and education professionals are eager for benchmarks and insights from peers about how to make the best use of these powerful social communication tools.

We found that institutions see the greatest success with their social media initiatives when they have policies and goals in place; enjoy broad support across the organization; leverage in-house expertise; and go beyond the obvious (i.e., Facebook) to connect with their constituents. Check out the news item below for links to the presentation and an upcoming opportunity to hear the results in person.

Speaking of new uses of social technologies, we recently began working with two new Seattle arts organizations, Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and On the Boards, to evaluate their innovative online initiatives for teens and contemporary performance fans, respectively.

And social media's role in the arts experience was the hot topic at Culturelab 2011, the second annual "emerging practice seminar" led by a small consortium of international arts consultants (including our partners Peter Linett and Cheryl Slover-Linett). For a recap of the discussion, see our most recent blog post.

It's not all social media, of course. We're thrilled to announce new engagements with two leading research universities: studies on aspects of the undergraduate experience at Columbia University in New York (see news item below) and Johns Hopkins University (stay tuned to our news feed for details).

Will you be in Houston this month for the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums? If so, be sure to say hello to Peter Linett and Sarah Lee, who look forward to some old fashioned, non-virtual time with colleagues. (And don't miss the panels they’ll be leading!)

— The Slover Linett team
 

What's New?
April 28, 2011

Two New Seattle Arts Clients

We’re proud to welcome the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and On the Boards to the Slover Linett client family. Our research for both of these Seattle-based organizations is supported by grants from the Wallace Foundation. Using quantitative research methods, we'll evaluate technology initiatives that each organization is using to engage its audiences more deeply. More »
April 27, 2011

Columbia University’s Division of Student Affairs Turns to Slover Linett for Student Research

The Division of Student Affairs at New York City’s Ivy League school has selected Slover Linett to conduct a study of the experience of undergraduate students enrolled in Columbia College and The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The research, which is being commissioned for the Center for Student Advising, will look at how Columbia can provide students with the guidance and support to pursue their passions. More »
April 25, 2011

Meet us in Houston at the Museums Conference

Partner Peter Linett and senior associate for museums Sarah Lee will be in Houston next month for the American Association of Museums annual meeting. Linett will chair a session on engaging visitors behind the scenes at museums, and Lee will chair a session on integrating the different types of audience research that museums do. More »
April 22, 2011

Cheryl Slover-Linett Gives Co-Keynote Talk on Social Media in Higher Ed

Slover-Linett, the firm’s president, was in San Francisco last week for the annual CASE Social Media & Community conference. She and Michael Stoner co-presented findings from our second annual survey of how colleges and universities use social media tools to create and cultivate relationships with prospects, students, and alumni. More »

Blog
May 01, 2011

Technology and its discontents in the arts — The Culturelab dust settles

My brain is still buzzing from two days of presentations, conversation, and debate at the second annual Culturelab convening at the University of Chicago. Day One was an invitational affair with a small group of philanthropic and government funders from the US, UK, and Australia. On Day Two we were joined by Chicago-area arts leaders (and some terrific grad students who will become arts leaders) for an "emerging practice" seminar. The heart of the agenda was a debate about technological layering onto arts experiences: enrichment or distraction? More »
April 18, 2011

More on supply and demand: The arts need a definition that’s not negative

In my last post, I wrote that the supply and demand debate that’s still simmering in the arts has raised fundamental questions about what we mean by “the arts.” In fact, these days every conversation in the arts field, from how to measure impact and how to harness the participatory energy to what kinds of facilities we should be building, seems to lead back to those questions. The arts are in a definitional crisis. And that’s a good thing. More »
April 15, 2011

The arts debate du jour is about supply and demand. But of what?

Unless you’ve been vacationing on Saturn’s moon Titan, you’ve probably heard about the flap over NEA chairman Rocco Landesman’s suggestion, at a conference back in January, that since nonprofit theaters (and by extension the rest of the arts) can’t expect to build demand, they’d better start thinking about reducing supply. Some sharp questions have been raised in the ensuing debate, and they’re on my mind because I’ve been asked to talk about demand-building at a symposium later this month. More »
April 04, 2011

Idiosyncrasy in museum design, an endangered species?

Finally, a NY Times museum article that even a progressive can love. Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sees the Barnes Foundation’s move to a new building on Philadelphia’s museum mile as the last nail in the coffin of eccentricity in the American art museum. To which I would add: it ain’t just the art museums. More »
April 01, 2011

Guest blogger: Clayton Smith on the life of the (social media) party

Articles and blog posts about social media in the arts and higher ed are so ubiquitous that I wasn’t looking to add to the din. But I’ve been impressed with an arts marketer here in Chicago named Clayton Smith, and when I heard him muse about some of the things nonprofits often get wrong in the social web, I asked him to write a post. More »

Slover Linett is a research & assessment firm for higher education and the cultural sector. From universities to art museums, dance companies to zoos, we help institutions become more successful by understanding their audiences. We do it through rigorous research and evaluation...More »

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