Hi all, Our colleagues at Slover Linett Audience Research and LaPlaca Cohen have recently announced that they'll be conducting a national study of arts & culture audiences during this time of crisis due to COVID-19. The survey organizers want to be inclusive of the nation, not just urban areas, so as to help policy makers understand the impact of COVID on culture participants. SITES will be sending information about this survey to organizations that have hosted SITES or MoMS exhibitions in recent years. I wanted to bring it to your attention and give some context to the email that you and your MoMS host organizations will be receiving later today. The project asks cultural organizations to send the survey link to their members and visitors (i.e. to use their mailing list to send the survey broadly). The survey will be sent to participating organizations on Monday, April 27 asking that emails be sent to their visitors on Wednesday, April 29. Because the impact of COVID is rapidly changing, they want everyone to complete the survey within one week. There will be follow up surveys for those who want to participate so they can track change over time. If you want to send information about this survey to other cultural organizations in your state, please feel free to do so. Slover Linett Audience Research has been surveying and studying cultural participants for a long time and are highly credible. The advantage to the organizations that participate is that they will receive data about their participants as well as data about the nation. In this time of a new normal, this information could be incredibly useful. They'll be exploring a range of urgent questions about the place and future of the arts and culture in the hearts, minds, families, and social lives of Americans during these strange times and in the "new normal" that follows with lead funding from the Wallace Foundation, additional support from Art Bridges and FocusVision, and in collaboration with terrific researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago, Advisory Board for the Arts, Wilkening Consulting, and a core group of advisors,. The study will include two key samples: a representative sample of the U.S. population (via NORC's Amerispeak panel) and the audiences of cultural organizations of all sizes and kinds across the country. So far, there are more than 150 cultural organizations in 20+ states who have signed on for the project offering to include their audiences - visitors, ticket buyers, event attenders, subscribers, members, etc. - in the study. That's a huge collective start, but they're looking for greater representation and range, and they've reached out to us at the Smithsonian to help create a fuller national picture by sharing the opportunity for participation with you. There is no cost to organizations to be part of this national collaboration, and participants will be able to securely log in to view their own audience's survey responses as well as the aggregate findings. To learn more about the study, check out this post from Slover Linett about the project<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsloverlinett.com%2Fnews-notes%2Fspecial-announcement-a-national-audience-community-study-for-covid-resilience%2F&data=02%7C01%7CSpringuelM%40si.edu%7C2d48a21e8d86456e178408d7e480334d%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637229111592563551&sdata=S30ZP%2BZu30mBxUn%2Bhlq3LFg8%2BIaQ7AtUqz0iab0qXv0%3D&reserved=0> and if you're interested in participating, start with this set of FAQs<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fculturetrack.com%2Fcovidstudy%2F&data=02%7C01%7CSpringuelM%40si.edu%7C2d48a21e8d86456e178408d7e480334d%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637229111592563551&sdata=v4r2ydDVsqut9%2FHLvoVVDkfffmlBtq6ZVQ28LbM9XGU%3D&reserved=0> for interested organizations (with next steps for signing up at the bottom). Thank you for your attention to this time-sensitive information. With kind regards, Carol