Publications

This study explores how exposure to creative coursework during one’s education can influence a variety of educational, career, and community involvement outcomes for arts alumni. Data were drawn from over 40,000 undergraduate-level arts alumni from the 2015, 2016, and 2017 administrations of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). A series of ordinary least squares and binary logistic regression models (controlling for relevant demographic characteristics) suggest that exposure to creative coursework is a significant predictor of several desirable outcomes. Specifically, the analyses suggest significant effects for exposure to creative coursework on the following: creative skills gained during time at institution, sense of connection to one’s institution, time until first job after graduation, relevance of first job after graduation, relevance of training to current occupation, current income, current occupational field, and arts community involvement. However, the magnitude of these effects was often small, and limitations are discussed. Overall, these findings can help to support curricular changes that encourage the increased use of creative activities and assignments in higher education, as well as provide accountability evidence for the effectiveness of arts education across a variety of outcomes.

Studies of alumni from arts-focused degree programs in American higher education have revealed the need for arts entrepreneurship training for self-reliant careers, resulting in the creation of at least 168 programs and course offerings for students in a range of arts disciplines. Using factor analysis of datasets from the 2015 – 2017 administrations of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, a multi-institution online alumni survey, this paper divides the skills most relevant to arts entrepreneurship training into four latent categories: critical thinking, leadership, business management, and artistic specialty. A logistic regression revealed statistically significant associations between the latent variables with alumni’s propensity for freelancing and new venture creation. We also identified that race interacts with both student loan amount and family social and cultural capital. Arts-focused higher education programs should consider how they can offer training in these skill groups and complementary opportunities for financially challenged college students and those with fewer familial connections to the arts without creating additional barriers to careers in the arts.

Education-job match is often associated with enhanced well-being and career satisfaction, although existing research suggests that arts college graduates are less likely to experience education-job match than graduates of other disciplines. As research also increasingly suggests that student loan debt may influence college graduates’ access to lower-paying industries and careers, this study uses a cross-sectional dataset from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project to investigate how student loan debt predicts education-job match (entry into an arts position) among arts bachelor’s graduates. Even when controlling for individual and institutional factors, results show that arts bachelor’s graduates with over US$10,000 in undergraduate student loan debt are less likely to enter arts careers than those with no loans. Findings suggest that arts careers may be less accessible for college graduates who are most dependent on student loans, with important implications for diversity and equity within the arts.

The first year of COVID-19 was marked by uncertainty, distancing, and disruption of the spaces where people worked and places they call home. This chapter considers the impact of COVID-19 on alumni of higher education arts degrees in the United States with an analysis of 66 semistructured interviews conducted November 2020 through March 2021. Interviews demonstrate that adapting to a compulsory transition of work space has rippling impacts on creative workers’ larger ecosystem. Major factors affecting interviewees’ experiences during COVID include acquiring new workspace, accessing equipment and technical needs, balancing work and domestic life, and the intensification of the digital aspects of work. Interviewee experiences varied considerably as each domain of infrastructure factors was further complicated or made easier by a creative worker’s arts discipline, location, occupation, career stage, skills, risk aversion, resilience, and family composition.

This study explores how the arts alumni’s high-impact educational practices (HIEPs) during college and the local arts infrastructure affect post-college community engagement outcomes. We hypothesized that arts alumni’s participation in the HIEPs such as service-learning and community arts resources is crucial for promoting arts alumni’s continued community engagement actions. The logistic regression analysis results combine data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project data. The Local Arts Index highlights the significant positive effects of the HIEPs on post-college volunteering. Furthermore, the effect of HIEPs did not vary by the level of community arts resources. Thus, we conclude that arts alumni’s community engagement can be significantly increased through HIEPs, particularly from service-learning or work with a local artist during college.

This chapter presents a broad interdisciplinary literature review linking artists’ economic precarity and need for but resistance to entrepreneurial skills, alongside colonial histories, structural racism, and hierarchies of taste in arts organizations. These themes are complemented empirically by engaging data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) to demonstrate indicators of attrition and privilege of arts alumni relative to their participation in the arts workforce.

The authors propose that students attending college rely on a variety of social and financial resources to cover the personal and academic costs of higher education. Implications of findings as they relate to music therapy education and further research regarding the financial need and socioeconomic status are also discussed. The authors draw on SNAAP data.

This article incorporates SNAAP data to reconsider the term teaching artist from a variety of angles, exploring the ways in which the term teaching artist has developed, and the ways it remains nebulous. The notion that the teaching artist model presents an extension of the traditional master-apprentice model is presented. Observations are made about the pathways toward becoming a teaching artist and the systemic barriers to becoming a teaching artist are illustrated. Reconsideration is given to the professional developments available to teaching artists. Finally, the outcomes achieved by students of teaching artists are questioned and suggestions for research and policy are given.

Using SNAAP data, this article seeks to identify beneficial high-impact practices (HIPs) for arts training through an analysis of 23,916 arts alumni from 77 postsecondary institutions.

This essay synthesizes literature on trends within the humanities and uses SNAAP data to consider potential outcomes for ethnomusicologists. 

This study analyzes how creativity can be used to benefit the economy and society, looking at the key components of creative careers that maximize the chances for robust ​“creative economic outcomes”. Researchers also investigate the ways in which the workforce can attract, nurture, and connect, individuals across the creative industries. 

Using SNAAP data, the authors explore gendered income inequalities and assess the gendered earnings gap for artists and for nonartists. The gendered earnings gap is found to be comparable for artists and nonartists, with evidence suggesting that artistic careers are subject to similar social forces that drive disparity in other occupational realms. Broader implications for scholarship on gender and work, as well as suggestions for further research and policy, are discussed.

Combining data from SNAAP and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), this study examines self-reported college experiences and skill development of seniors and alumni who majored in the arts. Results suggest that alumni rate their overall experience higher, while students judge specific aspects of their institutional experience and their skill development more positively. Given these differences, it is recommended that institutions survey both students and alumni to achieve a more complete picture of the educational experience.

Using data from SNAAP, this study explores whether satisfaction with aspects of the institutional experience contributed to the perceived development of creative thinking in arts alumni, and whether there are differences in these patterns between undergraduate and graduate alumni across a variety of academic majors. The results of several regression analyses indicated a greater number of significant predictors for creative thinking in undergraduate alumni when compared to graduate alumni. The two strongest, most consistent predictors across all models were satisfaction with their freedom and encouragement to take risks and instructors in classrooms, labs, and studios. Differences across majors are also discussed.

Utilizing data from SNAAP, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that there are two distinct components of job satisfaction for arts graduates: intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction. The results of ordinary least squares regression analyses for these two factors provide some relationships concerning demographic and occupational characteristics with these two areas of satisfaction. In considering overall job satisfaction, intrinsic satisfaction may play a larger role in how alumni perceive their career outcomes and success.

With the growing reliance on tablets and smartphones for internet access, understanding the effects of completion device on online survey responses becomes increasing important. This study uses data from SNAAP to explore the effects of what type of device (PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone) a respondent uses has on their responses. Differences by device type in the characteristics of survey respondents, survey completion, time spent responding, willingness to answer complex and open-ended questions, and lengths of open-ended responses are discussed.

In the context of an intern economy that appears to be rapidly changing, this SNAAP Special Report focuses on the experiences of 10,698 of the most recent undergraduate arts alumni who graduated between 2009 and 2013 and whose experiences reflect current economic realities. Comparisons to older cohorts are also included to help examine trends and provide historical context.

This research explores whether those with certain demographic and personal characteristics, including gender, age, cohort, number of children, marital status, citizenship, race, current employment status, income, and institutional satisfaction level, are more or less likely to respond to open-ended questions placed at the beginning, middle, and end of an online alumni survey. Using data from SNAAP, a series of chi-squared and means comparisons analyses were done to compare whether or not respondents provided an answer to three different open-ended questions throughout the survey. Findings suggest that there are some group differences in likelihood of response, which could be explained by time burden, negativity bias, and self-identification as ​“other.”

Using SNAAP data, the authors suggest that arts graduates use multiple lenses to view the worth of their education.

This study explores the ​“professional artist” as the outcome of an identity process, rendering it the dependent rather than the independent variable. In their responses to the 2010 SNAAP survey (N = 13,581), substantial numbers of respondents gave seemingly contradictory answers to questions asking about their artistic labor. These individuals indicated that they simultaneously had been and had never been professional artists, placing them in what we have termed the ​“dissonance group.” An examination of these responses reveals meaningful differences and patterns in the interpretation of this social category. A significant correlation is found between membership in this group and various markers of cultural capital and social integration into artistic communities. A qualitative analysis of survey comments reveals unique forms of dissonance over artistic membership within teaching and design careers.

In this study, the authors investigate potential differences between responses on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) from the cohorts of graduating seniors from 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 and those same cohorts of alumni responding to SNAAP in 2010, at six diverse institutions. A series of chi-squared analyses were done for each of the six cohort years. Findings indicate that the demographic characteristics and institutional satisfaction of alumni respondents closely mirror those of the graduating seniors. The results from this study suggest that even though response rates on alumni surveys might be lower, the results may be just as representative as studies with much higher response rates.

This report represents an initial exploration of the thesis that the arts are essential to a high quality of life. Using three national datasets, researchers examine the correlation between artistic practice and wellbeing among a representative national sample of adults, a sample of undergraduate seniors, and a sample of former arts graduates. Findings suggest that artistic practice is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, a more positive self image, less anxiety about change, a more tolerant and open approach to diverse others, and, in some cases, less focus on materialistic values and the acquisition of goods. A range of artistic and creative practices are examined, including fine arts, video, music, theater, dance, crafts, gardening, artful cooking, creative writing, designing clothes and composing music.

For the 2014 SNAAP Annual Report, this study uses data from the Fall 2011, 2012, and 2013 surveys, which garnered the responses of more than 88,000 undergraduate and graduate alumni. Researchers focus on the satisfaction and value of recent graduates’ education and on their experiences after graduation as they enter the workforce. There is also a comparison between the experiences and outcomes for recent and non-recent graduates. 

As catalysts of change and innovation, artistic workers face special challenges managing ambiguity, developing and sustaining a creative identity, and forming community in the context of an individually based enterprise economy.

A postsecondary arts education affords some unique advantages for women, minorities, and disadvantaged students. However, significant gaps remain and inequalities persist related to school debt, racial diversity within artistic occupations, and disparities in earnings by gender.

Using data from the 2009 SNAAP survey, alumni perceptions of institutional contributions to the development of certain skills and competencies across high school, undergraduate, and graduate arts training programs are analyzed. High school alumni report significantly greater perceived institutional contributions to their development of artistic technique, communication skills, social skills, and personal growth. Graduate alumni report significantly greater perceived institutional contributions to their development of research and technological skills.

Findings from the 2010 SNAAP survey highlights three broad ways in which arts students continue to flex their creative muscles after graduation: (1) using their artistic skills in their jobs whether or not they work within arts-related fields; (2) teaching the arts; and (3) contributing to the arts in their non-work time, through volunteering, artistic consumption, and making and performing art. Both those evaluating the impact of arts degrees and those in a position to influence arts training must learn to paint with broader strokes, looking beyond narrow employment measures as the sole defining features of educational success and expanding the scope of arts training to provide students with the resources necessary to help them move forward in their careers. 

Findings from the 2011 SNAAP survey conclude that (1) Americans with arts degrees are employed at rates equivalent to other college graduates; (2) Variations on satisfaction and performance can be seen within majors; (3) Findings have implications for current college advising; (4) Teaching plays a crucial role for many arts graduates; (5) Factors including socioeconomic status, gender, and race, must be considered; (6) The worth of an arts degree must be measured by both pecuniary and non-pecuniary benefits. 

This article addresses how findings from SNAAP research are helping educational institutions, the government, and industry, to measure the impact of an arts education on maximizing talent across the ​“creative-work-force pipeline”. 

Using SNAAP data, the authors demonstrate that arts schools, while expensive, provide good value for education.