SNAAPChats
SNAAPChats: Research in Focus, is a virtual discussion series for researchers, educators, administrators, and policymakers interested in the impact of arts education and the professional pathways of creative graduates. Attendees will gain valuable perspectives on trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the lives of arts alumni across the country.
Upcoming SNAAPChat — November 5, 2025 at noon Eastern
Join us virtually on 11/5/2025 @ 12 – 12:30 p.m. ET to hear Dr. Joanna Woronkowicz discuss her newly published book, Artists at Work: Rethinking Policy for Artistic Careers.
Dr. Woronkowicz is SNAAP’s Senior Research Fellow. She is a cultural economist who conducts research on labor, capital, and technological investments in arts and culture. She is an Associate Professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington. Prior to that, she was the senior research officer for the National Endowment for the Arts. Woronkowicz is co-founder and faculty director of the Center for Cultural Affairs and co-director of the Arts, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lab. She is also co-founder and principal at I/O Research, Inc., a nonprofit research firm specializing in independent and original research and analysis in cultural policy. Her first book, Building Better Arts Facilities: Lessons from a U.S. National Study, was published by Routledge in 2015.
Register to join us on November 5, 2025.
SNAAPChats with Dr. Wen Guo
SNAAPChats with Dr. Wen Guo, Florida State University
Stepping Outside the Classroom: How University Contexts Influence Arts Alumni’s Entrepreneurial Intentions
Using SNAAP data from over 77,000 alumni across 193 institutions, Dr. Wen Guo explored how institutional diversity, career services quality, and community-based learning experiences influence graduates’ entrepreneurial intentions. Her research reveals the complex relationship between traditional higher education support systems and the entrepreneurial realities of creative careers, where self-employment rates significantly exceed national averages.
Dr. Guo is an assistant professor of arts administration in the Department of Art Education at Florida State University. She received her doctoral degree in cultural policy and arts administration from Ohio State University and studies topics including arts policy networks, entrepreneurship in the arts, and community engagement. She has served as a panel reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts and currently serves on editorial boards for the American Journal of Arts Management and the International Conference of Social Theory, Politics and the Arts. Her scholarly work appears in Review of Policy Research, Cultural Trends, and the Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society.
SNAAP Data Brief — Volume 13, Number 4: Stepping Outside the Classroom: How University Contexts Shape Arts Alumni’s Entrepreneurial Intentions
SNAAPChats with Dr. Richard Paulsen
Agglomeration and the Success of Arts Majors Working in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Dr. Paulsen is an assistant professor of Sport Management at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Paulsen’s research focuses on labor market issues in the entertainment industries, with a focus on sports and the arts. He holds a PhD in Economics from Northeastern University. Dr. Paulsen’s research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, Small Business Economics, and Journal of Cultural Economics, among others.
SNAAP Databrief: Success of Arts Majors Working in Entrepreneurship & Innovation: DataBrief Volume 13, No 3
Full Report: Agglomeration and the success of arts majors working in entrepreneurship and innovation (Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 2025)
SNAAPChats with Dr. Aisha Motlani, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Push and Pull Factors Impacting the Career Transitions of Artists and Arts Graduates Beyond the Creative Fields
Dr. Motlani is a Creative Workforce Research Specialist at the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC). She leads the Illinois Creative Workforce Partnership (ICWP), using qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the intersections between artistic labor, education, workforce development, government policy, and the social and economic impacts of the arts. Dr. Motlani has a background in the arts and humanities. Her research has been funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the American Association of University Women. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Cambridge, England.
SNAAP Databrief: 2025: Volume 13, Number 2, Push and Pull Factors Impacting the Career Transitions of Artists and Arts Graduates Beyond the Creative Fields
Full Report: Branching Out: Artists and Arts Graduates Beyond the Creative Fields (Mar. 2025)
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Arts and Design Alumni
The authors of this report, Dr. Rachel Skaggs, Dr. Jennifer L. Novak-Leonard and Dr. Jeff Barbee, provide insight into arts and design graduates whose work is — or before the pandemic was — in the arts, design, or creative realm by examining their working lives, economic lives, and the skills that they needed to attain or update during the first two years of the pandemic in the United States. This report was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
