Towards Inclusive Data Collection in the Arts
A study on ways to enhance Native representation in national arts participation measures
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- Publisher(s)
- The Wallace Foundation
Summary
How we did this
The research team conducted 78 interviews with a national sample of Native-identifying adults. Interviews explored how respondents interpreted and answered questions from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), which has guided cultural policy and resource allocation in the arts since the 1980s, to assess whether survey questions captured the information they were intended to. Based on the interview results, the research team revised some of the SPPA questions and assessed whether the questions became clearer and more relevant to the Native-identifying respondents.
First Peoples Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the cultural, artistic, and ancestral practices of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities, and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, conducted this study to better understand how well the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) measures the artistic and cultural participation of Native adults.
SPPA is the nation’s preeminent source of data collection focused on arts and cultural attendance, consumption, creation, performance, and learning. However, research shows that Native people are often undercounted or underrepresented in such national data. This may be because most national surveys are not tested with Native populations before they are distributed more broadly.
This study identifies several ways the SPPA survey questions may lead to incomplete or inaccurate responses by Native peoples. It also points to ways the questions could be revised to be more inclusive and valid.
This brief is based on Measuring What Matters: Enhancing Native Representation in National Arts Participation Measures, by Gwendolyn Rugg, Mitchell R. Barrows, and Ellen Bloss at NORC; and Justin Pequeño and Lara Evans from First Peoples Fund.
There is a need for greater cultural flexibility in the wording and structure of certain survey items to more fully capture the artistic, cultural, and creative activities happening in Native and other communities across the United States.
