Prompted by the nation’s opioid crisis, this report reviews and analyzes 20 years of evidence about the arts’ use in pain management and in treatment of substance abuse disorders; it also highlights promising arts-based strategies in these practice areas. 

This report summarizes proceedings from a June 2019 gathering of 12 NEA Research Labs at the National Endowment for the Arts. It identifies challenges and opportunities for collaborative, transdisciplinary research projects in the arts.

This research paper distills economics research, spanning nearly two decades, about the relationship between ticket pricing and public demand for visual and performing arts events.

This report analyzes data from the 2017 Survey of Public and Participation in the Arts and the 2016 General Social Survey to identify common motivations and barriers for adults in deciding whether to participate in arts activities.

This report presents findings from an evaluation of Poetry Out Loud, a national arts education program supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and state and jurisdictional arts agencies. The quasi-experimental study—involving data collection from ten sample schools—assessed the program’s impact on poetry appreciation and engagement, social and emotional development, and academic performance. May 2020

Also find below a fact sheet that presents a summary of the findings, Understanding the Impact of Poetry Out Loud: Findings from a National Study.

This report analyzes data from the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), which the National Endowment for the Arts conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. It gives a statistical overview of how the nation’s adults engage with leisure reading and other literary activities, such as author readings, book clubs, and creative writing. The survey identifies three groups of adults: nonreaders, print-only readers, and digital/audio readers. (The latter category describes adults who read e-books or listened to audiobooks, but who also may have read books in print.)

Previous reports from the National Endowment for the Arts have shown long-term declines in book-reading and in the reading of literary texts—e.g., novels and short stories. For those who care about the future of books and literature, the new report attests to the vitality of digital and audio platforms in today’s literary culture. For example, when we account for adults who listen to audiobooks, the total number of adults who engage with books is more comparable to figures from previous years. Also, the data show that while older readers read books at higher rates than do younger adults, digital/audio reading is more common among younger than older readers. Indeed, digital/audio readers consume more books on average and engage in other cultural activities at higher rates than do print-only readers.