Sunil Iyengar

Among minor casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic—at least in my neighborhood— were troops of parents and young children going door to door for Halloween, wearing costumes with masks that were not N95s. In those years, leaving a bucket of candy out on the stoop with a “Have at it!” sign became an enduring option.  Back then, the diminution of trick-or-treaters reflected … [Read more...] about We Know What You Did Last Summer

In this episode, we look at a new NEA research report, 50 States of Arts Participation, to learn how patterns of art-going and art-making vary by state. A transcript is available here. … [Read more...] about Quick Study: Arts Participation Rates at the State Level

A poet-friend of mine runs a blog that carries, as its tagline, “Would it kill you to read a #$%&% book?” To my ears, the slogan has come to sound less like a writer’s rant, or the crude appeal of a beleaguered parent, than a knee-jerk reaction to federal stats about reading in the U.S. Most recently, survey results from three different sources—the U.S. Bureau of Labor … [Read more...] about Federal Data on Reading for Pleasure: All Signs Show a Slump

In this episode, we discuss government statistics about arts managers, based on forthcoming results from an analysis to be posted to the NEA website. A transcript is available here. … [Read more...] about Quick Study: Arts and Cultural Managers

Last March, we lost a dear colleague and innovator in the field of cultural economics. Stephen Sheppard, a professor of economics at Williams College, died at the age of 69. This is an overdue attempt to pay some sort of tribute to Dr. Sheppard and his abiding influence. Personally, I got to know him 12 years ago, when the NEA partnered with the Brookings Institution to … [Read more...] about Remembering the Works of Stephen Sheppard, Cultural Economist