Today, Americans for the Arts unveiled the Arts + Social Impact Explorer, an interactive online tool that draws together more than 1,000 data points on how the arts impact and integrate into 26 different sectors ranging from education and innovation, to health and wellness, immigration, faith and environment. The tool provides quick top-line research, example projects, core research papers, and lists service and partner organizations doing this work, as well as provides printable PDF fact sheets to share with decisionmakers.

 

The Explorer was designed as an entry point to the large and growing body of research, projects, and support organizations that exist at the intersection of the arts and various parts of our community. It creates an experience that can scale from casual surfing to deep exploration of a topic; users can glean a starting set of information in five minutes, or can follow the embedded hyperlinks (up to 20 per subject area) to visit the websites of all the example projects, access the research referenced, and engage directly with the other partners doing this work around the country. 

 

The goal of the Explorer is to make it easier to see the ways that the arts can—and do—permeate community life, and to provide advocates and leaders with the information and research they need to make that impact visible and encourage deeper investment in the arts through pro-arts policy and pro-arts funding. Over the next few months, Americans for the Arts will be sharing some of the stories, data points, and connections that are inside the Explorer. 

 

The social impact body of work is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Kresge Foundation, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Explorer’s many data points, examples, links, and images were compiled and transformed into the interactive tool by a core team including authors Rebecca Novick, Mark Valdez, Devra Thomas, and Jason Tseng. 

 

Try out the Explorer yourself! Visit www.americansforthearts.org/socialimpact.