The Dawson Research Internship
2006: ''How We Make Meaning''
For the January 2006 national conference, the initiative steering committee selected a topic flowing directly from one of Bill's personal passions in the practical application of research: the role of meaning and value in the live arts experience. This web page includes the resources and links that informed the project, and a downloadable version of the final project summary.
FOCUS ON RESEARCH: HOW WE MAKE MEANING
presented Sunday, January 22, 2006
Audiences, patrons, boards, volunteers, and staff of presenting organizations are all driven and engaged by the powerful meaning and value they find in the lively arts. But how is this meaning formed in the first place, and what forces build or dissipate its power? Join a team of graduate students and special guests in a review of relevant research on the subject of value and meaning. This first effort of the Bill Dawson Research Internship Fund honors Bill's life and work by connecting emerging theory to professional practice and by stretching what you think you know about your work.
Research team: Bridget Marquis, Jennifer Post, Derek Kwan, Erin McLennon; Advisor/Session Moderator: Andrew Taylor, Director, Bolz Center for Arts Administration; Session Respondents: Susie Farr, Executive Director, Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Neill Archer Roan, Principal, The Roan Group.
LINKS AND RESOURCES
- Learning Audiences: Adult arts participation and the learning consciousness
A report by Nello McDaniel from the Adult Arts Education Project of Arts Presenters, published in 1997.
- Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Alan S. Brown, principal investigator), 2002
- The Values Study: Rediscovering the Meaning and Value of Arts Participation
Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism (Alan S. Brown, principal investigator), July 2004
- The Diversity of Cultural Participation: Findings from a National Survey
Urban Institute, November 2005
- Information on VALS
an analysis tool that clusters consumers on the basis of the personality traits that drive consumer behavior. During his years as president of Arts Presenters, Bill Dawson promoted and encouraged the first iteration of the VALS approach.
- The PRIZM consumer segmentation system
an effort to segment consumers both by value types and by behavior into meaningful clusters for marketing, analysis, and strategy.
- Sense-Making
Sense-Making is a way of thinking about how individuals obtain
information and solve problems, and in turn, how institutions can work
in harmony with these processes. It is a rich discipline, including a
set of interview structures and methods. Sense-Making has been used in
many applications, including public policy analysis, to better inform
programs and communications that are responsive to the needs of
constituents.
