Research Grants in the Arts

Research Grants in the Arts support research studies that investigate the value and/or impact of the arts, either as individual components of the U.S. arts ecology or as they interact with each other and/or with other domains of American life.

This is a year of transition for the NEA’s research program. Priorities that were expressed in a new five-year research agenda for the agency will be more fully reflected next year in the NEA’s FY 2024 Research Grants in the Arts application guidelines. Until then, the NEA will entertain research grant proposals that address any of the topic areas below.

As in previous years, we are interested in research covering one or more of these topic areas:

• Factors that enhance or inhibit arts participation or arts/cultural assets;
• Detailed characteristics of arts participation or arts/cultural assets, and their interrelationships;
• Individual-level outcomes of arts participation, specifically outcomes corresponding with the following domains:
  • social and emotional well-being,
  • creativity, cognition, and learning, and
  • physiological processes of health and healing
• Societal or community-level outcomes of arts/cultural assets, specifically outcomes corresponding with the following domains:
  • civic and corporate innovation,
  • attraction for neighborhoods and businesses, and
  • national and/or state-level economic growth

With these guidelines, however, the NEA now also welcomes research proposals in any of three additional topic areas, as identified by the NEA’s new five-year research agenda. Those new topic areas are:

• The arts’ role in the healing and revitalization of communities;
• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the arts; and
• The evolving arts ecology: arts organizations, venues, or places of arts learning; artists and other cultural workers; and arts consumers and learners

Applicants are welcome to address any of the aforementioned topics, from the previous (FY 2017-2021) research agenda or from the three emergent domains of interest.

Also welcome are studies that address research recommendations and priorities published in recent NEA publications. Examples of recent NEA reports that include research recommendations are Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium, Living Traditions: A Portfolio Analysis of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Folk & Traditional Arts Program, and The Arts in Neighborhood Choice.

The NEA is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and fostering mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all individuals and groups.

Visit https://www.arts.gov/grants/research-awards/research-grants-in-the-arts/program-description to learn more.