Festival SUPPORTING STATEMENT, Part A, 04.09.09

PART A:

JUSTIFICATION

A1 Circumstances that Make the Collection of Information Necessary

As a federal agency, the National Endowment for the Arts regularly evaluates its programs and surveys the field they serve. Pursuant to its mandate to “support projects and productions that will encourage public knowledge, education, understanding and appreciation of the arts” (20 USC, Section 954), the NEA entered into an agreement with Silber & Associates to collect information about outdoor arts festivals in the United States and the role they play in our nation's cities, towns, and neighborhoods so the NEA can better support them.

This exploratory research study fills an important need for information and is the first of its kind, laying the initial groundwork for future research. NEA lacks a scientifically-based understanding and description of the arts festival community it supports. Through a national survey and in-depth field study, NEA will acquire an important database of information, one which undoubtedly will lead to further research and create a rich data bank describing the festival community.

A2 How and By Whom the Data Will Be Used

This section discusses how and by whom the data will be used. It provides a project overview, states the purpose of the data collection, indicates who will use the information, and gives justification for the various items to be included in the survey.

A2.1 Project Overview

Between fiscal year 2003 and 2007, the NEA awarded over $12 million in grants to 709 organizations with the institution type or activity type of "fair/festival." However, there is no single, comprehensive research publication or database that describes the range and/or impact of arts festivals in this country. The study proposed here is a two-pronged research effort to describe the U.S. outdoor festival community—among other characteristics, its number, types, financing, staffing, regional distribution, and artist employment patterns. The first prong of the study is a national on-line survey of the universe of outdoor arts festivals, and the second is a series of seven case studies of festivals involving site visits, audience surveys, director interviews, focus groups of artists, and focus groups of volunteers. Festivals in the study may be one-day or season-long programs, multi-disciplinary or discipline-specific, and funded by government, non-profit, or for-profit organizations.

A2.2 Purpose of the Data Collection

Festivals featuring arts performances are uniquely suited to build new audiences of all age groups, socio-economic backgrounds, geographical areas, and degrees of prior exposure to the arts. Arts festivals also deepen existing audiences and offer exceptional creative opportunities for artists. Yet there is no comprehensive research or database that describes the range and impact of arts festivals in this country. This is an historic attempt to collect information about outdoor arts festivals and the role they play in the nation’s cities, towns, and neighborhoods. The results will be used to characterize the number and variety of outdoor arts festivals in the United States, the artists they employ, and the communities they serve.

A2.3 Who Will Use the Information

The findings will be shared with festival organizers, policy-makers, civic leaders, and the general public to give a detailed and accurate picture of the field. The survey and case study results will give Americans a better understanding of the range and depth of arts participation opportunities that outdoor arts festivals afford their communities, and which organizational or structural factors align with which types of missions and audiences.

A2.4 Survey Instruments

National Survey

The instrument for the national survey contains approximately 40 questions, all of them closed-ended except for the last one, a request for comments about the mission and purpose of the festival sponsored. The questions are divided into five sections: Festival Background, Characteristics of the Festival, Revenue and Expenses, Sponsorships and Donations, and Organization Presenting the Festival.

The survey questions are preceded by screening questions verifying that the festival is outdoors and pertains to arts or culture. If these conditions are not met, the respondent is routed to the last page of the survey containing a single open-ended question about the festival’s purpose.

Festival Background. Questions pertain to:

• Type of festival

• Venue where the festival is held

• How long festival has been presented

• The festival cycle and duration

• When festival is held

• Characteristics of community in which festival is held

Characteristics of the Festival. Questions pertain to:

• Types of events comprising the festival

• Demographic characteristics of festival audience

• Total attendance

• Number of artists at festival

• Number of scheduled performances

• Number and nature of staff

Revenue and Expenses. Questions pertain to:

• Cost of admission

• Revenue and its sources

• Expenses

Sponsorships and Donations. Questions pertain to:

• Sources

• Types of in-kind donations

Organization Presenting the Festival. Questions pertain to:

• Structure

• Size

• Festival mission

Fieldwork (Case Studies)

Each of the seven case studies involves five different data collection efforts: an interview with the festival director, a survey of festival audience members, a survey of participants in special festival programming, a focus group of festival artists, and a focus group of festival volunteers.

Survey of audience members. Questions pertain to:

• Demographic characteristics

Survey of special program participants. Questions pertain to:

• Impact of festival attendance on future arts participation

• Recent history of participation in the arts

• Demographic characteristics

Focus group of festival artists. Questions pertain to:

• Frequency of participation in festivals

• Perception of people who attend festivals

• Perception of arts events in other settings

• Relationships with other artists at festivals

• Perception of impact of festival on community

Focus group of festival volunteers. Questions pertain to:

• Reason for volunteering

• Other volunteer activities

• Perception of arts events in other settings

• Opportunities to interact with artists

• Perception of impact of festival on community

Interview of festival administrator. Questions pertain to:

• Festival’s history and reasons it was established

• How festival is similar to or different from other festivals

• Perceptions of who attends the festival and how they might differ from other arts patrons

• Data collection practices of festival

• Perception of the impact of the festival on the local community

A3 Use of Improved Technologies

The national survey will be conducted on the Internet. Festival organizers will be contacted via e-mail to inform them of the survey and provide them with the URL to the survey site. Where appropriate or necessary, telephone follow-up will occur. The national survey will be conducted by Silber & Associates, which makes full use of the latest methodological and technical developments in electronic surveys and telephone interviewing, including proprietary software for the distribution of mass e-mail and website designs that are compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

A4 Efforts to Identify Duplication

NEA is sponsoring this research effort because no national database of information about outdoors arts festivals exists. This determination was made after speaking to experts and practitioners in the arts festival field as well as searching online and at the Library of Congress for existing reports and databases on the field. Apparently, no comprehensive national study has been conducted that would enable the NEA to characterize this community.

A5 Involvement of Small Entities

All respondents to the national survey will be official representatives of the organization presenting the festival. They represent a wide array of organizational structures—public agencies, non-profit organizations, and for-profit entities—and, as such, some will be officials of small for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations. However, all instruments will be brief, voluntary, and the burden on respondents will be modest.

A6 Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

This data collection has not occurred before. Without this research, NEA lacks an important scientific and systematic basis for understanding and describing the nationwide community of outdoor arts festivals and hinders knowledge-based policy judgments about the findings and promotion of U.S. arts festivals.

A7 Special Circumstances

The proposed data collection activities are consistent with the guidelines set forth in 5 CFR 1320.6 (Controlling Paperwork Burden on the Public-General Information Collection Guidelines). There are no special circumstances that require deviation from these guidelines.

A8 Consultations Outside the Agency

Extensive research was conducted in advance of launching the study to determine what information existed on outdoor arts festivals in the United States. This included speaking to experts and practitioners in the arts festival field as well as searching online and at the Library of Congress for existing reports and databases on the field.

A pre-test was conducted in October 2008. Section B4 “Pre-Testing of Procedures” provides details on the pre-test of the survey instruments.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, NEA published a Notice in the Federal Register announcing the Department’s intention to request an OMB review of this data collection. The Notice was published in the Federal Register Vol. 73, No. 204, October 21, 2008: Docket No. FR- E8–24949, Pages 62559-62560.

A9 Payments to Respondents.

Respondents to the national survey are participating in this data collection on a voluntary basis and do not receive payment. Focus group participants are also participating voluntarily but will be provided light refreshments and reimbursement of incidental expenses, such as parking fees related to participation.

A10 Arrangements and Assurances Regarding Confidentiality

Survey participants are assured that their responses will not be reported individually or identified by name. Their responses will be combined with those from other participants and reported in aggregate form only. During the survey data collection period, Silber & Associates will, of course, be able to associate responses with respondents, but such linkages will be separated when they are no longer necessary for operational purposes such as follow-up with non-respondents. Prior to that period, strict procedures will be in place to assure that such linkages are used only for survey control purposes. The data set Silber & Associates provides to NEA at the end of the study will not contain any identifying information—such as name, organization, location, or address of respondents—that could permit disclosure or identification of respondents, directly or by inference.

Data collected from audience members during the field research will be anonymous. The data collection forms do not collect name or address, nor do they involve a survey control number, making identification impossible. Focus group participants will not be identified by name in research reports or on any recording devices.

A11 Sensitive Questions

Sensitive questions are defined as those whose answers, if made public, could cause physical, mental, emotional, economic, or other harm to an individual. The questions being asked in the national survey refer to organizational-level data, not individual. Furthermore, the only questions that, under some circumstances, could be considered sensitive pertain to amount of revenue and expenses, and this information is publicly available for the majority of the organizations being surveyed. The questionnaires for the audience surveys collect demographic information commonly asked on all kinds of application and registration forms. Furthermore, the respondent can choose to omit any information he or she does not wish to provide.

A12 Estimate of Annualized Burden Hours

Exhibit 1 summarizes the universe size, estimated response rate, and calculation of the estimated burden for the national survey. At this point in time NEA can only conjecture about the size of the universe of outdoor arts festivals, since a master list does not exist and is being compiled for the purpose of the survey.

Exhibit 2 summarizes the same information for the field research, broken down by data collection effort.

Exhibit 1. National Survey

Universe Size (estimated at 6,000)	Estimated Response Rate	Projected Number of Completed Surveys	x 13 minutes per completed survey
National survey of 5,800	.75	4,350	943 hours
Mini-survey of subset of 200 (see Section B2)	.90	180	39 hours
Total			982 hours

Exhibit 2. Field Research

Data Collection Effort	Estimated Number Participants Per Site	Total Number of Participants Across 7 Sites	Total Burden per Respondent (Minutes)	Total Burden (Hours)
Survey of people attending festival	350	2450	5	204 hours
Survey of people attending special festival programs	100	700	10	117 hours
Focus groups of festival artists	8	56	90	84 hours
Focus groups of festival volunteers	8	56	90	84 hours
Interview of festival administrator	1	7	60	7 hours
Total				496 hours

A13 Estimated Recordkeeping and Reporting Cost Burden on Respondents

Research participants do not incur any costs other than their time responding.

A14 Estimated Cost to the Federal Government

The total contracted cost to the Federal Government for this project is $233,520.

A15 Reasons for Changes in Burden

Not applicable.

A16 Timeline and Tabulation Plans

A16.1. Compile Nationwide List of Arts Festivals for National Survey

Silber & Associates, with assistance from NEA, will compile from November 2008 through April 2009 a comprehensive list of the universe of festival organizers for use in the national survey. This list will come from two sources: (1) an existing list, compiled by NEA from grantee and member lists of more than 20 organizations, including the NEA, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), Regional Arts Organizations, and discipline-specific arts service organizations as well as multi-discipline arts service organizations (e.g., Association of Performing Arts Presenters), and (2) a list that Silber & Associates will create using mailing list information from parks, recreational associations, and local municipal groups (e.g., Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitor Bureau, Land Use Permit Office) and other relevant data sources for the ten largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

A16.2. Conduct National Survey

NEA, with Silber & Associates’ assistance, will contact the universe of arts festivals in May 2009, through a written letter asking for their cooperation when they receive the e-mailed survey invitation the following week. Data collection is scheduled to begin May 2009, when the survey invitation will be mailed, and to occur through August 2009, a timeframe allowing for multiple reminder e-mail and also telephone follow-up with non-respondents.

A16.3. Conduct Field Research

Determination of seven festival sites for in-depth case study will take place October 2008 through January 2009. Collection of data from the sites—the audience surveys and focus groups—will occur April through September, 2009. The time between December, 2008, and April, 2009, will be devoted to establishing partnerships with the seven festival sites.

A16.4. Conduct Data Analysis

Analysis of the survey data is scheduled for August and September, 2009. Data analysis will be descriptive in nature: frequency distributions of each survey question, and cross-tabulations of responses by subgroups, such as festival type. Although we envision data analysis as predominantly descriptive, we will rely on other methods of analysis, such as regression, as appropriate to answer interesting research questions that evolve. Only one question in the national survey is open-ended, and we will loosely edit and compile the responses to it. Analysis of the field data will occur from September 2009 through January 2010. Analysis of the audience data will be descriptive in nature, and analysis of the focus group findings will be qualitative, involving synthesis of themes and comments.

A16.5. Prepare Research Report

This project involves three research reports, one reporting the results of the national survey, one for the field research, and a joint report consolidating the two branches of the project. Each individual report will be a comprehensive document describing the study background, methodology, and the results of each survey or interview question and what those results mean. The integrated report will include overall conclusions that address NEA’s research questions and recommendations for future study. The estimated completion date of the survey report is October, 2009; of the field research report, January, 2010; and the integrated report, March, 2010.

A17 Expiration Date Display Exemption

The OMB approval number and expiration date will be displayed prominently on the survey website and any reproductions of data collection instruments for the project. No exemption is sought.

A18 Exceptions to Certification

No exception to the Certificate for Paperwork Reduction Act (5 CFR 1320.9) is sought.

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