(Cross-posted from the National Arts Marketing Project Conference Blog Salon over at ARTSBlog.) The hardest question to answer in arts research is “what would have happened if we had done things differently?” Researchers call this question the “counterfactual,” since it refers to a scenario that doesn’t actually exist. Generally speaking, it’s hard to measure things that don’t exist; hence the difficulty for arts research.

(This is the second in an occasional series on Fractured Atlas’s research approach and philosophy. The first can be found here.)

(Cross-posted from the NEA’s Art Works blog. The version that appears there was edited for length; this is the original.)