(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.

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court strongly affirmed that the first amendment’s free speech protections are broad and may not lightly be curtailed. The case at hand dealt with a California law that would have punished retailers for selling violent video games to minors. By declaring the law unconstitutional, the court struck an important blow against censorship, and we in the arts community should consider this an important victory.

(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.)

So Rocco really stepped in it. The NEA Chairman is under siege because he dared to suggest that perhaps there’s an oversupply of arts organizations relative to the (well-documented) dwindling demand. He’s not the first to bring this up, but it surprised a lot of folks that he used his bully pulpit to express an idea that many in the arts community find repugnant and misguided.

by Adam Huttler, Executive Director at Fractured Atlas NPR ran a feature on Fractured Atlas on this morning’s Morning Edition. You can listen online if you’re interested. Thanks to Asian Pacific American Film Festival and Catalyst Theater Company for saying nice things about us!