Category Archives: Research Recap

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Across the country, people are getting ready to pack their suitcases and hop on a plane, train or automobile to spend time with friends and family and enjoy a holiday meal with one another. Levitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski has beat the Thanksgiving travel rush and is already on the road to Grand Rapids, Mich., where she’ll present takeaways from Levitt’s recently published white paper tomorrow at the 2017 ARNOVA conference—a convening of scholars, teachers, and practitioners from across the country who’re interested in research on nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and civil society. Continue reading

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Levitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski presenting at the 2017 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference.

Yesterday, Levitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski was out in the field with Slover Linett Audience Research President Sarah Lee, presenting an interactive session at the 2017 Grantmakers Makers in the Arts Conference in Detroit. Together they demystified the process of impact assessment, sharing experiences from Levitt’s own journey into the creation of a multi-year impact study with Slover Linett and giving professionals in the grantmaking community the tools and knowledge they need to embark on their own assessment journeys.

Inspired by yesterday afternoon’s presentation, today we’re releasing the fourth installment of our “Research Recap” blog series, featuring posts that highlight a particular finding from our recently published impact study. With tomorrow being Halloween—an evening where costume-clad celebrators take over sidewalks (some of the most common public spaces out there)—we’re focusing on the value of spaces where people of all ages can move around freely.

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Header-NADOLevitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski is currently more than 3,000 miles north of our Los Angeles office, in Anchorage, Alaska—where this morning she delivered a plenary presentation at the annual National Association of Development Organizations Annual Training Conference. Using case studies from across the placemaking sector, including a selection from our own research, her session gave regional planning and economic development professionals from across the country a glimpse into the ways place-based initiatives, especially those involving the arts, can build social capital, strengthening communities in the process.

Screenshot 2017-06-16 14.24.54Inspired by this morning’s presentation, today we’re releasing the third installment of our “Research Recap” blog series, featuring posts that highlight a particular finding from our recently published impact study, and taking a closer look at “social capital.” The term refers to the value that is derived from existing within and being connected to social networks. While the term itself has been around for more than a century—and the practice, even longer—it’s becoming more prevalent in today’s lexicon, as more and more towns and cities recognize the importance of building a stronger and more cohesive community. Continue reading

Screenshot 2017-06-16 14.24.54Welcome to the second installment of our “Research Recap” blog series, featuring posts that highlight a particular finding from our recently published impact study, which examines how creative placemaking builds social capital in communities, using permanent outdoor Levitt venues as case studies.

In honor of National Family Fun Month (which you can read more about in last week’s blog post), today we’re turning our attention to the inter-generational appeal of Levitt concerts. A quick glance around any Levitt concert reveals a wide range of ages on the lawn—from infants to seniors and everyone in between. As the figure below suggests, parents across the country are enthusiastic about the family-friendly atmosphere at Levitt concerts—created in part by the green, expansive and welcoming open lawn settings that are a hallmark of both permanent Levitt venues and Levitt AMP sites.  As one survey participant explained, “My kids have the freedom to move around.” Continue reading

Welcome to the first installment in a series of blog posts that delve into our recently published impact study, examining how creative placemaking builds social capital in communities, using permanent outdoor Levitt venues as case studies. This multi-year study and resulting white paper was led by Slover Linett Audience Research, and this afternoon President Sarah Lee is presenting the study’s key findings at the Americans for the Arts’ 2017 Annual Convention in San Francisco!

With next Tuesday marking the official first day of summer—a season when many people spend more time outside than other times of year—today we‘re focusing on the study’s findings in relation to being outside and in an open lawn setting. Based on hundreds of audience surveys and interviews in Memphis and Pasadena, each home to a permanent Levitt venue, a majority of people find being outdoors and in an open lawn setting “extremely satisfying” (see graph below). Continue reading