Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem

This study is anchored in ADC Consulting’s research values and principles. In practice, to apply these values across this research phase, including the 2026 National ASO Survey, we:

• Continue to consult a paid advisory cohort of members of the arts and culture community. This includes a diverse group of individuals across lived experience, expertise, and geography, who actively engage in ASO work in different capacities.

• Acknowledge the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the current rise of fascism and state-sanctioned violence. This includes their impact on the research process, the people who are a part of the process, and the cultural sector.

• Acknowledge the ways in which capitalism, white supremacy, war, genocide, economic precarity, and climate change continue to impact the arts and culture sector, and, therefore, the outcome of this study. This includes the roles members of the arts ecosystem—including ASOs, research leads, and research participants—play in benefitting from, exacerbating, upholding, and/or being oppressed by these systems and their outcomes.

• Engage in a multi-phase research process that is iterative, considers multiple modalities and perspectives, and adapts to learning and contemporary contexts. This includes adjusting timelines as needed and pausing where necessary to address potential harms and/or implement new learnings or additional approaches. 

• Exhaust all possible resources to ensure that a large cross-section of members of the community are able to contribute to the research process. This includes sharing their stories, ideas, and areas of expertise through interviews and focus groups, and, through that process, seeking their consent, compensating them for their time, and communicating transparently about the purpose and use of their information and/or contributions.

• Provide a variety of accessible opportunities for participation in the data-collection processes. This includes providing written and oral forms of digital data collection alongside closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and/or other types of accommodations, so research participants can engage in methods that best align with their access needs, time, and capacity.

• Create tools that let the public interact with, download, and analyze the data. This includes providing access to normalized/clean datasets, and using a platform that allows for user-generated versions of the data to promote transparency and encourage additional analysis of the data. 

• Understand that research alone cannot solve all of the problems it aims to observe, explore, or influence. This includes acknowledging our limitations as humans and researchers. So, we work with institutions and individuals to spread the word of the study and advocate for the application of its findings in ways that advance collective goals of liberation and well-being for arts workers, arts entities, and their communities.

This research intends to provide updated baseline data on three aspects of ASOs operating in the United States:

• Typology framework — to better define ASOs by understanding their key characteristics, service roster, constituencies, and support structure.

• History and impact — to more accurately tell the story of their impetus, operating environment, role, and ongoing impact in the arts ecosystem. 

• Evolution — to provide insights into the paths they can take to move towards sustainability, better serve their constituencies, and contribute to building a more equitable and just arts ecosystem.

  It is designed to benefit ASOs and the individuals and entities who impact and drive their work, including: 

• ASO workers — as the individuals tasked with carrying the work of ASOs forward.

• ASO funders (private and public) and policy makers — as the individuals and entities whose decisions impact the resourcing of ASOs and their ability to remain operational. 

• Arts workers and organizations — as the intended beneficiaries of the work ASOs do.

• The arts sector — to provide greater visibility and information on the work ASOs do and how they might interact with them.