Understanding the Arts Student Experience: The Latest from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project
May 2, 2025 3:00-4:30pm Eastern
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) collects, analyzes, and shares data and research about the careers and creative lives of postsecondary arts and design graduates. SNAAP serves the dual purpose of providing institutional-level data to colleges and universities as well as being the best source of national survey data on postsecondary arts education, informing policymakers, administrators, scholars, journalists, and other stakeholders. SNAAP defines arts in a broad sense, to include art, architecture, design, media arts, film, music, theater, dance, and creative writing.
SNAAP’s national online survey was launched in 2008 to meet the growing need for reliable alumni outcomes data, as articulated by arts training institutions across the country. Since then, SNAAP has partnered with over 400 educational institutions from 49 states, the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces to survey over 300,000 arts alumni on their professional lives, educational experience, and personal fulfillment. SNAAP administers its national, large-scale online surveys once every five years.
This presentation, given by SNAAP’s Executive Director Lee Ann Scotto Adams and Senior Research Fellow Joanna Woronkowicz, will provide an overview of the findings from the most recent SNAAP survey administration in 2022, which reached alumni from the most diverse range of institutional types in SNAAP’s history, including public institutions, independent colleges of art and design, HBCUs, and community colleges. Gain insights from the survey on arts alumni’s educational experiences, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their careers, employment trends, and their sense of belonging during their education.
Registration
All a2ru webinars are free for a2ru individual members, as well as those affiliated as students, faculty, and staff at a2ru member institutions and departments. Please use your institutional email address while registering at the link below.
a2ru webinars are $20 for non-members and $10 for non-member students.
Presenters
Lee Ann Scotto Adams, SNAAP Executive Director
Lee Ann Scotto Adams brings nearly 20 years of expertise in nonprofit management, higher education, and the arts. She holds a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Northeastern University.
As the executive director of SNAAP (Strategic National Arts Alumni Project), Lee Ann is committed to promoting the value of arts education and supporting and advancing the arts research ecosystem. Previously, she served as executive director of the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE) and assistant director of programs and operations at the Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD) – making meaningful contributions to the field in each of these roles. Her career also includes roles in admissions at RISD and as an administrator in the Fine American Paintings Department at Christie’s Auction House.
Lee Ann is deeply engaged in the Rhode Island arts community, having served as treasurer of the Rhode Island Art Education Association and currently serving as Vice President for DownCity Design, a community design/build non-profit that empowers youth through design education. In addition to her leadership roles, she maintains an active creative practice as a painter and is passionate about strengthening the arts through her professional contributions and board service.
Joanna Woronkowicz, SNAAP Senior Research Fellow
Joanna Woronkowicz is a cultural economist who conducts research on labor, capital, and technological investments in arts and culture. She is an Associate Professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington. Prior to that, she was the senior research officer for the National Endowment for the Arts. Woronkowicz is co-founder and faculty director of the Center for Cultural Affairs and co-director of the Arts, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lab. She is also co-founder and principal at I/O Research, Inc., a nonprofit research firm specializing in Independent and Original research and analysis in cultural policy. Her first book, Building Better Arts Facilities: Lessons from a U.S. NationalStudy, was published by Routledge in 2015. Her forthcoming book, Artists at Work: Rethinking Policy for Artistic Careers will be published with Stanford University Press in 2025.