Top arts researchers will come together to present and dissect their latest data at Measuring the Muse, an unprecedented National Arts Journalism Program-Alliance for the Arts conference at Columbia University. Co-hosted by the National Arts Journalism Program, Alliance for the Arts, and Columbia University Arts Initiative (with support from the Wallace Foundation), the conference will explore the following issues:

What is the real value of creativity in the economy?;

How are artists and cultural institutions faring, and how are they affecting their communities across the United States?;

Are young people getting their information about books and music in fundamentally new ways?;

Is arts participation on the decline?;

What role does cultural journalism play in the swiftly evolving media landscape?; and

Have the intrinsic benefits of the arts been lost in the argument over the numbers? Participants include:

Ben Cameron, Executive Director, Theatre Communications Group;

Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts;

Maria-Rosario Jackson, Senior Research Associate, Urban Institute;

Neil Scott Kleiman, Director, Center for an Urban Future;

Catherine Lanier, Director of Research, Alliance for the Arts;

Robert Lynch, President, Americans for the Arts;

Kevin McCarthy, Senior Social Scientist, Rand Corporation;

Steven Tepper, Curb Center, Vanderbilt University;

Toqir Mukhtar, Research Project Director, Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies; and many more. Measuring the Muse: Arts Research from the Frontlines will be held on May 5, 2005, from 9am-5pm, at the Lecture Hall - Columbia University School of Journalism. Registration is required. For more information, including registration forms, CLICK HERE.