INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE
My name is Dr. Miranda Campbell. I am a faculty member at Ryerson University in the School of Creative Industries. I would like to invite you to take part in my research study, conducted in collaboration with Mass Culture, about Arts-Service Organizations (ASOs) in Canada.
This project is funded by SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We anticipate up to 1000 participants will take part in this survey. The survey will be shared through Mass Culture’s mailing list, however we are also hoping to recruit participants through the sharing of this survey by participants. As a research partner, Mass Culture is helping to steer this research project, but does not have access to the raw data.
The Canada Council for the Arts defines ASOs as “a non-profit organization that furthers the interests of artists, creators, arts organizations and elements of the arts community. The organization’s activities can include policy development, advocacy, provision of professional services, and production of collective projects.”
If you see yourself in this definition, and you are the executive director or equivalent of your organization, we invite you to take this survey. You will be asked to fill out this survey on behalf of your ASO. Please designate only one individual from your organization to complete the survey, and please notify your Board of Directors of your participation in this survey.
The goals of this project are to map ASOs and quantify the nature of this sector, including size, activities, and employment / staffing. We will also explore how ASOs generate and share research, identify areas of need and gaps in cultural research across ASOs on a national scale, and identify how ASOs collaborate and share research and data. The results of this survey will be disseminated through an interactive digital cultural map on Mass Culture’s website. Organizations that participate in this survey will be named and identified on this map. To participate in this research project, it is necessary for organizations to be identifiable so they can be located on the map.
WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO DO
You are being asked to voluntarily complete this on-line survey. It involves questions about the structure and activities of your ASO and should take about 30 minutes to complete. You can click through all questions to review them before beginning the survey if you wish. You may skip any question and / or stop answering the survey at any time. In order for all of your answers to be collected you must go to the end of the survey and click ‘submit survey’. This will demonstrate your full consent to participation. Please complete the survey in a location that offers sufficient privacy. If you wish to withdraw your participation in this survey after you submit your answers, you may contact the researcher (contact information below) for up to three months after the survey closes.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
At the conclusion of this research project (approx. May 2020) data from this survey will be available to your organization for use in grant applications, research projects, etc. At the end of the survey you will be able to provide your contact information in order to access this data. It is hoped that the research will increase knowledge around the scope of activities ASOs participate in and benefit research towards the important role ASOs play in Canada.
