AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTISTKaple / D TA RESOURCES ON NONPROFIT ARTS Current Data Resources on Nonprofit Arts Organizations

This article presents and examines the data sources that are currently available for conduct-ing research on nonprofit arts organizations in the United States. It gives a detailed look at how the field has developed and why particular data problems exist. It examines the data necessary to understand sufficiently the largely uncharted territory of nonprofit arts organi-zations and it gives an overview of the key data sources that do exist. It summarizes recent efforts of scholars and researchers to assemble better databases on arts organizations and, finally, it makes recommendations for further research to be pursued. Arts advocates have long claimed that the arts and cultural sector makes a sig-nificant contribution to the lives of most Americans and serves a range of public purposes. These purposes are grand and seem important, from helping to define what it is to be American, contributing to the quality of life and economic growth, helping to form an educated and informed citizenry, to inspiring individ-ual creativity and potential (Arthurs, 1998). Although academic researchers, concerned policy makers, and grant makers who work with the arts may agree with these stated purposes, still, they lamented, it was difficult to make a