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Peter Linett

Pronouns: He/Him

Senior Fellow
Peter is an inquirer, theorist, and accomplice to changemakers and community-builders across the arts and culture sector.

Peter is an equity-driven research leader who brings a creative and critical eye to the exploration of public engagement with culture and the arts. He co-founded Slover Linett, a social research practice for the cultural sector, in 1999 and helped shape the firm’s work with museums, arts organizations, public spaces, media enterprises, science communicators, creative placemaking projects, funders, and advocacy networks for 24 years before the firm joined NORC in 2023. He continues to be a thought partner, strategist, connector, and advocate for community co-creation at Slover Linett at NORC, working with both clients and the research team to deepen the practice and support systemic change.

Peter has co-authored reports on topics such as racial and ethnic differences in American’s perceptions of and participation in the arts, the social impacts of folk and Indigenous arts apprenticeships, creative placemaking outcomes, how classical music radio can become more welcoming to people of color, the needs of working musicians, the role of the arts in higher education, and cultural innovations in science communication. He has been quoted in the New York Times and invited to speak at conferences and symposia of the National Endowment for the Arts, Grantmakers in the Arts, Alliance for the Arts at Research Universities (a2ru), Indiana University’s Center for Cultural Affairs, Science Festival Alliance, and the UK-based Arts Marketing Association, among others. He has also guest-lectured at Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama and the Getty Leadership Institute. Peter serves on the editorial board of Curator: The Museum Journal and was a founding advisory board member of the Center for the Future of Museums at the American Alliance of Museums and an affiliate of the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago.