Research

Johanna K. Taylor’s research asks how arts-led engagement unites stakeholders to shape public administration and policy to co-create equitable, shared futures.

Responsive Institutions, Planning, and Policy. Building on a decade as an arts administrator in New York, Taylor explores questions of the human relationships connecting communities and institutions, looking at forms of arts-driven cooperation for sparks of change in public administration and policy.

  • The Art Museum Redefined: Power, Opportunity, and Community Engagement Palgrave Macmillan, Sociology of the Arts, 2020 – The book analyzes the role of the Queens Museum alongside community centers to create opportunities for collaboration that elevate resident voice in Corona, Queens. The research shows that residents collaborating with public institutions can build innovative pathways for shaping shared communities by targeting local concerns such as education, access to green public spaces, safety in the built environment, and transportation.
  • Creative Placemaking in Transition: A Look Back and A Look Forward, 2024 – This research with Andrew Zitcer analyzes the current evolution of the creative placemaking field, finding that equity and justice have emerged as the central values motivating practitioners. The field is also shifting to trust-based funding approaches and power-sharing with communities.
  • Worldmaking through Arts Participation – by the People, for the People, National Endowment for the Arts, 2024 – An invited reflection on the 2022 Survey of Arts Participation: A Symposium.
  • The Expanded Field of Arts Entrepreneurship. Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, 2023 – Taylor co-edited this special issue of Artivate with Adrienne Callander mapping the new landscape of arts entrepreneurship.

Civic Sector Arts Entrepreneurship. Artists have long been cross-sectoral collaborators in settings from science labs to business incubators to the civic sector.

In an ongoing research project about artists embedded in government, she has developed theories of how creative practices can shift civic systems through the emerging trend of artists in residence in government programs across the US.

Applied Research in Collaboration with Practitioners. Taylor is dedicating to applied research that co-creates policy and community interventions in collaboration with artists, planners, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and community advocates.

Taylor, Mallory Rukhsana Nezam and Amanda Lovelee launched CAIR Lab (Cross-sector Artists in Residence Lab) to build knowledge and resources to advance collaboration  across the US. This creative think tank uses research to connect practitioners with tangible tools through facilitation and art making. Their focus is on connections between artists and government agencies, where there is awareness of the potential for innovative systems change through arts engagement.