Data Digest Issue No. 4: Tools for Arts Advocates in Challenging Times
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May 4, 2017
Tools for Arts Advocates in Challenging Times • New Online Course: Advocacy for the Arts • Cultural Data Networker: Katherin Canton • Tips: Choose the Tool That Makes the Case • Featured Research • From the Field • DataArts On the Road and Online
Above: San Francisco Arts Advocacy Day 2017 with Arts for a Better Bay Area. Photo credit: Abbie Leigh
DataArts Offers Tools for Arts Advocates in Challenging Times
With fiscal year 2018 funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences under threat, DataArts is affirming our commitment to arts and culture by putting a decade's worth of data about the sector’s contributions in the hands of advocates. These no-cost services include access to reports that can be customized by state, local and city legislative districts, fully-designed state reports, and new educational resources, all available at culturaldata.org/advocacy.
Using the DataArts system, arts and cultural organizations can generate easy-to-read two-page reports that draw on DataArts’ information to visualize cultural nonprofits’ impact on local employment, audiences, and spending. The reports are designed for meetings with legislators and their staffs and can be can be generated for US Congressional districts, state legislative districts, and even City Council districts
across the country, as well as for cities, counties, and states. Sample reports for the 16 states with the greatest Cultural Data Project participation are also available for download.
Read more.
New Online Course: Advocacy for the Arts
Making the Case: Advocacy Basics for Arts Leaders, is the latest in a series of free online courses introducing data-informed management skills for arts professionals developed by DataArts. The course was created in partnership with Julie Hawkins, director of the Arts Administration program at Drexel University.
"With all the current challenges facing the systems of support for artists and cultural organizations, it's important for everyone who cares about the arts to take an active role in arts advocacy," said Hawkins. "This course is designed to do just that by helping people learn how to use data and stories to speak out about the impact of the arts in their life and the life of their community. " Read more.
Cultural Data Networker:
Organizer and Advocate Katherin Canton
Above: Katherin Canton, Organizer, Arts for a Better Bay Area. Photo credit: Abbie Leigh
Katherin Canton, a participant in San Francisco’s Cultural Data Network, is an energetic organizer at Arts for a Better Bay Area with deep roots in San Francisco and Oakland. Cultural Data Networks encourage organizations and individuals to come together and explore ways that information can power arts and culture initiatives across communities. We talked with Katherin about the importance of grassroots arts organizing.
What does arts advocacy mean to you? As a multi-generational San Francisco/Oakland resident, arts advocacy is important to me because it allows for coalition building across sectors, disciplines, and backgrounds with a core value of providing accessible creative and cultural expression opportunities to all. Read more.
Tips and Tricks for DataArts Users:
Choose the Tool That Makes the Case
Above: DataArts Advocacy Report for the state of Oregon
DataArts collects cultural nonprofits' financial and programmatic information, and that data can be presented in many different ways to answer questions, solve problems, and illustrate the cost and value of the work of your organization. For each scenario below, there's a pre-designed DataArts report that will help make your case.
Scenario: I have to convince a donor that we are on the right track and managing our organization well.
DataArts tool: Analytic reports
Featured Research
LA County Arts Report: Cultural Equity and Inclusion InitiativeDataArts is proud to have partnered with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission on the first-ever survey of the workforce demographics of arts organizations across LA County, measuring the diversity of boards, staff, and volunteers. The survey was part of an an 18-month public process that led to the development of 13 recommendations to the LA County Board of Supervisors to ensure that everyone in LA County has equitable access to arts and culture, and to improve inclusion in the wider arts ecology for all residents in every community. Read more. 
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Cleveland Community Partnership for Arts and Culture: Culture Pulse 2017DataArts' data powered the 2017 Culture Pulse, a snapshots of Cuyahoga County’s arts and cultural organizations’ financial, space, and human resources produced by Cleveland's Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC). The report examines five years of data on the regions and found a healthy arts ecosystem that benefits from arts and cultural organizations’ openness to collaboration, the high number of free arts and cultural offerings, and generous public funding . It also identified some concerns on the horizon . Read more. 
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FROM THE FIELD: Does Participation in the Arts Influence Civic Engagement?
From The James Irvine Foundation
As foundations intensify their focus on building healthy communities, the need has grown for more research and analysis of existing data on the on the connection between the arts and community-building. We were intrigued to see a new report from the James Irvine Foundation that investigates whether participation in the arts influences civic engagement. The report, called Hearts and Minds: The Arts and Civic Engagement, offers some compelling evidence in the affirmative. Read more.
DataArts on the Road and Online
Upcoming: New User Orientation workshops and Data + Stories workshops in California, along with a new workshop on the Building Blocks of Financial Health in San Jose, California.
You'll find DataArts' presenting at the American Alliance of Museums in St. Louis, the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations in Asbury Park, NJ, and the Theater Communications Group Conference in Portland, Oregon. And be sure to visit our table at the Americans' for the Arts National Conference in San Francisco. See calendar.
Connect With Us
DataArts, 400 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia,
PA 19106 215-383-0700 • info@culturaldata.org
