Cultural and Creative Vitality Indexes Analysis and Ideas for New ...

Cultural and Creative Vitality Indexes
Analysis and Ideas for New Jersey
PRESENCE
July 2009
PARTICIPATION
REPRESENTATION
SUPPORT
IMPACT
By
Leonardo Vazquez, aICP/PP
and Swena GuLatI
Arts Build Communities, Professional Development Institute
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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Contents
About ABC
4
Introduction
6
Findings
7
Issues With The CVI Model For Community And Economic Development
9
Building ABC’s CVI for New Jersey
10
Methodology
11
Model Reports and Indexes
11
Measures
13
Measures of Presence of Cultural Sector
14
Measures of Participation in Cultural Sector
15
Measures of Impacts on Communities and Economies
16
Measures of Representation and Accessibility
17
Measures of Support
17
Resources
18
ABC Council Members and Staff
19
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About ABC
Arts Build Communities is a new initiative led
Projected ABC activities include :
by Rutgers University’s Professional Develop-
ment Institute to help public agencies, nonprofit
• Annual Cultural Vitality Index of New
organizations, artists, funders and policy mak-
Jersey’s communities. Similar to the
ers make better choices regarding arts and
Legislative District Data Book produced
community and economic development. We
by Rutgers University’s Center for
will offer continuing education and technical as-
Government Services, the Cultural
sistance, and create New Jersey’s first Cultural
Vitality Index will measure indicators
Vitality Index.
of cultural development and planning
in the state’s 566 municipalities and
ABC will help leaders by:
21 counties. We will also produce
an annual report assessing cultural
• Creating an online knowledge center
development trends and conditions,
and annual Cultural Vitality Index for the
as well as identifying model practices
state of New Jersey.
in New Jersey. Policymakers and
planners will be able to use the Index
• Providing training and continuing
and report to assess the cultural health
education to public officials and their
of their communities and to explore
advisors, representatives of arts
improvements in their policy making and
organizations, civically-engaged creative
planning.
professionals, and others who work to
enhance the social and economic well-
• Training and development in cultural
being of New Jersey’s communities.
planning and policymaking.
• Providing technical assistance to
communities and arts organizations
in community and economic
development, management and strategic
communications.
Priorities for 2009
• Raise awareness of ABC with elected
and appointed officials.
• Promote more cultural planning.
• Connect arts with municipal and county
goals.
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The Mission of ABC is to:
Enhance community development through the arts
• Raise the awareness of public officials and art
organizations of arts and community well-being.
• Build stronger communities through the arts.
• Promote the use of arts-based prevention
strategies to building stronger communities.
• Help communities know how to use the arts to
build multiracial and multiethnic participation in
leadership.
Key activities include training and
technical assistance for those involved in
Enhance economic development through the arts
arts and community-based economic
• Identify and increase the multiplier effect of arts.
development and an annual Cultural
•
Vitality Index of New Jersey’s communities.
Reduce unnecessary competition and increase
collaboration among communities that support
arts.
This index will be a “one-stop shop” that
funders, elected and appointed officials,
Enhance the value of arts in local planning and
organizational directors and their
development efforts
representatives can use to help make
• Increase the use of cultural planning by officials.
cost-effective about community and
•
economic development initiatives
Connect arts to municipal goals.
involving arts and culture.
• Build community participation in the arts
• Demonstrate the value of arts to community and
This program is made
economic well-being.
possible in part by funds
from the New Jersey
Support arts in New Jersey
State Council on the
• Increase the public’s perceived value of the arts.
Arts/Department of
State, a Partner Agency
• Increase local investments in the arts
of the National Endow-
Develop leaders for all of the above goals
ment for the Arts.
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Introduction
This report demonstrates the various indicators
Some CVIs also discuss trends over years, as
used by organizations around the United States well as provide comparisons within a region
to report on the health of the cultural sector
or across regions. For example, Washington
in their communities. It explores models and
State’s Creative Vitality Index compares the
opportunities that can be used – or modified –
health of the creative sector across counties in
by Arts Build Communities in its annual Cultural the state. The Urban Institute’s Arts and Culture
Vitality Index for New Jersey.
Indicators Project ranks 50 metropolitan areas
around the United States in seven measures.
Seven notable indexes and reports were
examined, as well as the Urban Institute’s
The following report compares and contrasts
keystone reports: Cultural Vitality in
several model cultural vitality indexes (also
Communities: Interpretation and Indicators and
known as creative vitality indexes), and
Art and Culture in Communities: A Framework
discusses approaches that could work most
for Measurement.
effectively for New Jersey’s Cultural Vitality
Index. (What will be produced in New Jersey’s
Arts and Culture Indicators Project (ACIP)1.
CVI, however, will depend largely on the
Other indexes and reports reviewed include:
informational needs of cultural professionals,
Seattle/King County Arts and Cultural Indicators, elected officials and leaders of arts
Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project
organizations).
Report, The Boston Indicators Project, Silicon
Valley- Creative Community Index and the
Creative Vitalities Index – Washington.
Together, these indexes provide a wide variety
of sample measures for exploring the well-being
of the cultural sector in a community.
1.
•
The CVIs were selected from several Google searches conducted independently by the authors on separate days. Google ranks
sites through their popularity with other sites. (In other words, if more sites link to “Site A” than “Site 1”, Site A is likely to appear
higher in the search results than Site 1.
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findings
• CVI’s cover up to five dimensions in describing their respective region’s cultural economy:
o Presence – the presence
o Representation and
of cultural activities, cultural
accessibility – the extent to
professionals, and occasionally,
which cultural activities are
residents involved in arts-based
representative of the diversity
activities.
of the region covered by the
CVI. Also, the extent to which
o Participation – the number of
members of various communities
people attending or taking part in
can easily access cultural
cultural activities.
activities. Note: This dimension
o Support – the amount of support
is the one least explored in CVIs.
given to cultural organizations by
o Impact – the changes in
public or private-sector funders,
communities or local economies
as well as information about the
that result from the presence of
budgets of cultural organizations
arts.
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• Most CVIs are collections of “fact
• Some of the projects provide indicators
sheets” designed for readers who are
to measure the health and growth of
comfortable working with and talking
the cultural sector within a region such
from data. The CVIs tend to be well-
as CVIs for Seattle/King County and
organized, and have introductions that
the Silicon Valley. Other CVIs provide
provide overviews of the health of their
these measures as well as comparisons
region’s respective cultural economy.
with other cities, regions or states.
But the bulk of each index is made up
Such reports include the Metropolitan
of fact sheets that readers can use for
Philadelphia Indicators Project Report
presentations, to include in proposals,
and the Boston Indicators Project.
and the like.
• Indicators/measures tend to be
• Most CVIs are visually rich and colorful.
developed through a community-
This is most likely to help make the
wide involvement through community
reports more credible and inviting to their
meetings, public charrettes, and focus
key audiences: elected and appointed
group discussions.
officials, funders and policymakers, and
members of arts organizations. The
design of the New Jersey Cultural Vitality
Index should be considered as carefully
as the content.
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• Some of the common touchstones used
Issues with the CVI model for
in CVIs are:
community and economic development
Institutions: Number of Nonprofit
o
While the typical CVI model is very useful for
arts / non-arts related organizations
the researcher or consultant working in the
& associations.
arts field, it is less so for the reader who does
Retail/Businesses:
No
of
o
not have an expertise in the field, as well as
establishments, total sales.
readers who are interested in cultural activities
as vehicles for community or economic
Celebrations & Events: Number
o
development. Specifically, typical CVIs are
of events, attendance in cultural
designed for readers who know how to apply
events.
the information provided for use in reports,
proposals, or other documents designed to
Schools: Arts schools, art teachers,
o
be persuasive. CVIs also rarely present
art related programs, students
information that connects the strength of the
receiving arts education.
cultural sector with key indicators in the region’s
Employment: Number of artists,
o
economy or community, such as, for example,
art-related jobs.
any correlation between the concentration of
arts and retail sales.
Total revenue and expenditure of art-
o related activities and associations:
Per
capita
expenditure
&
contribution, federal funding, state
funding, organizations revenue.
Some other notable findings from this research
include:
• Some of the more unusual indicators
include library volume and circulations
and artists housing units.
• The Art Institute in Czech Republic
included pricing, access and cultural
policies in its report. This report assessed
the capacity and quality of art venues and
the composition of audiences to find out
the link between different cultural traditions
and groups. A similar kind of work has
been done in Silicon Valley Cultural
Initiatives and The Boston Foundation.
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Building ABC’s CVI for New Jersey
In order to further the key mission of Arts Build
• Statistical tables and appropriate charts.
Communities – to help leaders of communities
(Additional tables and charts could be
and cultural organizations make more cost-
provided online if need be.)
effective decisions about the connections
between cultural activities and community and
• Maps demonstrating the statistical
economic development – we recommend that
information
New Jersey’s CVI contain the following:
• Information on where and how the data
• Indicators that demonstrate connections
to create the “fact sheet” was collected.
(or lack thereof, if applicable) of the
Unless a substantial amount of resources
health of the cultural sector with the
are available to pay for research and data
strength of an area’s community or
collection, the initial editions of New Jersey’s
economic well-being.
CVI will likely have only a fraction of the types
• Knowledge that will help leaders in
of indicators listed in this report. However, as
making more effective decisions. For
the Arts Build Communities initiative grows, it
example, in addition to conveying
will be possible to add new indicators.
information, a typical fact sheet should
also discuss how leaders can use the
information for practical purposes.
• Information that allows leaders to
compare their county or metropolitan
area with others within New Jersey, as
well as comparable areas around the
United States. The information should
be provided in text, tables and maps.
• Comparison of trends over time. It would
be costly to get this information for the
first CVI. However, researchers of future
CVIs should collect data for the same
set of indicators every year.
We envision each “fact sheet” within the CVI
to be a four- to five-page document that would
include the following:
• Summary of the findings and a
discussion of their implications for
cultural, community and economic
development.
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