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Data-driven research strengthening arts and culture organizations
SOURCE: ASU Alumni Association Magazine, May 2015 (link here; pages 40- 43)
The raw numbers for arts organizations over the past two decades don’t paint a pretty picture. Audiences involved with the fine arts have been steadily declining since the early 1990s, a trend that’s been exacerbated by the recent “Great Recession.” According to a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) report, in 1992, at least 41 percent of U.S. adults attended at least one benchmark art activity annually. A decade later, that figure had shrunk to 33 percent.
While art lovers may mourn the aesthetic losses represented by this declining percentage of audience participants, falling arts attendance also has major implications in terms of a region’s economic health. According to NEA, the arts contribute $698 billion annually to the U.S. economy and the arts/cultural sectors employ 4.7 million workers.
Locally, the Arizona Arts Commission states that nonprofit arts organizations in Arizona contribute more than $500 million in annual economic impact. And arts and cultural spending produces an economic ripple effect; for every 10 jobs created directly by the arts, an additional 62 jobs are generated in such areas as hospitality, travel, retail, car rental, etc.
All of these numbers point to the fact that the health of the arts and cultural sectors are of primary importance to this state as well as the nation in many ways. Because of this, arts organizations have greeted the advent of data-driven research with growing enthusiasm.
Moving from reactive to proactive
ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy has participated in the creation of a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. Launched in 2011, the Arizona Cultural Data Project (CDP) was inspired by a program that originated in Pennsylvania in 2004. Using the CDP, financial, programmatic and operational reporting are streamlined, and organizations can quickly and easily track trends in their own performance, as well as benchmark themselves against groups of a similar nature and locale.
The Arizona CDP augments the dedication and leadership provided by the university’s Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, which is helping organizations, including those serving the arts, modernize their operations, as well as providing next-generation training to nonprofit leaders and board members.
“Not only is accountability to sponsors and key stakeholders a reason to employ such measures, but any board and leadership committed to meeting its missions should see a plan for data collection, analysis and dissemination as a key ingredient for success,” said Robert Ashcraft, the ASU Lodestar Center’s founding executive director, who is also a professor of nonprofit studies with the university.
His opinion was enthusiastically echoed by Andrea Whitsett, a Morrison Institute analyst who is the liaison between the institute and the Arizona Cultural Data Project’s Task Force. One of her roles on the task force is to address potential research uses for data generated by the project.
“Real time data and comparative data can be game changers, enabling organizations to be proactive instead of reactionary,” she said.
SRP, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Tucson Pima Arts Council and the city of Phoenix’s Office of Arts and Culture are among the grant makers participating in the Arizona CDP.
“Applicants to our organization must participate in this program,” said Dwight Walth ’85 M.M., ’94 D.M.A., an ASU alum who is the director of grants services and community initiatives for the city of Phoenix. “It’s important that organizations know who their existing audience is, as well as who is not attending, and identify barriers such as location and false perceptions, and develop strategies to target audiences beyond their core.”
Blending data and gut feelings
Does this newfound interest in quantitative data essentially eclipse the use of qualitative data considerations?
While acknowledging the importance of employing quantitative methods, Ashcraft points out that relying on quantitative data alone could leave some gaping holes in truly understanding aesthetic qualities of arts and culture and how they relate to community life.
“I’m not sure knowing how many patrons attend an orchestra performance adequately tells the whole story, without looking at the aesthetic quality of the performance and the extent to which it affected the audience,” he says. Ashcraft noted also that qualitative measurements of successvcan be featured in outreach stories that position arts and cultural nonprofits as instrumental in improving quality of life in various communities.
“I argue for mixed-methods approaches to data collection and analysis that draw on rigorous quantitative and qualitative methodologies to reveal true insight,” Ashcraft said.
Walth asserted that using a data- driven approach was simply a fact of life once an arts organization has reached a certain size.
“None of the established major arts and culture providers that I work with use a ‘seat of the pants’ approach, as they simply wouldn’t survive,” he said. This is due, in large part, to the sources of contributed funding being quite small for a city the size of Phoenix.
However, Walth continued, qualitative and quantitative approaches didn’t necessarily have to be in conflict.
“A blend (of approaches) is necessary and the use of either depends on whom you are trying to influence, and what their priorities and interests are,” he said.“In the city of Phoenix, for example, some of our authorizers value the economics of arts and culture, while others respond to the powerful stories of the impact that arts experiences have on individuals and communities.”
Building capacity and income
Whitsett said one reason that arts nonprofits increasingly are driven to become data-centric is the fact that in recent years, funders significantly have increased expectations related to outcome measurement. What, precisely, does that mean in terms of bottom lines being enhanced?
“As for tracking increases in donations, there is no one answer,” stresses Ashcraft. While data gathering plays an important role in institutional grants, he points out that it does not necessarily motivate other types of donors.
“An individual donor who loves the mission and activities of an arts organization may care less about such data. They are to moved to give based on aesthetic reasons,” he said.
One area in which data gathering can strengthen arts/culture organizations – both in terms of donations and increased attendance – is when it is used for capacity-building initiatives Walth said.
“When the depth of the recession was evident, several organizations did some very sophisticated data analysis,” he explained.“This resulted in very intense discussions with board members and staff to identify new contributed and earned income opportunities as well as justify existing programs and services.”
So, in the end, applying the analysis of the numbers to arts organizations can sometimes lead to improving the numbers of the bottom line. And that, over time, may prove to be a good way to turn those disheartening NEA statistics around.
Author: Oriana Parker is a Phoenix-based freelance arts writer