DATA
Next Generation Arts Impact (NextGenArts)
Arts and culture as a sector are undercounted, undervalued and isolated. This has negative impacts for funding, the allocation of resources, community life and a broad range of other policy considerations. Not only does the arts and culture sector need better quantitative economic data, for instance, to capture information on individual artists and freelance workers, but we also need to create a way of valuing the intangible benefits that arts and culture generate.
NextGenArts is a series of town hall meetings and public conversations with experts integrated with the interactive technology of a robust community organizing website that will result in strategies meant to strengthen arts advocacy and the cultural sector’s direct participation in that process. We will present the information that currently exists about the cultural sector to the cultural community. We then ask “Does this data fully and accurately represent your lived reality and your contributions, and: if not, what kinds of data must we begin to assemble to create a more accurate picture of art and culture’s value to community, civic and economic life?”
The Census Project
In 2008, the New York City Occupational Employment Statistics, provided to The Wall Street Journal by the state's Department of Labor, officially tallied 1,200 fine artists, 1,470 dancers and 5,820 actors. These meager numbers represent a deep and serious disconnect between public policy and reality.
Working with an international team of partners, ICSCS will conduct research, field work and a town hall that will lead to the development of a replicable protocol and survey instrument for artist communities to be able to conduct their own workforce censuses. Our first test bed site will be Staten Island, where we will be working with the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, to help them devise a cultural community census for that borough.
Strategies for Celebrating and Strengthening Folk Arts
On October 24th, ICSCS will host a Town Hall meeting with the Brooklyn Arts Council. This stems from a discussion about gaining visibility and a stronger advocacy voice for Folk and Traditional Arts which began last spring at the NYSCA Folk Arts Roundtable, and is scheduled to be continued in Spring 2012 at the Mid Atlantic Arts Council Folk Arts gathering. Framed as an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of folk artists in Brooklyn, these meetings also seek to identify issues and opportunities for the Folk Arts sector. The goal is to create strategies for building coalitions and gaining political clout by creating a better public picture of what folk and traditional artists do and bring to community life, civic leadership and economic vitality.