Culture Counts in Communities A Framework for Measurement
Author: Maria Rosario Jackson, Joaquin Herranz
Date: 2002
Abstract: The Arts and Culture Indicators in Community Building Project (ACIP), launched in 1996 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, seeks to integrate arts and culture-related measures into neighborhood quality-of-life indicator systems. This task includes creating the concepts, tools, and language required to do so. ACIP is built on the premise that inclusion of arts, culture, and creativity in quality of life measures is more meaningful when it relies on the collaborative efforts of the wide spectrum of people involved in the arts and in community building. Local leaders and researchers have made important strides in collecting and using information about employment, health, housing, and land use as part of neighborhood indicator initiatives—and in interpreting the dynamics of community building. But they typically have neglected the presence and roles of arts, culture, and creativity in community building processes. To begin filling this gap, ACIP went to both conventional and unconventional sources of information. Information-gathering techniques included in-person interviews and focus group discussions with professionals and community residents in nine cities, document review and telephone interviews with staff from arts and arts-related institutions, and on-site examination of selected community-building initiatives across the country. We found myriad examples of how arts and cultural participation are important elements of community life and essential components of the community-building process. But except for some research on economic impacts of the arts and arts impacts on education outcomes, we found little theoretical or empirical research that speaks to how arts and cultural participation contribute to social dynamics. Moreover, formal data collection practices are also limited. Although they reveal considerable information about funding, audiences, and facilities, they are based on narrow definitions that overemphasize formal venues and miss the many less institutionalized ways in which communities experience arts, culture, and creativity. Since existing formal data and research are not an adequate base on which to build meaningful neighborhood indicators with an arts dimension, ACIP—based on its field work and document research—developed a set of guiding principles for the treatment of arts, culture, and creativity in neighborhoods and a set of parameters for research and measurement. These have been refined through a process of idea development and debate in workshops and conferences of researchers, community builders, policymakers, funders, arts administrators, and artists—and through application by ACIP affiliates around the country.
Tags: Arts & culture, Indicator planning, Indicator selection, Quality of life,
Full Citation Journal: Maria-Rosario Jackson and Joaquin Herranz Jr., Culture Counts in Communities: A Framework for Measurement (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2002), available at http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=310834.
Link to Resource: http://webarchive.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310834_culture_counts.pdf
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Date: 2002
Abstract: The Arts and Culture Indicators in Community Building Project (ACIP), launched in 1996 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, seeks to integrate arts and culture-related measures into neighborhood quality-of-life indicator systems. This task includes creating the concepts, tools, and language required to do so. ACIP is built on the premise that inclusion of arts, culture, and creativity in quality of life measures is more meaningful when it relies on the collaborative efforts of the wide spectrum of people involved in the arts and in community building. Local leaders and researchers have made important strides in collecting and using information about employment, health, housing, and land use as part of neighborhood indicator initiatives—and in interpreting the dynamics of community building. But they typically have neglected the presence and roles of arts, culture, and creativity in community building processes. To begin filling this gap, ACIP went to both conventional and unconventional sources of information. Information-gathering techniques included in-person interviews and focus group discussions with professionals and community residents in nine cities, document review and telephone interviews with staff from arts and arts-related institutions, and on-site examination of selected community-building initiatives across the country. We found myriad examples of how arts and cultural participation are important elements of community life and essential components of the community-building process. But except for some research on economic impacts of the arts and arts impacts on education outcomes, we found little theoretical or empirical research that speaks to how arts and cultural participation contribute to social dynamics. Moreover, formal data collection practices are also limited. Although they reveal considerable information about funding, audiences, and facilities, they are based on narrow definitions that overemphasize formal venues and miss the many less institutionalized ways in which communities experience arts, culture, and creativity. Since existing formal data and research are not an adequate base on which to build meaningful neighborhood indicators with an arts dimension, ACIP—based on its field work and document research—developed a set of guiding principles for the treatment of arts, culture, and creativity in neighborhoods and a set of parameters for research and measurement. These have been refined through a process of idea development and debate in workshops and conferences of researchers, community builders, policymakers, funders, arts administrators, and artists—and through application by ACIP affiliates around the country.
Tags: Arts & culture, Indicator planning, Indicator selection, Quality of life,
Full Citation Journal: Maria-Rosario Jackson and Joaquin Herranz Jr., Culture Counts in Communities: A Framework for Measurement (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2002), available at http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=310834.
Link to Resource: http://webarchive.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310834_culture_counts.pdf
DOWNLOAD