The Creative State Michigan report makes use of the Cultural Data Project, which was founded by the Pew Charitable Trusts to collect information about the economic impact of cultural institutions at the state and local levels. In Michigan, the CDP collected much of its data through the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs. The Council is a major grantmaker for Michigan cultural organizations, and requires its grantees to submit information to the Cultural Data Project.
D3’s role in the Creative State Michigan project was the analysis and interpretation of the data collected by the Cultural Data Project. To help ArtServe find the most compelling illustrations of the creative sector in Michigan’s economy, we created interactive tools that allowed them to dynamically view a complete package of economic indicators for cultural organizations of all sizes across multiple years.
All of these factors – the Cultural Data Project’s creation of a powerful data set, assisted by the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs; D3’s cross-sectional analysis of that data across multiple years; and ArtServe’s design of the final report – have come together to advance ArtServe Michigan’s public policy campaign for culture and the arts. The opportunity to work with ArtServe Michigan to quantify the economic value of culture and the arts across our state continues to be a pleasure, and provides one component of an increasing D3 portfolio of research in the culture and arts sector.