During winter term 2011, students at Northwestern University used data from the Illinois Cultural Data Project (CDP) to explore the business side of Chicago’s vibrant theatre community in an undergraduate seminar on Organizational Structures and Production Processes in Contemporary US Theatre. Invited by instructor John Carnwath, CDP Associate Michael Keeler introduced the class to the CDP during a guest lecturer in which students learned about the CDP’s data entry process and powerful reporting tools. The assignment asked students to compile and analyze CDP data on Chicago-based theatre organizations. Nine local theatres founded between 1989 and 2006 (and with annual budgets ranging from less than $100,000 to over $5 million) agreed to grant students reports access to their CDP data for the project, allowing students to examine the organizational differences in companies of three different age categories. The student researchers gained an overview of the participating organizations using CDP comparison reports. Those findings were enhanced by the student-conducted interviews with senior staff members at each organization focusing on how their sources of funding and organizational structures relate to their production practices and artistic goals.
After completing their term projects, student researchers had this to say about their experiences with the CDP:
“I found using the CDP website and data to be an easy task, aided by the straightforward layout of the site.”
“Working with CDP data was truly rewarding. It allowed me to really see where the company invests its time and money compared to other companies, how it is actually supporting itself, and which resources are the most valuable to its maintenance.”
“Some of the CDP data provided me with insights that informed the questions I asked during my interview at a later time—it was data that could not be discovered simply by Googling the company or visiting its website.”
“I found the CDP data to be extremely easy to access and use … I particularly appreciated the individual explanations of each item on the report so that whenever I was confused, I could clear up that confusion with a single click … it’s a very user-friendly database, even for people such as myself who are unfamiliar with reading data reports.”
“The final project—compiling a case study on a Chicago arts organization—was a great
learning experience … it really allowed me to see all components of the class we had been learning about put into action in the real world. Great class!”
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For more information about this project and Illinois Cultural Data Project please visit www.ilculturaldata.org or contact Michael Keeler at 215.575.4741, mkeeler@pewtrusts.org.