In Art is Everywhere in Baltimore, Doreen Bolger, Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art and GBCA board member, and Nancy Haragan, former director of the GBCA, write about the role of the arts industry in neighborhood revitalization, community engagement and new development.

Read the article, entitled Baltimore’s art community paints a pretty picture of the Baltimore economy, here and visit the Art is Everywhere in Baltimore site.

The title, Data Matters, refers both to the fact that this is your guide to what’s happening at the CDP and to the core belief that drives the project’s mission: data matters. It can help us make our case, improve our operations and make informed decisions. Ultimately, we believe, data can help us build a stronger arts and cultural sector.

We hope you’ll enjoy this first issue of Data Matters. Please let us know what you think, and what you’d like to see in future issues.

Information about the Michigan CDP can be found at www.miculturaldata.org.

When describing his “Art Works” tour, Mr. Landesman said, “I was in Pennsylvania last week, and the Governor cited the Pennsylvania Cultural Data Project, which reports that in Pennsylvania alone, nonprofit cultural organizations and their audiences had direct expenditures of $1.99 billion, which supports over 48,000 full-time equivalent jobs and means over $900,000,000 in resident household income.”

The statistic illustrates the third meaning ascribed to “Art Works,” which is that “arts workers have real jobs that are a vital part of this country’s economy,” and was originally used in the Americans for the Arts’ Arts & Economic Prosperity III report, which relied heavily on CDP data.

Read the Chairman’s prepared statement here.

“Each year, millions of Californians flock to [these] nonprofits for entertainment, enlightenment and cultural enrichment. The California Cultural Data Project reports that in 2008, nonprofit arts organizations attracted 23 million attendees. ”

Mr. Erickson spoke about the impact of California arts and cultural nonprofits, highlighting the economic activity they generate, the importance of the services they provide and the innovation they employ.  Read Mr. Erikson’s remarks here.