A January 24, 2012 article in The Huffington Post, “Detroit Art, Culture Organizations Have Large Economic Impact,” quotes ArtServe Michigan’s director of public policy Mike Latvis: “For a while we heard a lot of folks mention that public funding for the arts is a handout. This report shows the incredible impact that Detroit’s arts and cultural organization have on the economy.”

Researchers and arts managers cite the Michigan CDP as a valuable resource for understanding the needs and impact of the arts and cultural sector. “It’s going to be really useful down the road, especially talking about the health of the Detroit art scene,” notes Nancy Sizer, director of Detroit Artists Market, according to The Huffington Post.

A January 23, 2012 article on the Michigan news blog Mlive.com, “Michigan arts and culture generates more than $462 million in economic activity in 2009,” highlights key report findings, such as the fact that a total of 12,667,492 people visited arts and cultural venues and events in Michigan in 2009, some 52 percent of which were open for free.

In addition, a January 24, 2012 in the Detroit Free Press, “Arts sector called growing part of Michigan’s economy,” also focuses on the Creative State Michigan report. ArtServe Michigan’s president, Jennifer Goulet, is quoted, noting that “These organizations are economic drivers. They are providing jobs.”

To read The Huffington Post article, “Detroit Art, Culture Organizations Have Large Economic Impact,” click here.

To read the Mlive.com article, “Michigan arts and culture generates more than $462 million in economic activity in 2009,” click here.

To read the Detroit Free Press article, “Arts sector called growing part of Michigan’s economy,” click here.

For more on Creative State Michigan, visit the CDP’s Research page, or click here to view the report directly.

Today, the CDP is operating in 11 states and the District of Columbia. The project collects data from more than 12,000 arts and cultural organizations, with the financial support of more than 115 partners around the country. As the CDP continues its national expansion, our strategic plan called for an assessment of the project’s corporate structure. As the result of this evaluation, Pew and the CDP’s other governing partners concluded that the CDP will best be able to serve its mission in the years to come as an independent nonprofit organization. Over the coming year, the CDP will be transitioning to an independent 501(c)(3) and moving to new offices in Philadelphia.

Once established as an independent organization, the CDP will be in a position to lead a national dialogue on cultural policy research and development. We hope the new CDP will serve as a hub for partnerships with other entities that gather information about artists, commercial cultural organizations, and audience participation – helping us to become the truly national, comprehensive resource our sector needs. Pew will remain a major supporter and key advisor to the CDP, and the transition will enable the CDP to build a national board and governance structure to support its mission of strengthening the sector nationwide.

For participating states, the CDP’s operations will proceed full speed ahead. Participating organizations will continue to have access to the same powerful CDP reports and to our friendly Help Desk. Grantmakers will continue to use the CDP’s Funder Reports and online analytic tools to better understand their applicants. And researchers and advocates will have access to an ever-growing repository of data on nonprofit arts and culture.

Meanwhile, as part of its capitalization for this transition, the CDP will be building its capacity to implement some exciting new enhancements, such as facilitating additional research partnerships, developing new technological tools and reporting features, and expanding our outreach and role as a national convener within the sector.

All of us at the CDP are immensely excited about taking the CDP to the next level in the years to come. We look forward to sharing more updates as we make this transition. In the meantime, feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Entitled “New Report Cites Strong Start-Up Culture of Dance in the City,” a November 15, 2011 New York Times article makes the case that “dance organizations in New York City are entrepreneurial and innovative, despite having to scramble for money and rely on part-time, contract and volunteer labor.” Noting that “19 percent of all premieres and 22 percent of all commissions came from companies with budgets [of $25,000 to $99,000],” the article highlights the entrepreneurial nature of the city’s small dance organizations, as well as their reliance on private contributions.

On November 16, 2011, the Wall Street Journal addressed another aspect of Dance/NYC’s report in its article, “Corporate Support for Dance Wanes.” The article highlights the fact that “for dance companies at five budget levels—from the smallest ($25,000 to $99,000) to the largest (greater than $5 million)—corporate giving represents between 2% and 8% of their contributed income.” The Wall Street Journal also notes that the largest companies are most reliant on ticket sales but “account for only 2% of new works,” going on to raise the question of whether “audiences turn out to see well-known classics […] rather than new choreography.”

To read the New York Times article, “New Report Cites Strong Start-Up Culture of Dance in the City”, click here.

To read the Wall Street Journal article, “Corporate Support for Dance Wanes,” click here.

For more on State of NYC Dance, visit the CDP’s Research page, or click here to view the report directly.

“What makes this exciting is that the CDP is nationwide, providing uniform tools to document the expansive impact of arts and culture locally and nationally,” said Jennifer Cover Payne, president of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, in the article.

The DC CDP was also recently the topic of a Philanthropy Chat podcast . Hosted by Patricia Pasqual, director of the Foundation Center’s Washington, DC office, the podcast features an interview with Jenny Snyder, an associate with the CDP, and Michael Bigley, a program officer at the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, which is one of the lead funders supporting the launch of the DC CDP.

With more than 11,000 arts and cultural organizations participating in the CDP nationwide, Bigley points out that “an individual nonprofit can measure themselves amongst different peer groups, disciplines, budget sizes – the list can go on and on – so that they can get some great data and discover trends that are going on in the field.” Particularly in a challenging economy, he notes that the CDP is both a great tool for arts advocates and an important learning tool for individual organizations.

To read the Foundation Center blog post, click here.

To listen to the Philanthropy Chat podcast, click here.

“Although the CDP is less than a decade old,” the post notes, “it’s already regarded as a top-notch resource for data on nonprofit arts and culture. Just last month, the National Endowment for the Arts cited the CDP as a place researchers could go for dependable data — along with traditional sources like the U.S. Census Bureau.”

To read Neville Vakharia’s post, click here.

“All has not been gloom, however,” the article continues, pointing out that individual donations were up 20 percent, despite losses in corporate, foundation and government revenue. The article notes that attendance increased as well, making Philadelphia “something of an anomaly” amidst national declines in arts attendance.

The Inquirer followed up on this news story with a September 19th editorial entitled “Region must step up support for arts groups.” The editorial notes that “loyalty to the arts demonstrates once again that culture is viewed as vital to the region’s quality of life,” but argues that the region’s “deserving” organizations need access to a source of steady, predictable funding, in the form of a regional cultural fund.

To read the news story on Philadelphia arts’ shifting financial picture, click here.

To read the editorial, “Region must step up support for arts groups,” click here.

For more on 2011 Portfolio, visit the CDP’s Research page, or click here to view the report directly.

The article features quotes from Melonie Colaianne, president of the Masco Corporation Foundation in Michigan, and Brian Rogers, deputy executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, both of whom have been centrally involved in launching the CDP in their states. “We know the arts are very valuable,” said Colaianne in the article. “We can’t just say those words, though. We have to be able to back that up. [The CDP] will allow us to do that.”

When asked why the Vermont Arts Council decided to pursue this partnership, Executive Director Alexander L. Aldrich had the following to say: “Understanding not just how financially healthy an organization is, but how the entire sector is, is just one aspect of this effort. Giving managers contextual information is critical to their planning, as is giving hard, defensible data to funders and policy-makers. Added to all this is the convenience of Vermont organizations being able to apply for funding from some of our major national foundations or creating an annual report with just a few clicks of a mouse.”

More information about the Vermont CDP can be found at www.vtculturaldata.org.