The City Arts Data Exchange
The City Arts Data Exchange is a joint initiative of SMU DataArts and Bloomberg Associates that brings together a growing group of local arts agencies to align data collection efforts towards shared learning. While no single set of metrics can fully capture the breadth of cultural activity in a city, shared data practices surface patterns across cities and enable benchmarking, informing policy, strategy, and advocacy.
Participating cities gain access to:
- a shared set of metrics for grant applicants
- opportunities to learn alongside peer agencies
- reporting and research that translates local data into practical insight
In return, participating cities contribute data to research benefiting the entire sector. If your local arts agency is interested in learning more, please contact our team.
A Growing National Collaborative
The initiative launched in 2025 with an initial cohort of 10 cities that shared grant applicant data they were already collecting, which led to the publication of City Arts Sector Trends: Divergence and Resilience Across Ten U.S. Cities (2019-2024). In 2026, a second cohort of 10 additional cities was convened who were all interested in building capacity for data collection. This second cohort of cities co-created a core set of metrics, agreed to collect that data in the future, and will share it back with the network. SMU DataArts is now recruiting a third cohort to begin data collection using these shared metrics in 2026 or 2027.
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Cohort 1 |
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Atlanta, GA |
New York, NY |
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Cleveland, OH |
Philadelphia, PA |
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Des Moines, IA |
Phoenix, AZ |
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Houston, TX |
Sacramento, CA |
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Los Angeles, CA |
Seattle, WA |
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Cohort 2 |
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Alexandria, VA |
Memphis, TN |
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Boston, MA |
San Diego, CA |
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Denver, CO |
San Francisco, CA |
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Jacksonville, FL |
Tallahassee, FL |
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Kansas City, MO |
Toledo, OH |
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Cohort 3 |
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Austin, TX |
Nashville, TN |
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Cincinnati, OH |
Newark, NJ |
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Columbus, OH |
Raleigh, NC |
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Baltimore, MD |
Salt Lake City, UT |
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Indianapolis, IN |
San Antonio, TX |
Additional Resources
Arts Data in the Public Sector - This report from Bloomberg Associates offers useful insights, practical resources and strategies for local government arts funders based on extensive sector research. It also provides an in-depth look at the data practices in 15 agencies across the nation and how they demonstrated complementary approaches to common objectives regardless of their differences.
City Arts Sector Trends: Divergence and Resilience Across Ten U.S. Cities (2019–2024) - This report examines the finances and operations of the nonprofit creative sector in 10 geographically diverse U.S. cities—Atlanta, Cleveland, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Seattle—drawing on data from more than 4,400 organizations supplied through the City Arts Data Exchange.