From the Field

Arts, Culture and Immigration

In collaboration with Welcoming America, ArtPlace America has released its eight cross-sector field scan, Bridging Divides, Creating Community: Arts, Culture, and Immigration. The field scan draws from a literature review, an analysis of 140 creative placemaking projects, and 30 interviews to arrive at cultural strategies to support advocacy and social services in the immigration sector. The report is divided into four goals for immigrant communities and corresponding creative strategies that facilitate the success of these goals. Case studies accompanying each goal highlight the power of arts and culture to promote better communities for all.

Arts Organizations’ Response to COVID-19

Arts Organizations’ Early Response to COVID-19 Uncertainty: Insights from the Field, from AEA Consulting, addresses the implications of both COVID-19 and the systemic inequalities it exacerbates. The research relies on 44 interviews and 118 survey responses, and suggests that relevance and resilience will be the two most important determinants of organizational success during and after the pandemic. To this end, AEA Consulting and The Wallace Foundation have released Navigating Uncertain Times: A Scenario Planning Toolkit for the Arts and Culture Sector. Examining COVID-19 and social justice, this toolkit contains four scenarios and 21 worksheets to help arts organizations plan for the next five years.

COVID-19 Arts Sector Update

The Results Group for the Arts (TRG Arts) has published an updated report detailing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the revenue streams of performing arts organizations. COVID-19 Sector Benchmark: Insight Report September 2020 follows up on TRG’s June report and analyzes ticket sales and donations to performing arts organizations in North America and the United Kingdom between March and September, then compares them to last year. Findings indicated that June, July and August had the largest comparative decreases and that ticket sales have fallen by 83% between March and September.

Financing Creative Placemaking

Financing Creative Placemaking, a report from Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, aims to better understand how practitioners have financed their creative placemaking work over the last decade and to identify strengths and potential improvements in the national funding landscape. The report analyzes the project budgets and narratives from grants made by three funders—ArtPlace America, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kresge Foundation—between 2010 and 2019. One key finding is that state and federal funding streams have been vital to supporting creative placemaking. The Drexel report, funded by ArtPlace, provides an excellent backdrop of evidence for ArtPlace and NASAA’s work to strengthen the state arts agency support system for creative placemaking.

Multiyear General Operating Support Practices

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has published a new report on multiyear operating support grants. New Attitudes, Old Practices: The Provision of Multiyear General Operating Support, makes the case for multiyear general operating support (GOS) grants and examines why some grantors may be reluctant to award multiple-year grants. Researchers surveyed foundations and nonprofits to gauge their attitudes, and the report includes in-depth interviews with foundation leaders who favor multiyear GOS grants.

Latest Arts Vibrancy Index Report

SMU DataArts has released the sixth Arts Vibrancy Index Report, which names the year’s top 40 arts-vibrant communities around the United States. Drawing on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, IRS, Cultural Data Profile and Theater Communications Group, researchers created an index based on metrics assessing the number of arts providers in a given area, the amount of revenue and expenditures of those providers, and the state and federal arts support in a given micro- or metropolitan statistical area. The report also includes a profile for each of the top 40 communities.