Culture counts
A reader commented on my previous post about the upcoming course at the Revolving Museum taught by Bob Forrant and referenced CultureCount as a great resource. Created by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), CultureCount seeks to quantify the contributions made by creative and cultural oranizations. A similar effort was made by The Non-Profit Alliance of Greater Lowell who commissioned their own study a few years ago. Called “Community Threads,” the publication highlights the integral role played in our community by Non-Profits (including cultural groups), who meet the critical needs of many diverse groups while also providing gainful employment to local residents. CultureCount takes this effort to a new level with a tool called the “CultureCount Impact Calculator,” which is being piloted in Massachusetts. This interactive tool will “demonstrates the economic impact of the nonprofit cultural sector and then estimates how changes in the sector affect a community or region’s employment, income, and property values.” Given the troubling reappearance of Question 1 on this year’s ballot, these types of studies and statistical analyses could be extremely helpful in showing people how important the non-profit sector is to the region as a whole.