Our newest blog series, Client Spotlight, focuses on how organizations use Creative Vitality Suite data to inform their work.
Q: What does the Utah Division of Arts & Museums do?
The Utah Division of Arts & Museums serves the state of Utah and provides a variety of outreach services that connect people and communities to arts and museums. The Division of Arts & Museums’ 500 outreach services include arts education, professional development, exhibitions, and community outreach. It also provides direct matching grants to schools, local arts agencies, organizations, community centers, performing groups, museums, and individuals across Utah. Check out the Programs section on the Division’s website to see the variety of work it does across the state.
Q: How does the Creative Vitality Suite help?
With data on jobs by occupation, arts organizations can better understand the makeup of the creative workforce that informs the work that they do. As the state’s cultural agency, having as much information as possible on the creative sector can help inform decisions and improve communications to constituents, policy makers, and cultural supporters across the state. CVSuite also provides empirical data to support the advocacy claims that arts and culture have a significant impact on the economy. With information on the creative industries, users can identify the strengths as well as the weaknesses within the economy. Local communities and organizations can then use this insight to further their missions at a grassroots level. The data enables practitioners to think strategically about the future of the arts in Utah and the impact their work has on communities.
Q: What is happening in Utah?
Utah’s creative workforce supports 93,000 jobs in the state’s economy. In 2017, photography jobs increased by almost 500. Occupations in digital media experienced the greatest growth in jobs, with a 10% increase in broadcast news analysts, film and video editors, audio and video equipment technicians, and camera operators. The creative industries contributed $4.7 billion to the state’s economy. Some of the highly concentrated industries that make Utah unique are software publishing, jewelry manufacturing, drive-in theaters, dance companies, and zoos and botanical gardens. These industries demonstrated a higher concentration of jobs than the national average.
Q: What are the state’s future economic and advocacy goals?
The future is promising for the arts in the state of Utah. The Utah Division of Arts & Museums is a division under the Utah Department of Heritage & Arts, which aligns influential state partners under a single mission that fosters, preserves, and promotes the state’s diverse culture and heritage. The state government has also demonstrated its commitment to the arts by approving an additional $2 million for arts and museum grants, which brings the total grant pool for fiscal year 2020, including federal funds, up to approximately $3.5 million. For the first time, legislators did not ask whether or not cultural grants should be funded, they instead debated the amount that should be invested in those grants. With this additional money, the Division of Arts & Museums will be able to create a tiered grant system that provides predictable funding for both large and small organizations.
As the state’s arts and culture organization, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums’ primary focus is to connect with the community and its constituents on a personal level. Sharing and communicating the importance of the arts across the state helps constituents make data-driven decisions that can strengthen Utah’s cultural vitality. The Division of Arts & Museums uses creative economy data to support its work and to demonstrate the impact grants and other funding sources have on the arts and the overall cultural health of the state.
The Creative Vitality Suite is more than data…it is a tool to help cultural organizations make informed decisions about arts and culture. With data to back claims on the impact of the arts, organizations can take advocacy and cultural planning to the next level.
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