Creative Arts & Economy Blog | Creative Vitality Suite

Sep 11

Using Location Quotient to Measure Creative Economy

When taking on the--sometimes difficult--task of quantifying an area’s creative economy, you will want access to every tool at your disposal. One useful tool is location quotient (LQ) data. The location quotient can be used to reveal the level of concentration a particular occupation or industry has in a specified... read more →

September 11, 2015
paul.nguyen@westaf.org
Creative Economy, Data Education, Data Quality, Data Sets

Sep 04

Data and Reporting available in CVSuite™

The Creative Vitality™ Suite is a powerful tool, containing data that has many potential uses. The online tool offers a few different ways to download data. #1 Regional Snapshot PDF report The one page, regional snapshot PDF report provides an overview of an area's occupations, industries, grants and nonprofits. The... read more →

September 4, 2015
paul.nguyen@westaf.org
Creative Economy, Data Education, Data Quality, Data Sets

Aug 18

CVSuite™ Makes the Shift from Industry Sales Data to Industry Earnings Data

In August 2015, the CVSuite™ will begin to highlight Industry Earnings data rather than Industry Sales data. Although Industry Sales data will remain available on the site, Industry Earnings data will provide CVSuite™ users with a more comprehensive measure of economic impact in a defined geographic area. In order to... read more →

Jun 22

Community Input Helps Data Make the Case – How the arts commission in a small Washington town tripled its budget

Ellensburg, Washington, is a small community located approximately 100 miles east of Seattle. Seeking to increase its annual budget of $8,000, the Ellensburg Arts Commission approached its city council in 2012. Before saying “no,” the city council requested more information on how increasing the arts commission’s budget would benefit the... read more →

May 28

Counting the Self-employed in Your Creative Economy – Creative Occupations in the Gig Economy

Not many people would be surprised that the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) general category of arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations contains the highest concentration of self-employed workers nationwide.¹ Data show that, on average, nationally, self-employed individuals and freelance workers (also known as the “extended proprietor” class of... read more →

May 28, 2015
paul.nguyen@westaf.org
Creative Economy, Data Education, Data Quality, Data Sets

May 11

Measuring the Creative Economies of Rural North Carolina

*Eastern Counties are: Jones, Lenoir, Greene, Wayne, Wilson, Edgecombe & Pitt Local and state arts agencies are aware of the types of artists and creative industries unique to their region. Often these creative expressions are rooted in the authentic cultural heritage of a locale. The challenge the agencies face is... read more →

Apr 21

Client Reports using Creative Vitality™ Suite data – Materials Created by Organizations Utilizing CVSuite™

The Creative Vitality™ Suite is a powerful tool, containing data that has many potential uses. The online tool offers the one page, regional snapshot PDF report. Many CVSuite™ users download data for analysis and then work with design firms in their region to generate impressive reports. Following are examples of... read more →

Mar 30

Do You Want Good News, Bad News, or the Whole Story? – The Importance of Contextualizing Data to Understand the Big Picture

Sound like good news? Diving into a creative economy research report from the CVSuite™ can be like opening a Christmas present. Surprise: Media jobs have grown 5% from the previous year, and three-year trends show steady upward growth! Hooray: Job growth in creative industries is on the rise and wages... read more →

Feb 17

Putting Data to Work

Most in the arts field understand the ever-increasing importance of data for effective advancement of the arts. Newspapers and data-driven blogs such as Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight routinely reinforce that the age of “big data” is upon us, even in the arts. Reports of clairvoyant data predicting elections, crowd-sourced data lowering... read more →

February 17, 2015
paul.nguyen@westaf.org
Reporting

Jan 11

The Challenge of “Plop” Reports – Up-to-Date Data Makes a Difference

Studies of the economic value of the arts and creative economy are rarely commissioned on an annual basis. Instead, they are commonly managed through one-time or periodic funding efforts. When this feature is combined with the fact that many studies of the same defined geographic area are rooted in the... read more →