Andrew Taylor on the Business of Arts & Culture
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Measuring the creative community
  Posted: November 8, 2005
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One of the problems in measuring the health of any community's cultural ecology is that you first have to determine what a healthy cultural ecology looks like. If you don't have an ideal state in mind, you end up with random and irrelevant measures (dollars spent by nonprofits, dinners bought by patrons, room nights in local hotels, etc.) that distort your sense of purpose and dissipate your sense of self.

The good folks at Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley are among the few I've seen to take the process in the proper sequence: define (out loud) what you believe to be a healthy cultural ecology, and then determine the measures by which you'll measure that health over time. It sounds blazingly simple, but it's astoundingly rare.

The organization just published the second edition of its Creative Community Index, with even more thoughtful and targeted data than the first run in 2002. Better still is the introduction to the index, which lays out how they define a healthy cultural ecology. You can disagree with that definition if you like, which is actually the most powerful result of their approach: it fosters a conversation rather than just advocating a cause.

So, what makes up a healthy cultural ecology? According to the index, it's the health and balance of three interrelated elements: cultural literacy, participatory cultural practice, and professional cultural goods and services. In their words:

• Cultural literacy is defined as fluency in traditions, aesthetics, manners, customs, language and the arts, and the ability to apply critical thinking and creativity to these elements. Cultural literacy is acquired through formal institutions such as schools, fraternal groups and religious congregations, and informal institutions such as the family.
• Participatory cultural practice is the engagement of individuals and groups in cultural activities in a nonprofessional setting. Drawing, writing poetry, cosmetic makeup, singing in a community chorus, social dance, and garage rock bands are examples of participatory cultural practice.
• Professional cultural goods and services are the products of formally organized cultural producers and individual professional practitioners, whether working in the commercial or nonprofit sector. Examples of professional goods and services might include a production of Tosca by Opera San José, a new video game produced by Electronic Arts, a public sculpture commissioned by the San José Arts Commission, or a computer graphic created by a local artist.

The inclusion of ''participatory cultural practice'' (a more productive label than ''amateur,'' which has come to mean ''bad'') is a powerful element of this index, and a radical departure from the usual focus on only professional nonprofits. It's also great to see commercial goods and services in the mix of creative goods and services, which likely annoyed some nonprofits to no end.