Integrating Arts and Data to Reimagine Community Knowledge
The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership is excited to share a new brief (PDF) on the intersections of arts, culture and data by Urban Institute author Mark Treskon. Local data initiatives help people understand and measure local arts and culture ecosystems and their impacts on communities. These community-based efforts can make use of lived experiences and local knowledge in a way that nationally available data sources often cannot. Given the uncertain status of federal resources for arts and culture, it is important to understand how local data initiatives approach their work and the constraints they face.
The brief examines two ways that local research initiatives engage with arts and culture: by using arts and culture as data, and arts and culture as process. The first involves measuring the incidence and impact of arts and culture by developing indicators and mapping cultural production, support, participation, and community impacts. The second involves using artistic practices to shape and inform research design, community engagement, and interpretation.
The brief also identifies useful research and engagement models for community-based data initiatives, clarifies the relationship between art and research practice, discusses challenges these efforts face, and highlights the value of local and cross-local partnerships in supporting research and practice. To illustrate themes, it uses examples from local NNIP partners in Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.
What We Found
The brief starts with a short review of federal supports for local arts and culture research and their current status. It then explores how existing research frameworks provide potential models for current efforts to situate place-based investigations within broader contexts.
It describes several challenges that local arts and culture initiatives face, including limited, uncertain, and time-constrained funding; collecting data that clearly link arts and culture to outcomes like social cohesion or livability; and tensions around balancing community and economic development with concerns about displacement and cultural preservation.
Despite these constraints, the field remains rich with innovation. Local data organizations, artists, and community groups collaborate in ways that strengthen their understanding of cultural ecosystems and broaden bases of local evidence. The brief concludes by emphasizing the need for stronger cross‑local networks, longer‑term investments, and intentional strategies that bridge research, practice, and community‑led cultural knowledge.
This brief is based on a review of selected studies that have linked arts and culture to local research and interviews with field experts and members of NNIP. The brief uses NNIP projects as examples to show the benefits and challenges of local efforts.