The Power of Cultural Data

Key Data

• 260 million people represented across the World Cities Culture Forum network
• 1.3 billion tourists welcomed by our cities
• 120,329 heritage and historic sites
• 3,021 museums
• 4,012 public libraries
• 4,157 theatres
• 3,041 cinemas
• 1,086 cultural centres
• 4,150 live music venues
• 1,096 higher education providers
• 5,743 night clubs, discos and dance halls

A good data strategy should be about measuring what’s of value – not just valuing what is easily measured

World Cities Culture Forum is encouraging all of its cities to broaden and deepen the range of data they collect. This is about much more than finding out how many museums or bars a city has, or how many people go to the theatre, although such statistics are essential for tracking trends and planning future provision. But good data goes further than that; it helps build a better picture of what people want, what information they look for and how they use it. It enables city culture teams to set well-informed and realistic goals, interact more effectively with citizens, use limited budgets to maximum effect and learn from the experience of others. Every city has its own priorities, resources and ways of measuring, which can make it difficult to capture the global picture accurately – although we have tried to do this in this Report in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Cities with active systematic data strategies and imaginative deployment of data tools are finding that the value of good data is about much more than the numbers on a spreadsheet. Below we outline just a few of the benefits.

It can give citizens a role in policymaking

A city that can present clear information about its cultural provision and plans can invite citizens to contribute ideas as well as comment on what’s available.  Many cities are mapping their cultural assets in an effort to ensure all its people, from the city centre to those in the outer suburbs, have equal access to cultural and leisure opportunities. For example, Amsterdam hosts an interactive online map that pinpoints all the arts and culture-focused buildings and facilities in the city, with a key that divides them into a dozen categories, including maker spaces and studios.  Clicking on any one of the facilities links to its website, providing more detailed information about what it is and the programmes it runs.  Users can also comment on what’s available and suggest changes or additions, giving city planners valuable insights into what residents value and what they want. The city of Buenos Aires has created Data Cultura, dedicated to the production, analysis and dissemination of information related to the cultural dynamics of the city. Amongst other reports it published Cultural employment in the City of Buenos Aires: Data 2022 with estimation of employment and socio-demographics in the cultural sector and Buenos Aires: cultural consumption and perceptions, tracking the cultural habits and expectations of residents to help plan future provision. 

It can identify trends and flag up problems

Gathering data for this report has revealed that while many cities might have grown infrastructure such as bars and nightclubs than a few years ago, in other cities regular data collection can highlight areas of net loss, making the case for targeted support and evidence informed policy. For example, good data collection in London gave early warning that the number of live music venues, especially performance spaces in small and independent clubs and bars, was dropping fast. Some of this was a consequence of planning pressures and local taxes which allowed the city’s Culture-at-Risk team to intervene and stop or reverse many of the closures. Similarly in Sydney, research including analysis of census, employment floorspace and longitudinal creative employment research data, secured seed funding for a new Creative Land Trust to secure affordable space for creatives. In Barcelona, the Barcelona Cultural Data Observatory was created for the purpose of disseminating data on the city’s cultural life. Their digital platform offers information in an accessible and easy to understand way. It publishes reports including the annual update on Culture and Gender which shows data on gender participation, the creative workforce as well as grants and awards, and tracks progress across the years. In Chicago, a 2021 study by SMU DataArts compared Chicago’s arts funding with four other major US cities and found the city underperformed on local government support (0.4% of expense coverage compared to an average of 3% across the other cities). The evidence from this study helped Chicago successfully make the case for a USD 26 million budget increase to cultural grantmaking.

It helps professionalise the arts sector  

Many community-based arts and creative organisations collect little or no data about what they do and what impact they have. But data tools are becoming cheaper and easier to use all the time and data collected at community level helps ensure that policy at city-level really does reflect what communities do, and what they need.  The Los Angeles County runs an annual Datathon attended by more than a hundred arts workers and community activists each year who come to learn about the tools that are available, how to use them and how the data they collect contributes to the city and county-wide strategy. It also helps the city and county culture teams get a better picture of the kind of data these communities level feel is important and relevant to what they do.

It enables values-driven budgeting, not cost-driven budgeting

Good data collection does more than record what facilities are available or how many people visit them. It can identify where those visitors come from, what they value and why. It can find out where a particular programme or event has had real positive impact on a community, so that planners can focus resources on where the need and impact is greatest.  That information is not just important for the culture department, it may have value for every department in City Hall, from community services to public transport, and so helps ensure that when budgets are under pressure, the culture team has a good story to tell and the importance of access to culture is more evident. For example, in Warsaw this includes measuring dedicated funding for non-governmental organisations to meet citizen’s needs, including access to culture. Having a clear picture of how people feel they benefit from their engagement with culture helps build city strategies that are about values, not just numbers.   One city data analyst, talking about how culture was regarded by their city finance director, told us “We’re training our decision makers to ask the right questions”.

It enables rapid response to emergencies

Extreme weather events and other sudden climate-related calamities are becoming more frequent.  When cities have to respond to these events, they rarely think about the arts and culture, but cultural provision may have a crucial role in helping people come to terms with the catastrophe.   Having a clear and up-to-date idea of all the resources and people that are available, and what buildings or artefacts are most at risk, means the culture teams don’t have to be left behind when the priority of city administrations may be elsewhere.  The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of mapping to be able to identify and help the creative ecosystem amid a global crisis, as highlighted in World Cities Culture Forum’s 2022 research into pandemic recovery. For example, while the catastrophic wild fires were still raging in Los Angeles earlier this year, the county culture team was able to identify where help was needed, where artefacts needed to be rescued and how provision could be restored as rapidly as possible to help people feel their lives were returning to normality.  

From identifying trends to responding to emergencies, a strong data strategy turns insight into action. It gives cities and citizens the tools and evidence to embed culture across the city, plan effectively, respond quickly, and direct resources where they are needed most.