Local Arts Index (LAI), United States, 2009-2015 (ICPSR 36984)
Version Date: Mar 2, 2018 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Roland J. Kushner, Muhlenberg College;
Randy Cohen, Americans for the Arts (Organization)
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36984.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The Local Arts Index was developed in response to an interest in "scaling-down" the National Arts Index (NAI) to the community level and to the growing demand for comparative information on arts at the community level. The LAI was developed in partnership with arts leadership organizations in over 100 communities and is comprised of a variety of indicators to understand who we are as a community and how that manifests itself through cultural activities and participation. Indicators are a systematic data collection initiative that is conducted regularly over time. The LAI compresses many arts indicators into one number that is calculated the same way and at regular time intervals, making it easy to compare performance between time periods.
The LAI collected county level data such as nonprofit arts revenue and expenditures, creative businesses and nonprofit arts organizations per 100,000 residents, arts share of businesses, employees, establishments, and payroll, estimated expenditures on arts equipment, number of visual and performing arts degrees, and adult population attending arts and culture activities. Demographic information includes median measures of age, household income, and year housing was built, as well as population density, and population share that was over 65, non-English speakers, and non-white.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
County
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of the Local Arts Index (LAI) is to provide a set of measures to understand the breadth, depth and character of the cultural life of a community, as well as provide a framework for relating arts and culture to community priorities and aspirations.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The P.I.s used the county as the unit of analysis; the 2010 Census lists 3,143 counties or equivalents in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. To measure a wide range of local arts and culture activity, the P.I.s gathered several hundred micro-level, specific measures of arts activity, resources, participation, and character, from which a smaller number of useful county-level indicators of arts and culture were produced. The P.I.s set each of the indicators in a conceptual framework, the Community Arts Vitality Model. The secondary data sources provide information for varying numbers of counties. Typically, there is ample data to describe urban counties, less for rural counties. The indicators span multiple years, and almost all are from 2011 or later.
Sample View help for Sample
Secondary data was obtained from over 25 different sources including: the federal government; private membership organizations, professional societies, and trade groups; research institutions; and commercial data providers. Criteria for including a particular data point in the Local Arts Index are:
- The indicator has at its core a meaningful measurement of arts and culture activity
- The data are measured at the county level
- The data are produced annually by a reputable organization
- The data are statistically valid, even if based on sample
- Future years of data are expected to be available for use in the Index
- The data are affordable within project budget constraints
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Counties within the United States.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Americans for the Arts
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Bureau of the Census
Chorus America
Bureau of Labor Statistics
League of Historic American Theatres
National Endowment for the Arts
Internal Revenue Service
Institute for Museum and Library Science
American Association for State and Local History
National Dance Educators Organization
Association of American Museums
National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts
National Center for Education Statistics
Opera America
National Art Education Association
Theatre Communications Group
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Scarborough Research
Dun and Bradstreet
National Parks Service
National Office for Arts Accreditation
National Association for Music Education
League of American Orchestras
Claritas-Nielsen
National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute
Educational Theatre Association
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
This study has 3146 cases and 147 variables. Variables include county-level information on adult cultural participation, nonprofit arts expenditures, per capita arts expenditures, nonprofit art program revenues, government art grants per capita, arts-related establishments per 100,000 residents, weight of arts sector in community's business population, grant success rate, institutional or entrepreneurial factor of cultural character, number of historic places per 100,000 residents, and professional arts training. Demographic information includes bureau of economic analysis region, population density, median age, population share over 65, population share that are non-English speakers, population share that is non-white, median year housing built, population share with a bachelor's degree, household income, population share commuting to work, per capita income, and total population.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2018-03-02
Version History View help for Version History
2018-03-02 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.