On October 6th, Nordicity will present Advocating for the Arts: Measuring Impact at the Creative City Summit in Waterloo, Ontario. The annual summit will bring culture workers together to share ideas and work jointly to support arts and cultural development across Canada.
Louisa Plant, Manager at Nordicity, will present approaches to measuring sector impact. The presentation will outline key considerations and challenges.
The session will include a case study on the impact of the arts sector on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. In 2021, Nordicity and Creative Coast (formerly the Digital Innovation Group) conducted a study to discover the economic and social impacts of the regional arts sector. It found:
- The regional arts sector adds $910m in direct economic outputs a year
- Over 90% of participants see the local arts sector as foundational to economic, community, and individual wellness + other compelling findings.
There will be a live Q&A and discussion with Kera McHugh, Creative Coast Steering Committee member. Kera will share examples of how Creative Coast and an Island arts council have used the findings to date, and how they are working to improve data literacy. A facilitated discussion will follow on how the arts and culture sector can move forward together to collect and use data effectively.
Update: See the presentation slides here.