http://francescadavis.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] francescadavis.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] davis_square2013-11-20 05:32 pm

Creative Economy Survey

The Somerville Arts Council is conducting a survey on the city's creative community and they could use your help.  They're even sweetening the deal - complete the survey and you'll be entered to win one of four $50 Amazon gift cards.

From the Somerville Arts Council:

Much of our success at the Somerville Arts Council is contingent on our listening to the creative community in Somerville. Our programming seeks to reflect the rich cultural diversity of the City and the artists, designers, and performers who have made it home. Similarly the policies we push at the City level attempt to be responsive to the needs of local artists.

As Somerville approaches a crossroads in terms of the type of change and development it expects, we need to develop surveys and reports to understand the needs of the creative community and identify points of leverage for policy intervention. Toward that goal, we are launching an asset survey and analysis with UMass Center for Policy Analysis.

Although there is no clear definition of the creative economy, it essentially encompasses those businesses, organizations, and individuals who produce and distribute cultural goods, services, and intellectual property - from art, film, photography, and music to architecture, advertising, and jewelry design.

Somerville is well-known for attracting and supporting artists; this report will make legible to others in the State how to serve the creative community. While economic impacts are an inherently crude measure of artistic expression, they are an important part of the larger narrative of how creative activity increases cultural and economic well-being.

Please take the survey now. It is only 12 questions.

All information, whether personal or financial, collected in the survey will be kept in strict confidence before being aggregated for the report.

Thanks for your support.

Take the survey.

[identity profile] greyautumnrain.livejournal.com 2013-11-20 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess I'm being contrary here, but since your survey assumes that all responders are involved in at least one type of creative endeavor it seems that you do not care what the non-artsy community members think. No gifts certificates if we aren't artistic and are honest about it, eh?

[identity profile] prunesnprisms.livejournal.com 2013-11-21 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I felt similar. I'm not in a creative profession, I have an art and a couple crafts I pursue in my spare time. But I got stuck at the first question.

[identity profile] miss-chance.livejournal.com 2013-11-25 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
My understanding is that the intention of this survey is to map the size/scope of the local creative economy, because that's an economic sector that is hard to measure and yet is considered to be an important economic indicator.

It's not an opinion poll, it's more of a measuring tool.

If the city was trying to find out how many people had dogs, where they walked them, what breeds etc., the questions would exclude those of us who don't have dogs.

Edited 2013-11-25 06:06 (UTC)

[identity profile] greyautumnrain.livejournal.com 2013-11-26 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
That's all well and good, but what I was getting at is that it is somewhat bad form to post a survey with an incentive to take it in a fairly broad public forum if the survey is only meant for a subset of the community. It's exactly that kind of move that encourages people like me to believe that they city spends far too much money and energy on supporting the "creative community".
ifotismeni: (Phantom x Pacifica  - peacekeeper)

[personal profile] ifotismeni 2013-11-21 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
interesting. i have to admit though i think this excludes, to the survey's detriment, the large amount of people who are heavily involved in the somerville arts scene but can't afford to live or work here. somerville's influence goes far beyond just those who live in the town.