Cultural Data Project Launches in Ohio
by Stephanie Dawson

Ohio Collaboration Creates Important Resource for Arts and Culture in Ohio Communities

This month hundreds of Ohio arts organizations across Ohio begin participating in the Ohio Cultural Data Project (CDP), a new statewide initiative to gather and analyze financial and participation information. Nonprofit arts and cultural organizations now have access to this new web-based tool that strengthens their management practice and financial reporting. The CDP will also provide policymakers and advocates with consistent, reliable information on Ohio’s cultural sector.

The Ohio Cultural Data Project is a collaboration among statewide cultural funders and features the first comprehensive information collection tool of its kind, giving organizations across Ohio the resources to easily report on their reach and impact. The initiative will provide information that nonprofits need to focus on increasing access to and participation in the arts, and respond to the cultural demands of people who live in Ohio.

Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Armond Budish said, “In today’s economy this project is an example of how partnership and collaboration build the arts within Ohio’s communities and statewide.”

Arts and cultural organizations of every size routinely face a considerable workload associated with collecting and reorganizing information for financial supporters. The Ohio Cultural Data Project helps streamline the application process for organizations by giving them the technology to organize their financial data to match each participating funder’s requirements. Groups will save time in the grant-application process by completing one online form each year that will supply information for the financial portion of many different grant applications.

The Ohio Cultural Data project will give our arts and cultural organizations a powerful tool to analyze their data, compare their operations to peer organizations, and streamline their grant request process,” said Julie Henahan, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council. “This collaboration will be one of the single most important advances for Ohio’s cultural community for many years to come.”

“The Cultural Data Project helps groups spend less time on the process of collecting and organizing their data and allows them to focus instead on benefits to the community,” said Neville Vakharia, Director, Cultural Data Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Ohio Cultural Data Project is the result of a statewide collaborative partnership of public and private funders and organizations, including the Ohio Arts Council, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, The Cleveland Foundation, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, Culture Works, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Fine Arts Fund, GAR Foundation, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Additional support in Ohio is provided by the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, The George Gund Foundation and the P&G Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation. The Ohio partnership is committed to benefiting communities by streamlining the process for cultural organizations. Hundreds of organizations in Ohio will be participating in the project by 2011.

Senator Bill Harris, President of the Ohio Senate, said, “The arts enrich our communities and encourage individuals to interact in new ways. Ohio has so many creative and talented people. Collaboration will ensure that more of us have the chance to see all that our great state has to offer.”

The Cultural Data Project was developed in Pennsylvania in 2004 and is overseen by a funder collaboration led by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which houses and administers the project for each state, thus ensuring comparable, standardized data across regions. The Cultural Data Project is quickly becoming a national model and has expanded across the country with systems currently in place in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. For more information about the Ohio Cultural Data Project visit www.ohculturaldata.org.

The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

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