NEMA News
Fall 2008

NEMA is pleased to assist the New En-gland Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) inpromoting its new public service,CultureCount: New England’s CulturalDatabase. CultureCount (www.culturecount.org) complements NEFA’s creative economy research byproviding data on cultural organizations in the New England region,using the same definitional structure as the recent report “The Creative Economy: A New Definition” (NEFA, 2007). This definition includes museums of all disciplines and historical societies as well as artists and other creative businesses. InArlington alone (where NEMA’s office islocated) there are 94 organizations listed,ranging from the Arlington Historical Society to Old Schwamb Mill to the Armenian Cultural Foundation. Constantly updated and expanded, the databasecurrently houses 22,856 directory listings and offers a variety of search featuresand research tools.

CultureCount also offers a pilot programin Massachusetts that allows individualsto track the economic impact of culturalorganizations in their town or region.This is a great tool for advocacy! The opportunity to explore a community and research cultural nonprofits, businesses and individuals and the ability to analyze the impact of cultural assets or investment via the economic impact calculator are reasons why every organization, large or small, in New England should sign up and be counted. As the only regional cultural database in the country, CultureCount provides New England arts and humanities agencies, researchers, cultural organizations, funders, policy makers, economists and the general public with a wealth of research information to support analysis,advocacy and policy development.

Founded in 1976, NEFA administers ninegrantmaking programs that support theperforming arts, public art, and Native American artists. NEFA also leads projects and initiatives that range from the analysis of the impact ofthe creative economy to the creation of online tools which link and ad-vance the regional, national and international cultural community. The mission of NEFA is to creatively support the movement of people, ideas,and resources in the arts within New England and beyond, make vital connections between artists and audiences, and build the strength, knowledge and leadership of the region’s creative sector.

NEFA is a 501 (c) 3 that operates with funding from the National Endowmentfor the Arts, the New England state arts agencies, and from corporations, foundations and individuals.