A Date with Data:
How much do we love our artists?

Welcome to Data Dives, Mass Culture’s new data learning series! This program features three open online sessions exploring diverse data approaches to help you better understand your organization’s impact, followed by an opportunity for arts organizations to receive personalized one-on-one coaching for deeper support.

Session outline

Intro

What measurable, meaningful impacts is your arts organization making on the world around you?

Surely one thing is true: You are making an impact on the careers of artists.

Hopefully a positive impact?

Let’s spend a couple of hours together reflecting on how data can help you define the impact you’re making when it comes to the working conditions and careers of artists.

This session will provide even the most low-tech soul with the confidence and skills to reflect on existing and hidden sources of data and to design impact measurements that matter when it comes to the goal of supporting sustainable artist careers.

Learn from organizations that have thought deeply about their role as incubators for artistic and administrative careers and designed impact tools to help tell that story.
Be introduced to data empowerment approaches and a “palette of practices” that will help you reflect on your organization’s data to see what it reveals about your impact on artists.
Try out “no tech” pen-and-paper data sketching as an enjoyable and essential first step in discovering the stories that already exist in different data and information sources. No artistic skills necessary.
Get practical guidance from a data coach and seasoned arts administrator on how to create beautiful, interactive data visualizations in a low/no-budget context without needing to learn how to code.

A new mindset: data making as a strategic, creative and human undertaking, rather than as something scary, dull, technical.
Simple, creative approaches to working with data that even the most low-tech soul can use
Demonstrations and time in the sandbox with no-code tools that create beautiful interactive data visualizations without too much of a tech learning curve or financial investment
How to use the data you have to demonstrate your impact on artists and your commitment to supporting good (even great!) working conditions for artists.

What You'll Learn

2 hours

February 14 2025, 2-4pm Eastern

Anyone who works in the arts, no matter your pre-existing relationship with data, who wants to see better working conditions for artists and cultural workers in Canada, and is interested in data visualization and community data empowerment.

Session outline

Session introduction

Introduce working hypothesis
Case study/session origin

Palette of Practices – No Tech/Low Tech Tools

Break

Palette of Practices – No Code Tools

Roundtable/Sandbox session

Next steps and wrap up

Session end

How to prepare

We will be making low-tech data visualizations during the session. Please bring a pen/pencil and paper. iPads are fine as a drawing tool, too, if you prefer.

If you have other art supplies like markers, coloured pencils, playdough/clay, scissors, glue stick, coloured paper, etc (anything can be made into data art!) you can also bring those for added fun.

Optional (for keeners!)

We will be reflecting on how artists interact with arts organizations, and the tangible impacts those interactions have on the careers and livelihoods of artists. If you would like to do any advance thinking (totally optional!) about your impact and the data you might have available in your organization, here are some reflection questions:

Do any artists come to mind who have really benefited from working with your organization? If so, how?
Do you have payroll information or other sources of information about amounts paid to artists and arts workers that you could look at to better understand the impact of your organization on people’s livelihoods and careers? If so, how far back do these records go?

Erica Mattson

Erica runs an independent creative consultancy, serving as a strategic advisor and coach to leaders in the social impact and cultural sectors locally and nationally, as well as co-producing innovative research, systems change and sector development projects in collaboration with a network of artistic, academic and institutional partners.

She’s also an associate with Scale Collaborative, a social impact consultancy based in Victoria, BC, and a research associate with Simon Fraser University’s School of Computing Science, partnering with researchers on arts-based approaches to co-design, data visualization and community data empowerment projects. She’s a member of the Board of Governors at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and is also a collaborator with Creative Coast, a collaboration lab of Vancouver Island collective of artists, arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs.

Erica is known for her creative, practical approaches to problem solving and change making. She brings a toolkit of expertise that includes strategic communications, systems change practice, organizational transformation and change management, and strategic planning, as well as 20 years of experience helping governments, cultural institutions, non-profits, and funding agencies create transformative change for the people and communities they serve.

Through the DNA Platform and accompanying learning tools, DNA will empower the arts sector with a data-driven mindset, showcasing the genuine value and immense impact this sector brings to society. Thank you to our partners and funders for supporting this vital initiative.

If you believe in the power of data- and research-driven work, donate to Mass Culture today!