Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University DataArts collects and utilizes data from arts and culture organizations to support data-informed decisions and a vibrant and equitable arts sector. This organizational effectiveness grant supports internal capacity building to deepen the organization’s awareness, knowledge, skill, policies, and practices around equity, inclusion, and diversity. Strengthening the organization's equity-focused competencies supports its practices and outcomes, and contributes to a Bay Area arts ecosystem that has examined and reflects an understanding of equity in the arts. Support for Southern Methodist University DataArts advances the Performing Arts Program’s overarching strategic framework.

The team involved in this grant — Matthew R. Keller, Fred Block, and Marian Negoita — did pioneering research that documented the central role played by the U.S. federal government in fostering innovation. This grant will allow the team to return to the field to collect fresh data on key sites where innovation policy is carried out. The data collection will enable an assessment of how the innovation system has evolved over the last decade, and on strategies pursued among the networks of decentralized agencies pursuing innovation. The research aims to build on this data to develop and refine knowledge of alternative approaches to neoliberal governance that are consistent with how innovation works.

Southern Methodist University (SMU) DataArts is an online platform that collects the financial, programmatic, and operational data of arts and culture organizations throughout the United States. The standardized tool provides organizations and funders with information and analyses to make data-informed decisions and support a vibrant and equitable arts sector. SMU DataArts also commissions, enables, and disseminates research based on the data it holds and maintains. The scope of its data collection, data integration, and research is national and multidisciplinary. Over the past 15 years, the organization has partnered with arts funders and service organizations to collect information on over 3,100 organizations in California. Support of SMU DataArts aligns with the Performing Arts Program’s goal to support the ongoing effectiveness of the sector’s infrastructure.