Get counted

• The Americans for the Arts 2012 Annual Convention was in San Antonio in June, where NEFA Research Manager Dee Schneidman promoted New England's creative economy and learned from fellow arts councils across the U.S. at the creative economy peer group roundtable.

• At the conference, AFTA released the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study IV. This national analysis goes hand in hand with NEFA's New England creative economy services. AFTA used CultureCount listings for New England study participants, and provided a local complement to NEFA's state-wide analysis for New England (found in the 2011 report, New England's Creative Economy: Nonprofit Sector Impact).

• The National Endowment for the Arts' Office of Research & Analysis awarded its first ever arts research grants to investigate the value and impact of the arts in the U.S. The Creative Economy Coalition of the National Creativity Network (administered by the Creative Alliance Milwaukee) is one of 15 recipients and will investigate the possibility of a national research defition of the creative economy. NEFA's Dee Schneidman will serve on the Advisory Council to the project, bringing the lessons learned from NEFA's long time research in this area, while also gaining insight from the working group to continue the evolution of NEFA's research definition from New England's Creative Economy: A New Definition. We'll keep you posted on what develops!