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Leah Horn
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WESTAF’s CVSuite™ Releases the Top 10 Music Cities You Need to Know About
New Creative Vitality List showcases music cities with populations under 500,000
DENVER, CO, Sept. 30, 2020—Following up on its 30 Most Creative Small Cities list released in spring, the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), a nonprofit arts service organization and leading provider of technology solutions for the arts, is excited to announce its newest Creative Vitality List™, the Top 10 Music Cities You Need to Know About.
The second in WESTAF’s series of data-driven lists that profile and celebrate the arts, culture, and creativity of America’s most vital and vibrant places and spaces, the Top 10 Music Cities You Need to Know About showcases the thriving local music scenes of smaller cities across the country. WESTAF’s Creative Vitality Lists offer a snapshot of various trends within neighborhoods, regions, and states and filter, compare, and contrast creative economy data to highlight creative vitality in communities across the United States.
In addition to some of the cities featured in our first list, such as Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Kingston, New York; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Top 10 Music Cities You Need to Know About list also features newcomers like Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts and Taos, New Mexico. Using data from WESTAF’s CVSuite creative economy data tool, the Creative Vitality™ Index (CVI™) was utilized to measure and rank the creative economies of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with populations under 500,000. Developed by WESTAF, the CVI™ is a statistical metric of creative activity per capita within a region. The Index includes data sources from the nonprofit and for-profit arts sectors with indicators in creative occupations, nonprofit revenues, and creative industry sales.
“America’s arts, culture, and creative sectors contribute $877 billion to the economy each year,” said Christian Gaines, WESTAF’s executive director. “They account for 4.5% of the GDP and employ 5.1 million American workers. Live music is a huge part of that sector. Live music and travel will both survive this stubborn pandemic, so we hope this list gets you dreaming about the artists, clubs, and concerts that are waiting for you down the road.”
View the full Creative Vitality List of the Top 10 Music Cities You Need to Know About.
About CVSuite
Creative Vitality™ Suite provides high quality creative economy data and reporting to organizations to help them measure and demonstrate the impact of the creative economy. CVSuite was developed and is managed by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), a nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts. WESTAF assists state arts agencies, arts organizations, and artists in their quest to serve diverse audiences, enrich the lives of local communities, and provide access to the arts and arts education for all. Through innovative programming, advocacy, research, technology, and grantmaking, WESTAF encourages the creative advancement and preservation of the arts regionally and through a national network of customers and alliances.
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