Dear Colleague:

As you may know, the Cultural Data Project (CDP) has embarked on the implementation of a three-year strategic plan, which calls for transforming the data collection platform to make it more relevant, easier to use, more accurate, and more inclusive. One major change to the platform will be a short survey to collect demographic information about the leadership and workforce of cultural organizations.

For the past year, Dance/NYC has been working closely with the CDP and a committee of field practitioners, service organization representatives, researchers, and subject matter experts to help determine which questions matter and how they should be asked. The result of our collective efforts is a short survey that collects demographic data on heritage, age, gender, sexual identity, geography, and disability status at the individual rather than the organizational level. This distinction, which allows for individual self-identification, was made in order to be as inclusive as possible while eliminating the potential for bias-based profiling in organizational demographic data collection efforts.

Dance/NYC has agreed to pilot this new survey with you in the hopes that you will share feedback with us and the CDP before it is incorporated into the new CDP platform and offered to the field at-large. Collecting and sharing this information is strongly encouraged as a best practice that can make your work and the work of the larger arts field more effective; however, this survey is entirely voluntary. While CDP will have access to all individual survey responses, as there is no identifying information in the survey itself, all responses will remain anonymous.

Issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity have become an increasingly prominent part of the cultural dialogue both nationally and locally. Engaging in honest and provocative conversation around these issues with our staffs, boards, artists, and program participants is critical for making sure that our work continues to resonate with the communities from which it draws its strength - now and for the next generation. Dance/NYC and many of you have taken part in a separate survey issued to grantees of the City of New York, and we are eager to build on this momentum to facilitate your participation in CDP's survey so that you may make your voices heard.

Please forward this email and share the survey with your staff and board, at a minimum. In the interest of capturing the full breadth of your workforce, we would also encourage you to share it with your volunteers and independent contractors, if possible. We ask that you and your colleagues complete the survey by December 11th. The survey takes approximately five minutes to complete. Your input will determine how we move forward. Thank you in advance for participating in this process.

Lane Harwell
Executive Director
Dance/NYC