From Data to Development: Empowering how we Define the Creative Economy

The creative economy is a vital part of communities across Massachusetts, contributing to jobs, revenue, and the overall vibrancy of our cities and towns. Quantifying the true scale and impact of this sector has historically been a challenge. That is, until the New Bedford Economic Development Council (NBEDC) partnered with Zapalac Advisors to undertake a groundbreaking study to map and analyze the creative economy in their city. Margo Saulnier, Director of Creative Strategies and Arts-Based Initiatives for the NBEDC, and Laurie Zapalac, PhD and Principal of Zapalac Advisors, share insights from this pioneering research effort and discuss how the findings are already being used to drive advocacy, funding, and economic development strategies.

Uncovering the Creative Landscape

When we started this project, we knew the creative economy was a key part of New Bedford's identity and economic base, but we didn't have the hard data to back that up. It took several months to develop a methodology that would provide a comprehensive, granular view of the creative sector in the city. New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)’s reports on the New England creative economy, and in particular, their industry code groups, were invaluable as a starting point for this research. Rather than relying on anonymized data sources like most previous reports, Zapalac Advisors took an innovative approach, scrubbing and analyzing non-anonymized business listings from a subscription dataset to identify the specific companies, nonprofits, and individual creatives that make up New Bedford's creative ecosystem. This allowed us to not only verify the diversity of creative activities happening on the ground but also quantify the scale of the sector. Being able to see the actual names and types of businesses was invaluable, and it revealed some surprising findings, like the strong presence of manufacturing and production-oriented creative companies that we didn't fully appreciate before. The research uncovered that in 2022, New Bedford's creative economy encompassed over 3,370 direct jobs across 1,893 entities, generating an estimated $306 million in annual revenue. This data has provided powerful ammunition for us to advocate for increased funding and support for the sector.

Having a New Lens on Creative Activity

The report also helps put findings from other research into context, such as the Americans for the Arts’ reports on Arts & Economic Prosperity and the SMU DataArts study. This enables us to ask new questions about how we are defining arts, culture and creativity, and importantly, advance the way that creative and cultural vibrancy is understood, such that the full range of creative contributors are acknowledged, not just the traditional players.

The findings seed exciting new questions to be explored, for instance, about how we understand culinary arts and its linkages with New Bedford’s commercial seafood industry, and the role of regional farms. The more we reveal that creativity has impacts beyond the traditional domains of arts and culture—that it plays essential roles in every industry through design, creative thinking and storytelling—the more successful we will be in building support for arts, culture and creativity in our communities.

Creatives as Catalysts for Revitalization

One of the interesting insights from this report is a more robust picture of the role of creatives and creative organizations in driving rehabilitation and revitalization of historic buildings and districts in New Bedford. The report has proven valuable in the NBEDC’s conversations with real estate developers and business recruitment efforts.

“The creative sector is as important as manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and the maritime sectors in powering the economy. For us, it’s more than a nice thing to have, like frosting on a cake. It is the cake. These are real jobs, with real skilled practitioners.” - Derek Santos, Executive Director, NBEDC

This is something we’ve known intuitively, but the report further illustrated how creatives play a role both in creating the supply of and demand for real estate in New Bedford. On the supply creation side, there are architects specializing in preservation and sustainability craftspeople, public artists and signage companies imbuing the building stock with new energy. On the demand side, along with studio artists there is a whole range of creative small and medium sized businesses—from upcycling fashion companies to interesting boutique retail, to specialty musical instrument companies, to printers, to creative youth development programs—who are producing in these spaces. We have more work to do to understand how these findings can inform stabilization strategies to ensure creatives are not displaced as demand for real estate continues to rise. This research gives us a great starting point for that investigation.

Having a clear, data-driven story about the creative economy's size and economic impact has been incredibly helpful in making the case for why it deserves more attention and investment. We shared the report with our legislative delegation, the mayor's office, and our major funders in 2024 when the state was finalizing the budget. We advocated for Mass Cultural Council’s higher allocation along with several other creative sector agenda items including the Downtown Cultural Vitality Act. A portion of this act, called the Downtown Vitality Fund, was included in the final version of the “Mass Leads Act,” the economic development bond bill signed by Governor Healey in November 2024.

Using Data to Drive Advocacy

The data helps us tell a richer story about the vibrancy and diversity of our creative community. It demonstrates that culture is essential on many levels––shaping identity, strengthens social bonds, and fuels the economy. Take the Cape Verdean Recognition Week, for example—for over 50 years it has celebrated Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean American traditions in New Bedford. Events like this honor unique cultural practices, play a key role in community placemaking and placekeeping, and deliver significant economic ripple effects, as people travel from all over the country to attend.

We need to be thinking about how this research can be a catalyst for deeper community engagement and advocacy. Having good data at the city level is critical for the development of durable funding mechanisms to support the creative economy.

As other cities and regions in Massachusetts consider undertaking similar creative economy research, we would emphasize the importance of taking a comprehensive, community-driven approach. This isn't just about numbers; it's about validating the role of creatives in your local economy and ecosystem.

Lessons for Future Research

As we look to the future, we are already identifying ways to build on the initial research. One key lesson is the value of engaging the creative community from the very start. Now that this new methodology has been created, we would advise other towns and cities to involve representatives from different creative sectors—like architects, culinary artists, and manufacturers—even earlier in the data vetting process. This will make the data scrubbing processes even more efficient. Starting with the NEFA industry code groups as a foundation is still relevant, but working with a subcommittee of community members to identify the most meaningful code groups for a city is crucial. Creatives know their community and can help identify missing entities, providing valuable insights to refine the research methodology even further. We also suggest exploring ways to directly engage creative businesses and individuals to gather more granular revenue and employment data. Even if it's just a sample, getting that firsthand information can help validate data sources and contextualize the findings in a powerful way.

Seeing Arts, Culture and Creativity in Massachusetts’s Competitive Advantage

# We’re excited about the future of New Bedford’s creative sector and proud that this work revealed more accurately its contribution to the city. The data we've analyzed points to a larger picture of how Massachusetts thrives as a creative state because of its exposure to diverse ideas and places that support cultural intermixing. This is evident across all levels, from independent artists to major employers, all driving innovation in creative spaces. We believe other communities have their own creative stories to tell. It’s time for Massachusetts to explore how essential culture and creativity are to our economy and capacity for innovation. We look forward to what future research will reveal.