Municipal Cultural Planning: Indicators and Performance Measures

The purpose of this guidebook is to provide municipal staff and other interested parties with a set of indicators that they can use to measure and evaluate the inputs, processes and outcomes of Municipal Cultural Planning (MCP) in their communities.

The guidebook provides a menu of over 70 indicators that municipal staff can use to choose what they want to measure in their community. The menu is presented in the form of a table that lists the indicator (what we measure); the metric (how we measure it); the data source (where to get the information) and frequency (how regularly the information is updated).

The guidebook provides ways of measuring the impacts of MCP as:

• Inputs primarily in terms of money;
• Processes that identify, strengthen and leverage cultural resources; integrate MCP into municipal planning and decision making;
• Outcomes of MCP in terms of creativity, wealth, quality places, social cohesion and the organizational change that results from engaging in MCP.

This guidebook discusses indicators and how to choose them; identifies data sources that are available to municipal staff; and discusses data collection methodologies.

Where municipalities already do cultural planning it is hoped that this guidebook will enable them to be better able to measure its impacts. For municipalities that have not yet adopted MCP, we hope that the guidebook will demonstrate to decision makers that the impacts of MCP can be measured and the benefits evaluated and that this will in turn encourage them to support MCP.