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BOISE, ID- Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, has selected Boise City Department of Arts & History as one of 100 communities to participate in the inaugural Local Arts Index (LAI). The LAI is an 18-month research initiative that provides local data to complement the National Arts Index. The findings from the Local Arts Index will be reported in late Fall 2011.

The Local Arts Index will be the first county-level study designed to measure the health and vitality of the arts industries throughout the United States. It will use a single methodology utilizing information gathered from research produced by the federal government and private research organizations and covering multiple industries, including nonprofit groups, for-profit arts businesses, employment figures, and more. When these quantitative measures are taken together, the Local Arts Index will provide a year-by-year and community-by-community comparison of the nation's arts sector.

Terri Schorzman, Director of the Department of Art & History described the department's interest in the project. "We are pleased to be part of this ambitious nationwide initiative. Information we elicit from the Local Arts Index study, along with the data we obtain from the Economic Impact Study that we are working on concurrently, will be valuable for planning and designing thoughtful, evidence-based strategies to better integrate art and culture into our community."

Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts added "The Local Arts Index is an incredible tool for local arts leaders and we are excited to work with our community partners over the coming year. The Local Arts Index will allow the arts groups to place their community in a national context and strengthen the arts in their schools, businesses, and homes."

The Kresge Foundation has awarded Americans for the Arts a $1.2 million grant to conduct the Local Arts Index and to help support the development of workshops and materials necessary to assist communities in the effective application of the local data. Research for the Local Arts Index is directed by Roland Kushner, PhD, through support from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.

For more information on the most recent National Arts Index results from the Americans for the Arts, see  http://www.artsusa.org/information_services/arts_index/001.asp.

For more information on the Local Arts Index, see   http://www.americansforthearts.org/news/press/2010/2010_01_19.asp.