CREATIVE COMMUNITY INDEX Measuring Progress Toward A Vibrant Silicon Valley IN QUIRIES INTO CULTURE SERIES Published by C U LTURAL INITIATIVES SILICON VA L L E Y Welcome The purpose of the C r e a t i ve Community Index i s : I wish to extend my deep gratitude to the funding sources and partners who have made • To describe, based on quantitative research, the 2005 Creative Community Index possible. the cultural landscape of Silicon Valley, with The concept of including analysis on the special emphasis on the arts. cultural views and aspirations of local leaders • To illuminate correlations between Silicon originated with American Leadership Forum Valley’s cultural vitality and its capacity to Silicon Valley, which also contributed gener- generate creative ideas significant to the ously to the project. The release of the 2005 region’s economic and social well-being. Index coincides with a major conference on creativity in Silicon Valley for which the Silicon Valley has a tradition of gathering Forum was a key organizer. The James Irvine objective data on a wide range of regional Foundation provided the initial grant support, issues of public import. For many years, Joint and major funding was also provided by the Venture: Silicon Valley Network has produced John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The an annual Index of Silicon Valley, which presents David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The extensive data and analysis on the region’s William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and economy, environment, society and area stew- Adobe Systems Incorporated. Garnering sup- ardship. Joint Venture’s steady research has port for research and analysis is usually diffi- been instrumental in several important region- cult, but these funders all expressed a keen al initiatives related to transportation, educa- interest in the results of this effort. tion, housing and the economy. A special thanks to Frederick Ferrer, In 2002, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, Commission Chair of FIRST 5 Santa Clara with major support from the John S. and County, for the inspiration to collect data on James L. Knight Foundation, published the preschool children. Credit is also due to the first Creative Community Index. It presented Survey and Policy Research Institute at San data on cultural trends in Silicon Valley, the José State University, whose staff conducted a first since 20/21: A Regional Cultural Plan for remarkable random telephone survey of adult the New Millennium in 1997. Following up on residents of the Valley, and to the San José the 2002 Index, Cultural Initiatives separately Office of Cultural Affairs and Arts Council commissioned two anthropologists, Dr. Pia Silicon Valley for their assistance. Moriarty and Dr. Maribel Alvarez, to conduct field research and write first-ever reports on the condition of this region’s participatory (amateur) cultural activities. Dr. Moriarty’s report was released in May 2004, and Dr. Alvarez’s work will be published this fall. Susan Hammer Board President Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley 1 Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley Board of Directors Susan Hammer, President Ann Gralnek Kim Walesh, Vice President Michael Hackworth Robert Wayman, Treasurer Christine Harris Mai Bui Kim Polese Virginia Chang Kiraly Dr. Harry Saal Creative Community Index Advisors Paul Bains, Saint Samuels Church of God in Christ Chris Block, Charities Housing Development Corporation Dennise Carter, Carter McNulty Alexa Cortes Culwell Debra L. Dunn Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council Chris Eyre, Legacy Venture John Ford, Stanford University Susan Goldberg, San Jose Mercury News Teresa Guerrero-Daley, Superior Court, Santa Clara County Ammar Hanafi, Alloy Ventures Talat Hasan, India Community Center Marc Jones, Visionael Corporation Vani Kola, Certus Diane Savage, Cooley Godward Scott Seaman, Los Gatos Police Department Bryan Stolle, Agile Software Amari Romero Thomas, United Way Silicon Valley Chui L. Tsang, San Jose City College Authors John Kreidler and Philip J. Trounstine Contributing Writer Jessica Zenk Technical Advisors Alan Brown, Brendan Rawson and Kim Walesh Editor and Production Manager Laura Jason Survey Manager Vanessa Shieh Design and Publication San Francisco Study Center D a ta Archive Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Arc h i ve (CPA N DA), Princeton Un i ve r s i t y Copyright © 2005 Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley Printed in the United States of America Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley 1153 Lincoln Avenue, Suite I San José, California 95125-3009 Telephone: 408.283.7000, Facsimile: 408.283.2127 www.ci-sv.org This publication is made possible through the generous support of American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Adobe Systems Incorporated. Cover Photo: Girls perform classical Indian dances for packed crowds at the Hindu Temple and Community Center, South Bay, in Sunnyvale. Photographer: Raj Bhanot 2 We want leaders and residents to operate from an informed position in making Silicon Valley a more lively, satisfying, innovative place in which to live and work. Contents Welcome 1 Key Findings 4 What’s New in 2005 5 Why Art and Culture Are Important to Silicon Valley 5 The Cultural Ecology of Silicon Valley 6 Cultural Literacy: Children and Youth 8 Cultural Literacy: Adults 11 Participatory Cultural Practice 12 Professional Cultural Goods and Services: Nonprofit Cultural Organizations 14 Professional Cultural Goods and Services: Artists 17 Cultural Views and Aspirations of Regional Leaders 18 Recommendations 21 Sources of Data and Methodology 22 3 Arts and culture have vital practical relevance for the economy • Many Silicon Valley adults are and civil society of Silicon Valley. amateur artists: 55% reported par- ticipating in some cultural genre. The leading form of expression was playing a musical instrument (30%), followed by creative writing hours each school week. A major (22%), dancing (19%), painting KEY FINDINGS effort to restore arts education in (18%) and drawing (13%). They Creativity is widely the Valley’s K-5 schools is now average four to five hours per under way in three-fourths of week on these activities. valued in Silicon Valley Santa Clara County school dis- where many residents tricts as a result of Silicon Valley’s • The 52% of respondents who 1997 20/21 Regional Cultural Plan. participate in some form of civic exercise creativity on An independent evaluation of this activity and the 39% who volun- the job and in their effort shows strong results, but it teer regularly were significantly will take much more work to more likely to say arts play a daily lives attain the three to four hours a major role in their lives than those week of instruction favored by the who do neither (43% for both civic Overall, the regional “creative survey respondents. participants and volunteers, 31% commons,” the environment that of nonparticipants and 33% of • Significant correlations were promotes the generation of original nonvolunteers). These findings found between adults employed ideas, appears to be strong. are the strongest evidence among in creative occupations and their the 2005 data to support the • And yet, 58% of regional leaders participation in the arts. The assertion that the arts and culture surveyed for the Index said that Index’s 2005 telephone survey are correlated to enhanced civic Silicon Valley is slipping in its of 1,010 adults identified 406 engagement. ability to attract new creative tal- employed in jobs requiring cre- ent, even though creative workers ative skills. A significantly higher None of our data suggest that the want to live and work here and proportion of people in creative cultural ecology of Silicon Valley is, enjoy the region once they move occupations, 41%, indicated that as yet, in a state of crisis. Significant here. The data further suggest the arts played a major role in problems are apparent in K-12 arts that improvements in the arts, their lives, compared with 34% education, nonprofit cultural organ- leisure opportunities, and vibrant for people in noncreative jobs. izations, and for professional artists. urban neighborhoods would Creative workers consistently Significant opportunities are evi- make Silicon Valley more attrac- said they attended cultural out- dent in reaping greater public bene- tive to creative, talented people. ings more often than those whose fits from a robust tier of amateur jobs did not involve significant arts practice, and fulfilling the A dramatic finding is just how • creativity. For example, 33% of region’s aspiration to establish an many residents of the region want creative workers attended musical authentic cultural identity. These to learn more about the arts, and concerts, compared with 27% not problems and opportunities can be want children to receive substan- engaged in creative work. For addressed through intelligent lead- tial arts training from preschool movie attendance, the comparison ership, a Silicon Valley tradition. through high school. Nine of 10 was 63%/54%; for theater, 26%/21%; adults said arts education should for museums, 21%/15%; and for be required in the schools, and the dance, 23%/18%. Moreover, people median response was that they in creative jobs favored mandatory should be taught art three to four arts education at an exceptionally high rate, 92%, and they favored more hours per week of arts education than people in non- creative jobs. 4 WHAT’S NEW IN 2005 More and Better Data in the Index As in 2002, the 2005 Creative Community Index has • Recognizing that leadership is pivotal in any initia- assembled data from original surveys and secondary tive aimed at improving the regional cultural ecology, sources to achieve a broad understanding of Silicon the 2005 Index includes data from a new survey of Valley’s cultural ecology. Several new features have leaders in business, civic affairs, labor, education, been incorporated into the 2005 edition.