This article answers:
- What makes a technology investment worth state-level funding for the creative sector?
- How do you balance the need for comprehensive data with limited staff capacity?
- How can arts organizations move from static reports to longitudinal data that informs funding decisions?
_____
In EcoMap’s latest Ecosystem Talks webinar, Patrick Fisher, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and Karl Blischke, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Creative Industries, joined EcoMap CEO Sherrod Davis to share how they partnered to build a dynamic intelligence model that saves time, reveals long-term trends, and strengthens the case for continued investment in the creative sector.
What Pressure Points Are Arts Ecosystems Facing?
Fisher opened by describing the conditions arts organizations are navigating in 2025. Federal funding cuts, canceled grants, and threats to creative freedom are compounding challenges that many organizations haven’t fully recovered from since 2020.
“Our field has been in somewhat of a crisis mode for quite some time now,” Fisher said. “There are a lot of folks that work within our field and organizations that serve our field that hadn’t even fully recovered yet from the last crisis.”
The challenge extends beyond individual moments of crisis. Arts councils and cultural organizations face growing expectations to do more with less while struggling to communicate the value of work that often does not produce visible outputs. When ecosystems are as robust as Pittsburgh’s, there’s also an assumption that everyone is competing for the same fixed pool of funding rather than working to expand what’s available.
Fisher pointed to a recurring pattern across the three arts councils where he’s worked. Each attempted to build comprehensive event calendars, but the technology couldn’t support the vision without requiring unsustainable staff capacity. Organizations were asked to manually input information across multiple platforms, creating marketing fatigue without clear evidence of return on investment.
“When you’re thinking about something like a comprehensive calendar in particular, a lot of organizations have marketing fatigue,” Fisher explained. “They may be having to go and upload their events to 10 different sites, and there’s no good analytic data to say, well, what is actually leading people to attend your event.”
The same reporting fatigue extends to surveys and data requests. Smaller organizations often lack dedicated development staff, leaving executive directors to manage grant reports on top of program delivery.
Why Invest in Digital Infrastructure Now?
Despite these pressures, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council made a strategic decision to invest in new technology. The rationale centered on scaling impact without replicating staff.
“We have a very small team at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. We’re six folks,” Fisher said. “And we, as I mentioned, have an incredibly robust arts ecosystem. There is a high demand for our work.”
The council identified frequently asked questions that consumed staff time when those hours could be directed toward strategic issues. They also recognized that advocacy, storytelling, and policy work all require data to demonstrate both the strengths and vulnerabilities of the ecosystem.
Fisher described the council’s four core functions as an information hub, advocate, storyteller, and community builder. Each role feeds the others, but without systems to capture and share information efficiently, the work becomes unsustainable.
Pennsylvania Creative Industries supported this vision through what Blischke calls a catalyst grant. The state agency looks for projects that can make a difference locally while offering insights and replicable models for other communities.
“We’re very interested in the projects that come up from those across Pennsylvania that can make a difference in their community, but also can be replicated or provide insights to other communities,” Blischke said.
The investment reflected a broader belief that the creative sector needs better data infrastructure. Blischke compared it to tracking personal health metrics. Just as individuals monitor cholesterol or blood pressure over time, ecosystems need to understand their own trends, identify weaknesses, and inform policy decisions based on evidence.
“We need to know our numbers about our own sector,” Blischke said. “What’s happening? Who’s involved? Are there trends that we can look at from a more longitudinal look? Are there weaknesses that we should be addressing through policy?”
Why Does Longitudinal Data Matter More Than Snapshots?
Historically, the arts sector has conducted research every two to four years. These efforts require significant capacity and funding, but the intervals are too long given how quickly conditions can shift.
“A lot can change in two years or four years,” Fisher said. “And we actually need more timely data at our disposal and something that is showing trends over time.”
The solution they developed with EcoMap centers on ArtPulse, a nonprofit intelligence dashboard that uses publicly available 990 data to track financial health indicators across the arts ecosystem. While 990s have limitations, they provide standardized information collected consistently over time.
Fisher acknowledged that 990s don’t capture everything. Contributed revenue and grant revenue appear as a combined figure rather than separate line items. Smaller organizations file abbreviated versions with less detail. Filing timelines vary based on fiscal years and audit schedules.
“While there are shortcomings to 990s, you should not be allowing perfection to be the enemy of progress,” Fisher said.
By analyzing 990 data from 2010 to 2025, the dashboard reveals trends that would otherwise remain invisible. Are organizations improving, maintaining, or declining? Are the challenges short-term disruptions or indicators of longer-term structural issues?
The dashboard also segments organizations by budget size, recognizing that a small arts group operating on $75,000 annually faces different conditions than an institution with a $5 million budget.
“We recognize that not everybody in our field is an orange,” Fisher said. “We shouldn’t be comparing an apple to an orange based on the budget size.”
Individual organizations receive private access to their own personalized dashboards, showing how their financial health compares to similar organizations within their budget tier. This information proves valuable during leadership transitions, board recruitment, and strategic planning.
“When I joined the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, there was a lot of information I wish I had known on the front end versus the due diligence once you’re actually in the role,” Fisher said.
How Do You Map Where Culture Actually Happens?
The partnership with EcoMap also produced the Greater Pittsburgh Art Hub, a comprehensive resource platform for both organizations and individual artists working in the field.
The Art Hub maps direct services like framing, printing, and appraisal services alongside space-based resources, including artist studios, stage rentals, and coworking spaces. These assets typically have fixed physical addresses, making them relatively straightforward to track.
The complexity increases with presenting arts organizations, which often have separate administrative offices, rehearsal spaces, and performance venues. Organizations like the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre may present work in multiple community locations throughout the year.
Fisher described plans to map rentable venues so organizations don’t spend staff time tracking down options that meet their capacity needs. “When somebody like the River City Brass Band needs to do a performance, they don’t have to invest a ton of staff time into trying to track down all the 300-person capacity spaces.”
This spatial data matters beyond operational efficiency. Blischke noted that performances and cultural events shape the character of a place, influencing how local governments plan and allocate resources.
“When you have a space or a location where performances or other things are happening, that makes a big difference to that geography,” Blischke said.
He sees opportunity for creative asset mapping to inform comprehensive planning at the local government level. Where are creative districts forming? What policies support or hinder cultural development? How should municipalities think about planning around the creative assets they want to maintain and grow?
What Is the 80% Mindset?
Fisher and Davis discussed the tension between launching with an imperfect product and waiting until everything reaches polish. Fisher advocates for what he calls the 80% mindset.
The approach requires transparency with stakeholders. Clearly communicate that the work is iterative, that feedback is welcome, and that the goal is progress, not perfection. Fisher also emphasized choosing the right technology partner.
“Finding a partner that’s willing to not only just take what they have as an existing business model and really hear what you’re aspiring to do, and being receptive to the feedback that you provide along the way” is essential, Fisher said.
EcoMap demonstrated willingness to adapt its platform for the arts sector, even though it represented new territory for the company. Fisher described it as inviting EcoMap to join them in a different sandbox, testing whether tools built for entrepreneurial ecosystems could transfer to cultural infrastructure.
The partnership also required the Arts Council to commit its own capacity on the front end, recognizing that building something replicable means doing the trial and error testing that will ultimately benefit other organizations.
“We as an organization, in the position that we are, have to be willing to leverage some of our internal capacity to develop new tools, to do some of the trial and error testing, to iterate over time,” Fisher said.
How Can Technology Support the Whole Artist?
As the conversation continued, Fisher described how the council’s thinking about the hub has evolved. Originally designed to serve artists and arts organizations, the platform increasingly needs to address the full range of human and social services that creative practitioners require.
“We’re having internal conversations now about, we have all of these resources in the Greater Pittsburgh Art Hub but also recognizing it’s now in the present moment, likely important to integrate just human and social services into it as well,” Fisher said.
The recognition reflects a broader truth about ecosystem building. Supporting creative practitioners means supporting them as whole people navigating housing, childcare, healthcare, and financial stability alongside their artistic practice.
How Is Pennsylvania Building Capacity Statewide?
Blischke outlined Pennsylvania Creative Industries’ five focus areas: asset development, workforce development, community development, policy development, and visibility. Each connects to the work the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council is advancing.
The state agency’s mission centers on empowering, connecting, and amplifying creatives and creative industries across Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. The vision is aspirational: positioning Pennsylvania as a leader among states in supporting a robust creative sector.
The partnership with the Arts Council advances multiple priorities simultaneously. ArtPulse provides visibility into organizational health across the ecosystem. The the Greater Pittsburgh Art Hub strengthens asset development and workforce pathways. The model offers policy insights that can inform statewide strategy.
“We’ve had a long working relationship with the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council,” Blischke said. “Those are all things that we’re interested in supporting and frankly benefiting from the information and the services that they’re providing.”
What Does It Take to Shift From Survival to Strategic Positioning?
Fisher closed by encouraging other arts councils to think about how technology can help them function more effectively as information hubs, storytellers, and advocates.
“As societal pressures become more and more intense,” having systems to get information out quickly becomes more important, Fisher said.
The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council is now exploring how to integrate human and social services resources into the hub, recognizing that supporting the field means supporting people in survival mode to move toward thriving.
Blischke reinforced the importance of service and infrastructure organizations in healthy creative ecosystems. “The services and infrastructure around a healthy creative sector really do require organizations like an arts council in their region, or a similar type of organization that is looking at the ecosystem, that is providing services for those that are out there, providing, doing, making, and creating.”
The partnership between Pennsylvania Creative Industries and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council demonstrates what becomes possible when state agencies recognize technology-led innovation as catalyst work worth funding, and when local organizations are willing to test new approaches that can benefit the broader field.
Watch the full webinar on YouTube.
About the Speakers
Patrick Fisher is CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. His identity and perspective have been shaped by unconventional life experiences, including formative years in DIY venues and the counterculture music scene, couch surfing while traveling abroad, living in a dry cabin in Alaska, and traveling across North America in a van with his three-legged dog while paying off student loan debt. Since beginning his career in nonprofit arts in 2016, he has spent nearly a decade breaking down barriers, fostering inclusivity, and empowering communities, championing the arts as a catalyst for connection and transformation.
Karl Blischke became Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, now known as Pennsylvania Creative Industries, in 2018. He previously held a variety of senior-level public positions and has spent more than 20 years working in this space. Blischke worked in the Florida Governor’s Office of Tourism Trade and Economic Development, where he was responsible for promoting job creation and community development in the state’s rural communities, while directing programs aimed at increasing access to capital for small businesses. He also worked as the Director of Strategic Business Development for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, focusing on the state’s efforts to diversify its economy and business attraction, expansion, and retention efforts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you measure the impact of arts organizations?
Arts organizations can measure impact through longitudinal financial health data using public 990 filings. Tools like nonprofit intelligence dashboards track revenue diversity, grant dependency, fundraising efficiency, and cash flow trends over time, providing both ecosystem-wide views and individual organization metrics that inform funding decisions.
What data do funders want to see from arts nonprofits?
Funders want to see trends over time rather than single-year snapshots. They need evidence of financial stability, operational efficiency, and program impact. Standardized metrics across multiple years help demonstrate whether challenges are temporary disruptions or long-term structural issues requiring intervention.
How can arts councils reduce staff workload?
Arts councils can reduce workload by investing in technology that automates repetitive tasks like event calendar updates, resource directory maintenance, and basic information requests. This frees staff capacity to focus on strategic work like advocacy, fundraising, and building partnerships.
What is ecosystem mapping for the creative economy?
Ecosystem mapping for the creative economy identifies and tracks arts organizations, cultural assets, performance venues, artist services, and resources within a region. Dynamic mapping platforms update automatically and reveal where culture is happening, helping funders and policymakers make informed decisions about supporting the sector.
How do you get funding for arts technology projects?
State arts agencies and cultural funders increasingly support technology investments through catalyst grants that fund projects with potential for replication across other communities. The case for funding centers on operational efficiency, better data for decision-making, and reduced reporting burden on organizations.
