ABOUT THE PROJECT
The cultural district program is overseen by the Texas Commission on the Arts who defines cultural districts as “special zones that harness the power of cultural resources to stimulate economic development and community vitality.” Arts District Houston, which is managed by Fresh Arts, is one of 7 state-appointed cultural districts in Houston. At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Executive Director of Fresh Arts was asked to testify in front of the Texas Senate Finance Committee. As they deliberated whether to maintain state funding of cultural districts in their budget, they asked for metrics regarding impact. Therefore, as she was entering the MS Analytics program at Texas A&M University, former Fresh Arts employee Micah Moreno chose to conduct an analysis of the economic impact of cultural district in Houston.
Micah utilized real-world, public data to explore whether cultural districts foster increased economic activity in Houston between 2017-2019. She then engineered a database to compile geographic data for 162 block groups and implemented stepwise regression, decision tree, and random forest models in JMP Pro and SAS EM to evaluate relationships between cultural district status and economic indicators. Ultimately, she discovered that cultural district status is related to increased average real property values in lower income areas.
Micah was awarded the Rising Star Award for pioneering analytics in the non-profit industry for her work. Although no longer an employee of Fresh Arts, Micah remains an enthusiastic supporter of the organization and their work in the community.
