Saturday, June 16, 2012

America's Nonprofit Arts Industry Generates $135 Billion Economic Impcat


Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, recently announced the findings from Arts & Economic Prosperity IV™,  the fourth economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences. The largest and most comprehensive of its kind ever conducted, it shows that the arts industry continued to serve as an economic engine, pumping billions of dollars into the nation's economy, despite the economic headwinds the country faced in 2010 when the study was conducted.

Impact of Great Recession

Like most industries, the Great Recession left a measurable financial impact on the arts—erasing the gains made during the pre-recession years. But even in the face of an extremely challenging fiscal environment, 2010 expenditures by arts organizations were just three percent behind their 2005 levels ($61.1 billion vs. $63.1 billion)1.The recession, as expected, also had an impact on consumer spending. Inevitably, as people worried about losing their jobs and their houses, attendance at arts events waned in some communities—just like other discretionary spending outlets such as attendance at sports events and leisure travel. As a result, spending by the typical arts patron dropped 11 percent from 2005 to 2010. Still, arts audiences spent $24.60 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission2 in 2010. "These figures are remarkable given the economic climate that was present when the study was conducted," said Lynch." Arts & Economic Prosperity IV™ definitively demonstrates the resilience of America's arts industry. Throughout the recession, the arts sector continued to produce new and exciting work—performances and exhibitions and festivals that entertained, inspired and drew audiences. As the economy rebounds in the coming years, the arts industry is well poised for growth."

Impact of Cultural Tourism

Tourism industry research has consistently shown that arts tourists stay longer and spend more than the average traveler. Arts & Economic Prosperity IV™ results reflect this principle. Among those audience members surveyed, 32 percent live outside the county in which the arts event took place. And, their event-related spending is more than twice that of their local counterparts ($39.96 vs. $17.42). While these figures are declines from the previous study—39 percent of attendees were nonlocal in the 2005 study and spent $40.19 on average—the point remains: communities that draw cultural tourists experience an additional boost of economic activity that further propels local economic engines.

"Arts & Economic Prosperity IV™ proves that the arts and the cultural tourists that flock to them are good for the economy," explains Lynch, who also serves on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, a position appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. "The arts are magnets for tourists, and local businesses reap the financial rewards of the increased spending they bring to local economies. Simply put, the arts and culture industry is a cornerstone of tourism and economic development in America."

You can find the full results HERE


1 Figures based on data from 9,721 nonprofit arts and culture organizations from 182 communities and regions (139 cities and counties, 31 multi-county or multi-city regions, 10 states and two arts districts), representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The diverse communities range in population from 1,600 to 4 million and from small rural to large urban.
2 Figures are calculated using 151,802 audience-intercept surveys conducted for Arts & Economic Prosperity IV™.


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Let's Get Serious About Building Creative Communities


We say we want to be more creative – personally and collectively. We want our kids to be as creative as they can be. Businesses want their employees to be more creative so they have better innovation potential.  As citizens we want to enjoy creative endeavors – going to arts and culture events, creatively engaging with electronic media, taking classes in activities such as ceramics and painting.

And yet, we don’t seem to have the determination to understand creativity learning or the will to develop our collective creativity. The education system has stripped much of its creativity teaching, its arts programming, from the curriculum leaving teachers and PTO’s to find their own funds to support these activities. Arts organizations work hard to provide this programming, often at considerable cost to their own sustainability.

The business cry for creativity is pervasive in the literature and current commentary. The 2010 IBM Global CEO study revealed that creativity is the number one issue facing CEO’s.  But where are they going to get it if generations of students have had little to no exposure on developing their own creativity skills? Also, there is a strong tendency for business executives to think creativity is ‘too squishy/artsy’– let’s focus on innovation because that’s about productivity. Well, how will we be innovative if we haven’t honed our creativity skillset?

Too little work has been done on the link between the creative economy and neighborhood development. In fact, it has been proven that the more creative activities are a part of neighborhood life, the stronger the neighborhood because people connect  better and their will be more diversity and commitment to community sustainability.  Check out Mark Stern’s research powerpoint. 

And then there is personal creativity engagement. Research is showing that people are beginning to spend more time creating their own art than attending the spectator arts events. How about this - over 75% of adults attended arts activities, created art or engaged with art through personal electronic media – versus the 35% that attended spectator arts activities. This survey also shows that adults creating or performing arts are six times more likely to attend arts events. Please see NEA 2008 Survey of Public Participation in theArts and the excellent WolfBrown multi-year analysis of arts participation, Beyond Attendance.

So, on many levels of community – personal, business, education, neighborhood – there is a desire for more creativity engagement. There is strong recognition that in order for our communities to be resilient and sustainable we need to expand our creativity capacities - our ability to bring new ideas and new ways of thinking to fruition along with new ways of working collectively.

I suggest it is time to develop creative community strategies – understanding the ‘creativity capital’ of a community by inventorying the creative opportunities available across all ages, then looking for ways to integrate and connect these opportunities for maximum effectiveness, and then developing an overarching community strategy to grow the breadth and depth of creativity engagement for all its citizenry. 

Enhanced creativity across our communities will help this nation be the best prepared and most resilient for any future scenario.