Study: Impact of arts on city is $36M a year
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By JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star
Lincoln’s performing and visual arts organizations routinely assert their positive impact on the community.
Now they have a study to back them up.
Lincoln’s nonprofit arts and culture industry generates more than
Lincoln was one of 156 communities surveyed for Arts & Economic Prosperity III study conducted by Americans for the Arts. The following is how the city ranked in total economic activity with nine of the biggest communities in its population demographic (100,000 to 249,000):
Arlington County, Va.: population 195,965, $85.3 million
Glendale, Calif.: pop. 200,065, $12.5 million
Lackawanna County, Pa.:
pop. 209,525, $17 million
Orlando, Fla.: pop. 213,223, $95.5 million
Buncombe County, N.C.: pop. 218,876, $65.1 million
Alachua County, Fla.: pop. 223,852 $41 million
Chandler, Ariz. pop. 234,939,$7.1 million
Lincoln: pop. 239,213 $36.3 million
Kalamazoo County, Mich.: pop. 240,536 $68.7 million
Santa Cruz County, Calif.: pop. 249,666 $32 million
$36.3 million in activity, according to a recent report from Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization.
The city was 33 percent under the national average in activity but was
30 percent over communities of comparable size (100,000 to 249,000 in population).
Lincoln was one of 156 communities to participate in Americans for the Arts’ “Arts & Economic Prosperity III,” the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted in the United States.
Nationally, the 2005 study showed a 24 percent increase in economic activity from when the last one was done in 2000 — from $134 billion to $166.2 billion.
“This study is a myth buster,” Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, said in a news release. “… This study demonstrates that the arts are an industry that stimulates the economy in cities and towns across the country.”
Lincoln’s 36.3 million includes more than $20 million spent by the organizations and another $15 million-plus spent by audiences.
The study showed that arts and cultural activities support 1,081 full-time jobs, providing $22 million in household income and delivering $3 million in local and state government tax revenue.
“The bottom line is that Lincoln arts is good business,” Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler said at a Wednesday news conference, which included several arts presenters.
“This affirms what we’ve known and believed in,” said Charles Henry Bethea, Lied Center for Performing Arts executive director. “We are a vital and powerful force in economic development.”
The Lincoln Arts Council, with financial help from Woods Charitable Fund Inc., helped administer the study, identifying 100 eligible organizations and choosing 40 to participate.
Those picked provided operating budgets and executed audience surveys, according to Deb Weber, Lincoln Arts Council executive director.
The study also showed 81 percent of the 1,285,642 event attendees were Lincoln residents. The 19 percent from outside of the city spent three times more than local patrons, Weber said.
“Local patrons are the base, but arts and cultural tourism is a major area of potential growth,” she said.
Business leader Rich Claussen, executive vice president for client services at Bailey Lauerman, noted arts and culture are “an essential part of the community.”
“As a business, we value the arts as a wonderful recruiting tool,” he said.
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.
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mike wrote on June 7, 2007 10:01 am: