Today at 3 p.m., the Dallas City Council’s committee on Arts, Culture & Libraries will be briefed on the results of the Americans for the Arts‘ 2010 study on the economic impact of the nonprofit arts & culture industry. This is the fourth such study — the first to reflect the full brunt of the recession — and its complete results were presented last week in San Antonio at the group’s national conference. Nationally, expenditures were 3 percent below their 2005 levels — meaning that many of our mid-decade gains were wiped out but also that the nonprofit culture sector remained resilient. Some people, after all, had predicted declines in the 30-50 percent range, with as many as half of all arts organizations going bye-bye.
You can read about my reservations concerning such arts economic impact studies here. But they can provide effective sound bites. Some quick-hit stats you can memorize and use in your next Friday-night, drunken argument in a bar over funding for the arts (we’ve all had those, right?):
- Nationwide impact of nonprofit arts & culture industry: $135.3 billion
- Number of jobs supports nationally: 4.1 million
- Amount Dallas arts & cultural organizations spent: $165.4 million
- Amount their audiences spent: $156.6 million
- Percentage of out-of-town visitors who attended arts event and said it was the main reason for their visit here: 58.9 percent
- How much they spent per event — $45.56 — compared to $18.82 by residents
- Number of full-time (equivalent) jobs in Dallas’ nonprofit arts & culture sector: 11,227
Full briefing PDF package here: ACL_AmericansforArtsStudy_061812
