Arts And Culture A Boon To Local Economies

A new report from Americans for the Arts showed that the nonprofit arts and culture industry generated $61 billion for local economies in 2010.

The report -- "Arts & Economic Prosperity" -- revealed that another $74 billion came from purchases by audience members, according to The Huffington Post. That bought the total to $135.2 billion. The industry also delivered $22.3 billion in local, state, and federal revenue, and provided more than 4 million jobs.

While these numbers are impressive, they are still down from the years before the Great Recession, according to Americans for the Arts CEO Robert F. Lynch. In addition, a report last year in The NonProfit Times indicated that grants to the arts were at their lowest level since 2003. Still, Lynch told The Huffington Post that he was satisfied with the numbers from the report, considering the economic problems that occurred in 2010.

Here are some other nuggets from the report, which was released in conjunction with Americans for the Arts' annual convention in San Antonio, Tex.:

• Visitors from out-of-town to arts events decreased 7 percent.
• Spending in general decreased $25 billion.
• 9,271 arts organizations and 151,802 of their attendees were surveyed as part of the report.

You can read the full story in The Huffington Post.