Nonprofit Arts In Washington A Boon To Economy

Nonprofit arts organizations and their patrons across Washington spent $1.51 billion in local economic activity during fiscal year 2010 according to a new report released by Americans for the Arts.

According to a report in The Washington Business Journal, the total expenditure generated $120 million in local tax revenue and $21 million in state revenue during the period of July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Of those totals, 63 percent was organizational spending and 37 percent was from the audience.

The nonprofit arts industry is worth $135 billion on a nationwide level and, according to the study, supports 4.1 million jobs and generates $87 billion in household income.

Volunteers also played a big role in the strength of arts and culture in the Washington area. More than 33,000 volunteers donated 1.5 million hours to organizations in the region, with that time representing an estimated worth of more than $33 million.

The data for the Americans for the Arts study was collected from 299 arts and culture organizations and 4,351 in Washington. The study did not include the Smithsonian Institution which, according to the organization's Form 990, accounted for $2.1 billion in total culture spending in 2010, in addition to representing 58 percent of the local industry.

You can read the full story in The Washington Business Journal.

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.

NY Arts Groups Want Love

Today is Valentine's Day and New York arts organizations have one request to the state: Give us some love!

Crain's New York Business reported yesterday that the Arts NYS Coalition, a group that includes a number of nonprofit cultural organizations like the Children's Museum of Manhattan, is launching a campaign to get increased state funding to the New York State Council on Arts (NYSCA).

Although President Barack Obama's new federal budget proposes an increase of $8 million to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), state funding has declined in recent years, especially in New York.  Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed grants to NYSCA is $31.6 million which, while not a reduction from the previous year, is almost $4 million less than it was in 1985.  The Arts NYS Coalition is asking the state Legislature to increase funding by $4.5 million to $36.1 million.  The ultimate goal is to reach $50 million in funding during the next four years.

Groups like the Arts NYS Coalition say that investing in the arts can pay off big time for the state.  This claim seemed to be backed up by a 2005 study by the Alliance for the Arts, which found that NYC nonprofit cultural groups generate $5.8 billion in economic impact and create 40,500 jobs.

You can read more about this story in Crain's New York Business.