Study: Arts lift Boise economy – Cultural activity ‘means business,’ city officials say

Support for the arts is not a luxury but a vital part of the Boise economy, according to a study released Tuesday by the Boise Arts Commission.

Mike Maharry
The Idaho Statesman

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Please join us for the Missoula Creative Cluster Roundtable on 10/24 http://www.matr.net/article-8343.html

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The study found that nonprofit arts organizations in Boise are an $18 million-a-year industry that supports the equivalent of 612 full-time jobs and generates $1.7 million a year in local and state fees and tax revenues.

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Expenditures $17.9 million

Jobs 612*

Local taxes $538,000

State taxes $1.1 million

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Julie Numbers Smith, executive director of the Boise Arts Commission, said the study “lays to rest a common misconception: that communities support arts at the expense of local economic development. This report shows conclusively that in Boise the arts mean business.”

Boise was one of 91 communities across the nation that participated in the survey, conducted by Americans for the Arts, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.

The national survey report said America´s non-profit arts industry generates $134 billion in economic activity every year — $53.2 billion in spending by arts organizations and an additional $80.8 billion in event-related spending by arts audiences.

According to the Boise survey, non-profit arts groups spent $9.7 million on items such as labor, supplies, services and asset acquisition.

The 33 non-profit arts organizations that participated in the study reported that 423,662 people attended their events during the survey year and spent a total of $8.2 million. That averaged out to $19.33 per event per person, not including the cost of admission to the event.

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Related Link

Americans for the Arts – Arts & Economic Prosperity
The non-profit arts ’industry’ http://www.artsusa.org/EconomicImpact/

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Audience spending included souvenirs, transportation, parking, meals, lodging and babysitting.

Combined, the spending by the arts groups and their audiences help pay the wages of taxi drivers, restaurant owners and wait staff, hardware stores, print shops, T-shirt printers and a host of other parts of the local economy. Using government formulas, Americans for the Arts concluded that that spending sustained the equivalent of 612 fulltime jobs.

“It dramatically alters the perception that the arts are luxuries — worth supporting in prosperous times but hard to justify when the economy is struggling,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and chief executive officer of Americans for the Arts.

The national report was released a year ago, but Boise didn´t get its results back until last month. The Boise Arts Commission presented the results Tuesday to members of the Capital City Development Corp., the city´s urban renewal agency, because CCDC provided the bulk of the local financing for the survey.

“CCDC has long seen a connection between a culturally enriched downtown and economic development,” said Scot Oliver , projects manager for the agency.

“Let´s be clear: the arts in this town would be nowhere without the private sector,” Oliver said. “Government can only do so much, and as the arts get cut more and more at the federal level, local communities and the private sector need to step up and do everything they can. This survey shows that it´s worth the effort.”

Smith and Eliot agree the survey was worth the local funds needed to complete it.

“It was a steal,” said Smith, who said national funding by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Express Co. plus the use of volunteers to conduct the local surveys kept Boise´s costs to $3,000. CCDC paid for most of that, while the city of Boise contributed the rest.

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Mike Maharry
[email protected] or 377-6433

http://www.idahostatesman.com/story.asp?ID=51425