Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Joins Americans for the Arts’ National Study of the Economic Impacts of Arts & Culture
Pittsburgh, PA - “The Arts are an Economic Engine. They also create social, cultural, and educational value for the citizens of Allegheny County,” says Mitch Swain, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (GPAC), upon joining Arts & Economic Prosperity®5 (AEP 5), a national study measuring the economic impact of nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences. The research study is being led by Americans for the Arts (AFTA), the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the arts and arts education. GPAC partnered with AFTA on two such previous studies (AEP III and AEP IV) to measure the impact of arts spending on local jobs, tax revenues generated to local and state governments, and income paid to local residents. GPAC’s GPAC’s AEP4 report, “Arts, Culture & Economic Prosperity inAllegheny County” revealed that in Allegheny County, arts and culture are directly responsible for the creation of 20,050 jobs, $410 million in household income, and tax revenues of $74 million.
GPAC’s AEP 5 report, due out in June 2017, will also draw on trend and comparative information from two reports being released at “Culture Counts Across Communities,” a GPAC event on February 26, 2016. For AEP 5, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, one of nearly 300 study partners across each state and the District of Columbia, will collect three large sets of data for our report, which encompasses Allegheny County:
- Detailed financial data on Allegheny County’s nonprofit arts and culture organizations, such as theater and dance companies, museums, festivals, and arts education organizations;
- Information from over 1,000 surveys of attendees at arts events, yielding data on attendees’ spending on meals, parking, transportation, and related items, plus the emotional, artistic, and social experiences they had when and after they attended (surveys will be gathered throughout 2016); and
- Contextual data on our arts and culture environment (in AEP IV we focused on issues of financial health, arts education, individual giving, and racial equity)
Shares David Pankratz, Research and Policy Director for GPAC, “AEP 5 will determine the current economic potency of Allegheny County's cultural sector by showing, as in the past, how expenditures by institutions and their visitors lead to dramatic impacts. We will also compare and rank economic impacts with other benchmark communities participating in AEP 5, show the collective impact of the arts on the Commonwealth, and show how Allegheny County’s arts and culture sector creates other forms of public value, too - social, cultural, and artistic benefits.” GPAC will also track impacts of spending by cultural tourists, which has outpaced local attendee spending, $40 vs. $24.80 per event.
“Many people don’t think of nonprofit arts organizations as businesses,” said Mitch Swain, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council CEO, “but this study will make clear that the arts are a formidable industry in our community -- employing people locally, purchasing goods and services from local merchants, and helping to drive tourism and economic development.” According to Americans for the Arts’ most recent national study, the nonprofit arts industry generated $135.2 billion in total economic activity, supported 4.1 million full-time equivalent jobs, and generated $22.3 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues. Complete details about the 2010 national study are available, here.
“Our Arts & Economic Prosperity series demonstrates that the arts are an economic and employment powerhouse both locally and across the nation,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Leaders who care about community and economic vitality can feel good about choosing to invest in the arts.”
Americans for the Arts’ Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study is supported by The Ruth Lilly Fund of Americans for the Arts. In addition, Americans for the Arts’ local and statewide study partners are contributing both time and a cost-sharing fee support to the study. For a full list of the nearly 300 Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study partners, visit www.AmericansForTheArts.org/AEP5Partners.