June 27, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Nonprofit arts organizations and their patrons annually generate $134-billion in economic activity nationwide, according to a new study.
The nonprofit arts industry also supports nearly five million jobs and delivers more than $24-billion in federal, state, and local taxes, the study says.
The study, based on a survey of 3,000 arts organizations and 40,000 of their patrons in 91 cities, was conducted by Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group in Washington. Economists at the Georgia Institute of Technology analyzed the data, which was based on financial information for 2000.
The study found that arts organizations, such as opera companies, public radio stations, and museums, each year spend more than $53-billion — a 25-percent increase, when adjusted for inflation, from spending attributed to those organizations in 1992 by a similar study conducted by Americans for the Arts. The latest study also found that people who attend arts events spend an additional $81-billion each year on event-related goods and services beyond ticket purchases, such as parking, restaurant meals, and babysitters.
Along with examining expenditures, the new study also measured volunteer efforts and contributions of goods and services to arts organizations. Findings show that the 3,000 arts organizations in the survey each worked with an average of 141 volunteers a year, whose volunteer time taken together was valued at an average of nearly $64,000. In addition, the arts groups in the survey each received donated goods and services, such as office space, airfare, and advertising space, worth, on average, more than $42,000 a year.
The full text of a report on the study, “Arts & Economic Prosperity: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts Organizations and Their Audiences,” is available at http://www.AmericansForTheArts.org/EconomicImpact.
