RACC and BCA prepare for two major research studies

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and Business for Culture & the Arts (BCA) will collaborate with Americans for the Arts (AFTA) on two major studies of the local arts industry in 2011. Arts & Economic Prosperity IV will evaluate the impact of spending by nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences, while the Local Arts Index will measure the health and vitality of the arts in our region and help us compare our arts community to those in other cities across the United States.

“Arts and culture provide countless intrinsic benefits – positive effects on society and the soul that can be difficult to measure,” said Eloise Damrosch, executive director of RACC. “But there are also many significant benefits of a vibrant arts and culture community that we can measure, and these reports will help us do just that.”

“Business leaders and elected officials are especially interested in measuring the return on their investment in the arts,” said Virginia Willard, executive director of BCA. “The Arts & Economic Prosperity report is useful in showing the arts’ contribution to economic vitality and job creation, and the Local Arts Index report will help us track how this significant sector is holding up compared with national measurements.”

Local participation in these two national studies is made possible with funding from the City of Portland, other local governments, and private investments in the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Jeff Hawthorne, RACC’s director of community affairs, will serve as project manager for both studies.

RACC is seeking interns (volunteers) to assist with collecting and analyzing data for these studies from Mach through April of this year. A job description is available at http://racc.org/2011ResearchIntern.

About Arts & Economic Prosperity IV

“In the past, our Arts & Economic Prosperity studies have demonstrated that the arts are a formidable industry that stimulates the economy in cities and towns across the country,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Although much has changed since our last study as a result of the economic downturn, we expect that we will still be able to demonstrate that the arts remain a formidable industry that helps local businesses thrive.”

As one of 200 study partners across all 50 states, RACC and BCA will gather detailed economic and event attendance data from nonprofit arts and culture organizations in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties. In addition, the Creative Advocacy Network and dozens of local arts organizations will help collect surveys from at least 800 arts and culture attendees in the region. When the information is tabulated and analyzed by AFTA, it will help us to evaluate the impact of the recession on the employment and government revenues that are generated by the nonprofit arts industry.

The study will specifically include the following information:
• The total dollars spent by the region’s nonprofit arts and culture organizations
• The total dollars spent by audiences as a direct result of their attendance at an arts event
• The number of full-time equivalent jobs, and the amount of resident income, including salaries and wages, that are supported by arts spending
• The amount of local and state government tax revenues generated by arts spending.

The Ruth Lilly Fund of Americans for the Arts is helping support the costs of this study. In addition, each participating local and statewide partner contributes time and financial support. The last local Arts & Economic Prosperity study (2007) is available online at http://bit.ly/eKu7VU, and the 2011 study will be published in early 2012.

About the Local Arts Index

The Local Arts Index will gather public and private data for a variety of arts-related indicators in 100 communities across the country. These measures will help quantify the strength of the local arts community and the broader creative sector every year. Because the same data is being collected from every participating community at the county level (including separate reports for Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties), participating counties throughout the United States will be able to compare these measures and the overall strength of their arts community on a county-by-county, per capita basis.

The Kresge Foundation awarded Americans for the Arts a $1.2 million grant to conduct the Local Arts Index, as well as the supporting workshops and materials necessary to assist communities in the effective application of the local data. Research for the Local Arts Index is directed by Roland Kushner, PhD, through support from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. The Clackamas County Arts Alliance is taking the lead on collecting the data for that county; RACC and BCA will take the lead on collecting data for Multnomah and Washington Counties.

A national version of the Arts Index is available online at http://bit.ly/7ZvJ4D. The findings from all Local Arts Indexes will be reported in the fall of 2011.