Americans for the Arts has released new numbers on the economic impact of arts and culture on communities across the country, including Oregon and Eugene.
This is the organization’s sixth Arts and Economic Prosperity study, and the first to offer a glimpse at where things stand since before the COVID-19 pandemic. AEP6 measures impacts experienced last year, in 2022.
“We didn’t see any kind of really big backslides in numbers,” said Kelly Johnson with the Arts and Business Alliance in an interview with KLCC.
“I think that’s saying that our arts communities are holding strong but they still need audiences and support. The numbers are good but we still need those audiences coming back,” Johnson said.
For Eugene, the study shows the arts and culture sector generated nearly $124 million in direct spending; had loyal local audiences; attracted nearly 150,000 tourists; and supported more than 2,700 jobs.
Johnson said that employment number, in particular, is significant.
“If the arts sector was a single employer we would be the third biggest employer in Eugene. Sometimes people don’t consider arts and culture as business but we are and we are kind of a large business in our community,” Johnson said.
Artists, cultural organizations and communities use the data to help seek funding and support.
The study showed that 1.1 million people attended arts and culture events in Eugene in 2022. Thirteen percent of those individuals, or nearly 150,000 people, had traveled from outside the county for an event, and those visitors spent nearly three times as much as locals, or about $68 per person per event, not including ticket costs, while in Eugene.
The continued, strong attendance by local audiences is something Americans for the Arts says is a good measure of social impact of arts and culture, something this year’s study intentionally sought out, in addition to measuring the financial, economic and tourism impacts of the nonprofit arts and culture industry. In an initial preview of the data, the organization wrote that “surveys completed by individual attendees in the City of Eugene demonstrate an appreciation for how the arts and culture impacts the development and well-being of the community and its residents.”
In Eugene, 37 percent of eligible arts and culture organizations participated, and efforts were made in Eugene and nationally to better include organizations and audiences of color, which have not been adequately captured in prior reports, according to Americans for the Arts.
Copyright 2023 KLCC
Editor’s note: Americans for the Arts was incorrectly identified in one reference in an earlier version of this story. KLCC regrets the error.
