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Zac Ziegler: I'm Zac Ziegler, and you're listening to Oregon Rainmakers from KLCC on this edition, I talk with Kelly Johnson, the executive director of the Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene.
It's pretty easy to divorce art and commerce, but the truth is, creative endeavors can be big business. Movies regularly bring in nine figures at the box office. Tickets for an in demand concert or play Go for hundreds, even 1000s of dollars, and work by well known artists can fetch millions at auction. So how much does art contribute to our local economy? The Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene makes a routine effort to quantify that contribution. So I decided to sit down with its executive director, Kelly Johnson, to find out more about it. We met at a venue that she says is a great example of that contribution.
Kelly Johnson: Yeah, so we're sitting in the jazz station, which is in the heart of downtown Eugene, and it is a jazz concert venue, and it is a great example of what keeps downtown Eugene active that brings people downtown. The Jazz station is a great example because it has not only local talent that's here, but national and international people come here to perform at the jazz station, and so it's just a beautiful Zac Ziegler kind of what can make downtown active and interesting is art spaces like this.
Ziegler: So art is so often something we don't necessarily intertwine in our brains with with economics and business, but it is definitely an industry unto itself. What's the really big picture of how much art contributes to the local economy here?
Johnson: So we're really lucky Americans for the Arts does a national study to measure just that. It's called the arts and economic prosperity study. They've been doing it for 30 years, and they partner with local cities to get that local detail. And so here in Eugene, our most recent number from this study is $124 million of economic impact just from the nonprofit arts and culture sector.
Ziegler: So it's kind of obvious to draw a line to the direct spending in that you know, someone says, Ooh, there's a cool artist coming to the jazz station. I'm going to buy a ticket, and maybe at the event, I'll grab a beer or a glass of wine or a soda, tell me about that, but also how there's impact beyond Absolutely.
Johnson: So we can break down that larger 120 $4 million number, 90 million of that is spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations. So people sometimes hear the word nonprofit, and they don't think business. But you know, nonprofits hire people, not only the performers that are on stage, but, you know, booking managers, tax accountants, website managers, janitors, all kinds of business services. So that $90 million of the 124 million is spending by our local nonprofits in arts and culture that goes out into the community. And then the other side of that, as you kind of mentioned, is that audience spending. So when we go out, you know, to an arts event, we might go out to dinner beforehand or grab a drink after. Maybe, if it's something super special, you want to buy a new outfit or get your hair done or pay for a babysitter, and so these are all ways that kind of ripple through our economy that spark from an arts and culture event, and that was again, $30 million of spending.
Ziegler: So when you talk about something like that, my brain automatically goes to thoughts of Frasier Crane going out to find dining before taking in an opera or a symphony. I'm guessing that is a misconception that's that's pretty off, though. It is not just the refined side of the arts,
Johnson: yeah. And I mean, we have so many different experiences you can have right here in Eugene. You know, you can pop down to lane Arts Council's First Friday Art Walk. And usually, if you're you're doing the first Friday Art Walk, again, you might pop into some of our local restaurants and buy a drink and and so it is the broadest version of arts and culture that you can imagine that is contributing to our economy, not just like the big things that you might think about.
Ziegler: Do we know much about how the particular kind of spaces that happen to be activated, what, what that does for for us, is there a difference between a concert and, you know, a big showing at a. Gallery or anything like
Johnson: that. I just think it all breeds foot traffic, right? I think all activity is probably good activity. This particular study probably didn't get into the weeds about the different types of arts activities because we went to a wide variety of them. But I think it's like having layered opportunities lots of different genres of art so that lots of different people and different interests can be represented.
Ziegler: We're back. I'm Zac Ziegler, and you're listening to Oregon Rainmakers from KLCC. Our conversation with Arts and Business alliances Kelly Johnson continues, so people will travel for a good show. I think the farthest I've driven for a concert or something, is a solid four or five hours that was in my younger days when I had that kind of free time. How does art impact tourism? Because if you're doing something like that, you're probably getting a hotel room for the night after a show.
Johnson: Absolutely 100% so this study showed that in that kind of year of data collection that 150,000 people came to Eugene from outside the county, was what they considered a visitor. And so those people spend a little bit more when they're here. I think the number of per person spending for tourists was like $68 per person on top of kind of like the ticket sale for whatever they were experiencing. So it is a huge generator of tourism for our local area, which is really exciting. And when we we look at that $30 million of audience spending, 10 million of that came from from those people that were from outside the area. So it's really exciting to see that. And in fact, on the survey, there was a question that said, you know, what was your primary purpose of coming and visiting Eugene? And 80% said whatever art experience they were at was the primary driver of their travel.
Ziegler: That was actually going to be my next question, because I remember the first time I came here on a trip, it was like, Oh, I'm coming to visit my cousin who lived in town. But, oh, look, Bucket Head is playing at the McDonald I think I know what I'm doing on Tuesday night, you know? So it's not just that people happen to come here and take in a show. They're coming for a show,
Johnson: Yeah. And I, you know, I think the Holt Center is a great example of that too. You know, they not only have all the great local companies, the resident companies that perform there, but they have the big touring shows. They have the Broadway shows. And the Holt center is this kind of gem that's a regional so we get people that come to Holt Center shows from Northern California, Idaho, from all surrounding areas that maybe don't have this gem of a performing arts facility in their community,
Ziegler: Yeah, especially when you get whatever the hot show is coming through, like Stereophonics coming through. That was a big one for the Tonys this year, you know, we've seen Hamilton the Book of Mormon, that the shows that have this big kind of buzz appeal that I'm guessing, is often the big draw,
Johnson: Absolutely, and I think it kind of is exponential growth too. Once you get a show like a Hamilton that is successful, or a Book of Mormon, then Eugene is seen as a place that will sell tickets and so more high level shows want to come through
Ziegler: Everything we've been talking about these this is very in person. A lot of those businesses have struggled a bit to get people back into them post pandemic, how is the arts economy here? From that aspect, has there been a full recovery from where we were in, you know, fall of 2019?
Johnson: I mean, I think it's still rebuilding, but I think we're, we're starting to catch up a bit, but I think it's sort of like reintroducing people to things that they loved. You know, if you used to come more regularly to the the symphony or the ballet, like come back. We have great programming. We want to see you. I think that they have been rebuilding and and what I like to see in that effect on the larger business community. Particularly of downtown is, is how it's drawing people back to our downtown again. When, when you have a bunch of different arts events happening, it feels different. It feels vibrant. And so I like to also see how arts and culture are sort of helping us rebound from pandemic areas, just in the general economy as
Ziegler: Well, and that was that's something actually that I remember hearing Dave from the Eugene Symphony talk about, is what happened at his previous job in Hawaii when they started playing the shows in a theater in downtown, and how it helped bring that area a little more back to life because now those businesses are are getting more than the lunch rush of people clearing out of the big tall buildings downtown. There's a reason to stick around into the evening,
Johnson: Absolutely. I mean, I think about just myself personally, and I work downtown, and often what brings me back or keeps me downtown is when I have something to go to that evening. And you know, I'm a big arts fan, so there's usually something to go to, slight bias, slight bias. But so it's definitely why I come down. It's what keeps me here. It's what kind of connects me to those larger nights out when I want to go out for dinner or have a drink. And so I think it's really wonderful and and something else I would add is just like, it's not just tourists that get drawn in. It's our it's our local economy too. One of the stats that I really love that was in the survey, one of the questions was, you know, if you were coming to this experience, and it was it didn't exist in Eugene. What would you have done this evening? Would you have stayed home? Would you have done something like that? Wasn't arts and culture, or would you have gone somewhere else, to a different community to have the experience? And nearly half of people said they would have gone to a different community. So because we have this robust offerings, we're helping keep our local dollars local, which I think is just amazing.
Ziegler: So we've talked about this economic impact. It's something that the city seems to be doing pretty well with. How do we grow this industry to make it even more of a strong point for Eugene.
Johnson: I mean, I think it's really understanding and seeing and valuing arts as an economic driver and investing in it and to match that, you know, it's a great return on an investment. And so we have philanthropists or business that see that economic drive and want it to continue. It takes investment. It takes people coming to the shows and filling up the audiences. So one of the things that I really love about arts and culture is it's got this kind of dual ROI for our community. So not only is it going to boost our economy, but it's going to boost kind of community development too. I mean, the arts help us empathize. They help us with belonging, they help us with community pride. And I can't imagine a better investment for our community than something that does both community development and economic development at the same time.
