Funding the Arts Doesn’t Cost, It Pays!
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It’s well known that nonprofit arts organizations contribute a great deal to the state economy, but a study funded by the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation has finally come up with a hard number: $880 million. The figure was calculated by the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand using data collected primarily from two sources: grant applicants to the Illinois Arts Council and a random survey of Chicago museum visitors. Based on the grant applications of the 2,000 arts groups that annually apply for Arts Council funding, the firm determined arts groups generate $315 million in direct spending in the state, creating an economic impact of $699 million. The firm also surveyed out-of-state visitors at Chicago museums, determined that 17 percent of them came here specifically for arts-related purposes, and used that figure, along with data from the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, to determine that primarily culture-oriented tourists generate $94 million in direct spending in the state and create an economic impact of $181 million.
Some maintain, however, that studies such as the just-completed arts economic-impact report may be able to sway government leaders to support arts funding before it’s too late. Valkanas believes the economic data should be used to continually remind state legislators that cuts in arts funding affect unemployment. “Jobs are lost when funding is cut,” she says. The Arts Alliance Foundation report indicates there are 20,900 jobs in the Illinois not-for-profit arts sector. Another study of commercial and noncommercial arts organizations revealed that Democratic state legislator Judy Erwin’s north-side 11th District has 19,441 arts-related jobs, the most in the state. Erwin says, “It’s my hope that with studies like this we can change the perception of what jobs in the arts are about.”
The Arpino Ballet press release mentioned only that a merger of the two companies would “severely compromise the artistic viability of each,” in the words of artistic director Gerald Arpino. Arpino Ballet board president David Kipper didn’t dispute the claims in the Ballet Chicago release. “We have the highest regard for Ballet Chicago,” he says, adding that while the Arpino Ballet may still decide to move to Chicago, it could wind up anywhere. If it does move to Chicago, the cash-strapped Arpino Ballet will have to compete for funding and audiences with Ballet Chicago, which has been struggling for years to expand its audience base and solve its financial woes.
