The report, "Arts, Culture and Economic Prosperity in Greater Philadelphia," funded by Scannapieco Development Corp., is the last in a triad of alliance studies to parse the financial ecology of the area's cultural world.
The two previous reports, published within the last year, have examined the relatively low level of public funding support for the region's cultural organizations, the prevalence of deficits in arts budgets, the relatively high level of audience support, and the rapid growth in the number of organizations across the region in the last quarter century.
The report released today provides some key numbers, which alliance officials argue bolster the case not only for increased public arts funding, but also for some kind of dedicated regional funding mechanism.
"All of our research is geared to making the point that arts and culture organizations represent an important industry in the region and are in need of support," Amsterdam said. The reports, she said, make clear that the sector has "a critical place in economic development in the region," not simply Philadelphia.
For instance, the study shows that local governments receive $5 in tax revenues in return for every $1 of support invested in arts groups; the state receives $2.50 for every $1 invested.
The report is based on economic modeling using 2006 spending data from 177 arts and culture organizations and 2,324 audience surveys from across the region. While there are more than 1,300 arts and culture organizations in the five-county area, more than half have annual budgets of less than $25,000. The 177 organizations in the study represent the lion's share of local arts economic activity.
The alliance began the three in-depth economic studies after the budget-related shutdown of the Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture in 2004.
