Arts Advocacy Update XX

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv.


Expert: Md. Tourism Looks Solid for Next Year
WTOP (Washington, DC), 11/20/2007
"While some indicators show that the national economy could slide into a recession sometime next year," Maryland's tourism industry should remain solid in 2008, -- thanks in part to arts tourism, says one expert. Between August 2005 and August 2006, "[o]ne of the strongest areas of growth for the state was in arts tourism." According to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, "more than 13 million people attended arts events in Maryland in 2006, generating over $1 billion in economic impact, up from $970 million the previous year. . . . Arts tourism generated an estimated $37.3 million in state and local taxes, up from $35 million."
Hoping some of that is going to the Maryland Shakespeare Festival, run by my dear friend Becky Kemper.


Art & Innovation: An Evolutionary Economic View of the Creative Industries
Unesco Observatory, The University of Melbourne Refereed E-Journal, 2007
"This paper explores the economic and cultural contribution of the arts and its effect on economic growth and evolution. The crucial connection is supplied by an innovation systems perspective on the creative industries. In this view, the creative industries contribute not just to value-added and jobs, but more importantly, to the evolutionary process by which economic systems grow. This paper thus offers a new view of the economics of the arts and creative industries re-conceptualised as part of the innovation system of an evolving economic order. Analytic and policy implications are then outlined in terms of an evolutionary approach to the economics of the arts."
Heady stuff, but interesting reading if you're into economic theory. For example:

I shall seek to explain in this paper how arts, education and cultural researchers may benefit by closer engagement with the analysis of economic dynamics (as open system processes of change and re-coordination) than by continuing with increasingly futile attempts to defend (static) cultural value against (equally static) economic value. The value of the arts and culture are dynamic. By connecting with the evolutionary framework of economic dynamics, and specifically the creative systems model, a more coherent, interesting and possibly even more powerful analytic framework for arts and humanities research may result.

Artist Colonies, `Heat Shield' From Critics, May Get U.S. Funds
Bloomberg News, 11/19/2007
"Twelve years after Congress ended most funding to individual artists, the National Endowment for the Arts may reopen the flow of money to poets, musicians, writers and painters through artist colonies. The NEA, which is in line for a budget increase of as much as 28 percent next year, plans to direct some of the additional money to the hundreds of U.S. colonies and communities that provide artists with residencies, funding and, above all, creative freedom."
Very exciting, I think. Read the story for the specifics.


Arts groups get $6-million boost
Detroit Free Press, 11/14/2007
"These are tough times for local arts institutions. Corporate, individual and state funding is down, deficits are up, competition for dollars is fierce and Michigan's stubborn economy isn't showing much sign of improvement. That's why metro Detroit arts groups are greeting the Kresge Foundation of Troy's $6 million in new grants like drought-stricken farmers welcoming a rain storm. The grants, which go to 53 nonprofit organizations in southeast Michigan, underscore the increasing importance of philanthropic foundations in the local fund-raising ecosystem for arts."
I pray people don't get shot on their way to the gallery, though. Yikes.


Small Companies Put Charity Into Their Business Plan
Wall Street Journal, 11/20/2007
"Large companies -- and entrepreneurs -- often make philanthropy part of the company once they have become successful. But it is rarer for owners of small businesses to build a company with a philanthropic bent right from the start -- when resources are scant and each move made is supposed to assure that the bottom line grows. While such a mission adds to the financial burden many start-ups often face, in the long run it may help the company's bottom line more than it hurts."
Would love to see someone develop of list of companies in New York that would fit this bill.


The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv.

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