“The resulting, combined financial impact of arts organizations and arts audiences is more than $213 million in total expenditures, according to the research project,” Culture Works said.
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The study defined the Dayton region as Clark, Greene, Miami, and Montgomery counties and the local study was part of a national assessment of the economic impact of non-profit arts and cultural organizations.
Americans for the Arts is a national nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education.
The study results were provided to government and economic development officials and civic groups last month and announced recently.
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“Clearly, arts and cultural organizations provide a significant benefit to our region,” Lisa Hanson, executive director of Culture Works, said in her organization’s announcement.
“The arts in Dayton, directly and indirectly through expenditures by arts-audiences, generate a very important return on investment to the companies, foundations, donors, and government entities that support the arts,” Hanson said. “This study confirms that the arts are major contributors to the local economy and, as such, are a vital part of the economic development efforts in the region.”
The organization said the impact support the equivalent of more than 5,000 full time jobs by the arts organizations themselves, with another 3,750 jobs supported by audience spending.
Supported jobs provided household incomes that exceeded $150 million, Culture Works said. State and local governments received more than $23 million in revenues from taxes paid by those employed in the arts and by taxes on arts-audiences expenditures.
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