Study illustrates the economic value of Oregon’s arts and culture sector

Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit that advocates for arts and arts education in the U.S., released data on how the arts sector affects Oregon. The study showed that Oregon’s nonprofit arts industry generated more than $800 million in economic activity in 2022.

Randy Cohen is the vice president of research for the organization. He has toured across the country discussing findings from the study. He’s currently visiting Eastern Oregon to talk about how the arts sector affects economies in Pendleton, Joseph, Ontario and other communities.

Roberta Lavadour is the executive director for the Pendleton Center for the Arts and serves on the Oregon Arts Commission. They join us with details of the study and how the arts industry affects communities like Pendleton.

Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. $800 million – that’s the level of economic activity that Oregon’s nonprofit arts and culture sector generated in 2022. The number was calculated by the group Americans for the Arts. The nonprofit recently released a study looking at the economic effects of arts and culture activities around the country. It found more than $150 billion in economic activity nationwide.

Randy Cohen is the vice president of research for Americans for the Arts. In the last three days, he’s been in La Grande, Pendleton, Joseph and Ontario. He is in Hood River now talking about these results. He joins us now, along with Roberta Lavadour. She is the executive director of the Pendleton Center for the Arts and she serves on the Oregon Arts Commission. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.

Randy Cohen: Thanks for having us.

Roberta Lavadour: Good morning.

Miller: Randy, first. Why did Americans for the Arts start doing these studies something like 30 years ago?

Cohen: It was exactly 30 years ago. Everybody loves the arts, and appreciates the arts, and how they inspire us, make us feel creative, and create the communities that we want to live in and work in. But the fact is, arts organizations are also businesses and they employ people in the community, they support jobs, they generate government revenue and they’re tourism drivers. That is not a way that a lot of people think about the arts. Our nonprofit arts and culture organizations that are in our communities depend on the public’s investment, government funding for the arts and individual contributions. What this kind of study shows is that not only do our arts organizations improve our communities culturally, but they also improve them economically, and they are, in fact, an investment and they drive tourism.

So it’s a way to change the conversation and really expand the conversation about the arts because that’s not an intuitive way to think about the arts, right? Nobody’s thinking about, well, what are we going to do this weekend – let’s think of what has the best economic impact on the community, right? But the data are absolutely clear: right here, in the state of Oregon in 2022, [a] $829 million industry that supports over 13,000 jobs.

Miller: How do you actually measure that impact? So what’s included in that $829 million in Oregon or the over $150 billion nationwide?

Cohen: We look at two things. First, we just really emphasize, we do look at the nonprofit sector for this study. Those are museums, cultural organizations, and arts centers and arts education organizations. So this huge number doesn’t even include Hollywood motion pictures, architecture firms or anything.

Miller: Or Taylor Swift concert sales.

Cohen: Right, right. Yeah, I mean, cities around the world are trying to get her to come to their cities because exactly this. So what we do is we work with 19 communities across the state and the state arts agency, the Oregon Arts Commission. [We] surveyed the arts organizations, and asked them about their expenditures, employment and utility bills, and how much they spend on production and operations. And the 689 organizations that were part of this study in Oregon have total expenditures of $498 million. So, basically about a half billion dollars in spending.

But that isn’t the only economic activity that happens, right? Because think of the last time you went to an arts event. Well, you may have had dinner, paid for parking and paid for babysitting. We also look at what we call the “event related spending” by arts audiences. And this is really the value added aspect of the arts because very few industries generate all these other dollars that are spent. The typical attendee to a nonprofit arts and culture event in Oregon spends $39.14 per person, per event, not including the cost of admission, every time we go to see an exhibition or a festival or a performance. So you add all that up, 8.9 million attendees – that’s another $331 million of economic activity. That’s how we get $829 million of spending in 2022.

And then I’ve got a team of economists and we use an implant economic analysis platform, which is the same system that more than 1,000 cities and states subscribe to. And we customize economic models so we can determine what the economic benefits are to a community. That’s how we can say, you know, 13,000 jobs supported across the state. What that tells us is that the arts aren’t just food for the soul, but they’re putting food on the table as well for 13,000 households.

Miller: Roberta, why did you want Pendleton to partner with Americans for the Arts in putting this study together?

Lavadour: Well, one of the things that is integral to our work is fundraising to do the programming, the great programming that we do. And we have so many stories. I mean, Pendleton is so rich in the programming that the art and culture sector does. I mean, we’re on the ground every day, talking to people, seeing the effect of the transformational properties of art experiences and art education. But we also have to go out and do that fundraising arm and to be able to talk to our local businesses and say, not just, “man, this was a great experience,” but here is the data. Here’s what they’re spending at your restaurant. Here’s what people are doing for lodging and all the other things, filling up with gas. And so this really gives us an important tool to do the rest of our job.

Miller: Do you find that in Pendleton, where there are some very recognizable events that I think don’t fall under the nonprofit arts and culture banner … I’m thinking about, not just Round-Up, but something like Whisky Fest, which in the last couple of years has become a sizable tourist draw. Does it make it easier for you to make the economic argument because you’re talking to business owners who understand deeply the importance of having people come in for particular events?

Lavadour: It does. In a way, the small nonprofit organizations of which there are many in Pendleton, we still have to be out there hustling. We don’t have the corporate giving that a large community would have. We have to go to those businesses and talk about things like free rock and roll camp, and a literary art series, and things that might not be as exciting as having Pitbull come and perform at Whisky Fest. So this really helps us, again, just dial into that benefit and the impact to them.

Miller: Were you surprised by anything in the report specifically about either Pendleton or Eastern Oregon more broadly?

Lavadour: I don’t think I was. I think one of the reasons I was passionate about advocating for Pendleton being involved is because we were … the Pendleton Center for the Arts is on Main Street. We see people every day, we see the impact of those things. And this kind of confirmed what intuitively I think a lot of people in town knew. So I don’t think I was surprised. I was really pleased to have it in black and white.

Miller: Randy, this study focused on 2022. Where do you see in the data, do you see in the data, the effects of the pandemic?

Cohen: Yeah, 2022 was the first rebound year out of the pandemic for the arts. The pandemic was just absolutely devastating to the arts in this country. Ninety-nine percent of arts and culture organizations had to cancel performances, suspend operations, close. Many of them never reopened. How severe were the jobs and these closures? I’ll tell you, Johns Hopkins University tracks employment at all of the nation’s nonprofits – about 1.6 million nonprofits, maybe 110,000 of them are arts nonprofits. Arts nonprofits lost jobs at five times the rate of all nonprofits. First to close, last to reopen.

So the arts were coming from a huge point of deficit and having to reopen. And we know from other studies that 2022 was kind of the first bouncier up and numbers have grown since. But the effect of the pandemic is baked into those numbers. We saw an overall decrease from when the study was conducted about five years before, as you’d absolutely expect. So in that way, it tracks what’s happening nationally. But it’s kind of amazing, even the first year out of the pandemic, here’s an $829 million industry in this state. So it really speaks to the resilience of our arts leaders, like Roberta and those across the state and across the country, bringing arts and culture to their community, and finding ways to make it work.

People are coming back to the arts. A number of age cohorts are all the way back post-pandemic. But there is still an increase in people returning, getting back into our arts and culture organizations. So the data, the impact data, this study is a point in time in that recovery. But it’s also just kind of amazing that there is so much activity and people coming back to the arts.

Interestingly, 8.9 million attendees to those 689 organizations that were part of this study in Oregon, 10% of them came out from outside the state of Oregon. And while the typical attendees spends $39, those nonlocal attendees spend closer to $78 per person. A quarter of those nonlocal attendees have a hotel cost, they spend over $200 per person. I think it speaks to America wanting to get back out, get out of their homes and have these shared experiences in public spaces. And again, these are being reflected in the numbers and economically as well. All our legislators are looking for ways to keep focusing on jobs and economic growth. This study shows arts are a great strategy for that.

Miller: Roberta, along those lines, let’s look at just local leaders first, in Pendleton, or Umatilla County, or Eastern Oregon more broadly. What do you hope that both folks in both the public and private sectors will do with this information?

Lavadour: Oh, that’s a good question. I have to preface this by saying, we are so lucky in Pendleton that our community leaders, our mayor, our city council, the arts and culture segment in Pendleton is kind of baked into the community. We enjoy very broad support. Randy went out to dinner with John Turner, our mayor, last night. So we have a lot of support. Again, using this information to just reinforce those stories. Randy’s always talking about how you can’t have the numbers without the story and you can’t have the story without the numbers. So this just helps bolster that, as we’re out in the community doing that work.

Miller: As a member of the Oregon Arts Commission – this statewide commission – do you see, Roberta, unique challenges in Oregon with respect to arts funding? Or unique opportunities?

Lavadour: Yeah, absolutely. I was so proud of the Arts Commission supporting artists during the pandemic. Those artists’ resilience grants – we gave money to people who make tie dye t-shirts at Country Fair or people who make ... And the fact that we look at arts very broadly, at our organization, we are talking about not necessarily art with a capital A, but creative expression and community connection. And I think that [with] the funding, there are a lot of organizations in this state that would not exist without the support that we get from the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust. It is just integral, especially in rural areas because again, we don’t have that corporate funding arm. Our business community here are a lot of mom and pop businesses and when they give us $500, that is a huge investment. The work that the Arts Commission does in these rural areas is really integral to what we do. And I’m really proud of the work that they do for us.

Miller: Randy, do you have any concern that this kind of analysis, and then using this analysis of economic activity as a way to convince people about these sort of knock-on benefits of arts and culture, that it could lead people to see the purpose of arts and culture as an economic engine, as opposed to a wonderful side benefit?

Cohen: It is something we are always aware of. We think about and we’re always very clear to remind folks that arts and culture, and creativity are fundamental to our humanity. I mean, this is part of a healthy individual, a healthy community, a healthy society. And the arts have all these wonderful benefits to the community. I mean, if you ask a legislator, any legislator, what their three priorities are, there’s a good chance they’ll tell you “jobs, jobs and jobs,” right? So what we’re doing is we’re just connecting this wonderful arts and culture product to something else that’s important to somebody else.

I’ll also say, because so many decision makers in our country these days look through an economic lens at things, this provides them a point of entry. And from there, that enables us to talk about all the other wonderful community benefits that come with the arts. Young people with an education that includes the arts are performing better academically. The research is so clear: better grades, better test scores, lower dropout rates. When the arts are part of our healing and health care, in shorter hospital stays, less medication, fewer doctor visits. It vitalizes downtown. Returning military service members – the military is finding a value for the arts in helping returning service members reintegrate into their communities and reunite families.

A vibrant, healthy arts community, what we’re talking about here, is just building a vibrant and healthy Oregon, and that’s what the arts do. Economics is just one point of it, but it’s one that has a lot of resonance. So we’re happy to share that good news.

Miller: Randy Cohen and Roberta Lavadour, thanks very much.

Cohen: Thanks for having me.

Lavadour: Thank you.

Miller: Randy Cohen is the vice president of research at Americans for the Arts. He has been taking part in a multi-city tour of Oregon to talk about the group’s recent report, looking into the economic activity generated by arts and cultural organizations in Oregon, and also around the country. Roberta Lavadour is the executive director of the Pendleton Center for the Arts. She’s also a member of the Oregon Arts Commission.

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