Michael Eastman Photo
Rocco Landesman
The National Endowment for the Arts has released a report that “analyzes the value of arts and culture through concrete monetary measures, through ‘revealed preferences’ as seen through consumer spending, and through time use, which is a ‘quality of life’ measure,” according to a press release issued last week.
NEA chairman Rocco Landesman was quoted in the release as saying: “It’s clear that Americans value the arts, through the time and money they spend on the arts. … Beyond the economic fact that the arts generate significant revenue, the arts are a shared, social activity, and that’s something that enhances the civic life of our communities.”
The report, titled Time and Money: Using Federal Data to Measure the Value of Performing Arts Activities, includes three “Key Findings”: Performing arts organizations in the United States “generate nearly $13.6 billion in annual revenues, according to the most recent estimates”; “Americans recently spent an annual total of $14.5 billion on performing arts admissions”; and “On any given day, 1.5 million Americans attend arts performances, usually with family or friends.”
The report “draws on the most recent data available from the U.S. Economic Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),” according to the press release.