The Arts are worth your time, attention and financial support in all facets of society. The Arts’ influence on American society has long standing roots and continues to be expressed through valuable statistical information. Source: Americans for the Arts.
Education
1. A student involved in the arts is four times more likely to be recognized for their academic achievement.
2. Students with high arts participation and low socioeconomic status have a 4 percent dropout rate – five times lower than their low socioeconomic status peers.
3. Students who take four years of arts and music classes average almost 100 points higher on their SAT scores than students who take only one half year or less.
4. Low-income students who are highly engaged in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college as their peers with no arts education.
5. 72 percent of business leaders say that creativity is the number one skill they are seeking when hiring.
6. 93 percent of Americans believe that the arts are vital to providing a well-rounded education.
7. The arts are recognized as a core academic subject under the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act and 48 states have adopted standards for learning from the arts.
8. Two-thirds of public school teachers believe that the arts are getting crowded out of the school day.
9. 97 percent of elementary schools nationwide do not offer dance and 96 percent do not offer theater.
10. In 2008, African-American and Hispanic students had less than half of the access to arts education than their White peers.
Economy
Nationally, the arts industry generated $135.2 billion of economic activity – $61.1 billion by the nations nonprofit arts and culture organizations – in addition to $74.1 billion in event-related expenditures by their audiences. This economic activity supports 4.13 million full-time jobs and generates $86.68 billion in resident household income. Our industry also generates $22.3 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal governments every year – a yield well beyond their collective $4 billion in arts allocations.
Organizations
In 2010, nonprofit arts and culture organizations pumped an estimated $61.1 billion into the economy. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations are employers, producers, consumers and key promoters of their cities and regions. Most of all, they are valuable contributors to the business community.
Audiences
Dinner and a show go hand-in-hand. Attendance at arts events generates income for local businesses – restaurants, parking garages, hotels and retail stores. An average arts attendee spends $24.60 per event, not including the cost of admission. On the national level, these audiences provided $74.1 billion of valuable revenue for local merchants and their communities.