Good news, local artists: D.C. nonprofit Americans for the Arts calculated a hard number for the total economic impact of local creative efforts. That number? $241 million dollars in a single year.
To be precise, that's $241 million dollars of total direct expenditures in 2015, spent by nonprofit arts groups and their audiences. But it sounds better to just say it this way: Local art made almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
That number was unveiled Friday to a roomful of artsies, suits, punks, and politicos at the Pinellas County Regional Arts Summit. Keynote speaker Randy Cohen, Vice President of Research and Policy for Americans for the Arts, delivered the good news — and trumpeting the sizable number was the summit's main attraction (Cohen will also travel to Hillsborough and Sarasota county artists about their hauls in coming months).
"It gives those of us in the creative community some numbers to share with folks in business and government," said Mitzi Gordon, a writer and creative consultant, who is the former director of Creative Pinellas (and a former CL contributor). "Frankly I wasn't surprised at all [by the numbers]. The arts are a huge economic driver in many areas, but specifically in this region."
It's important information to have. Going forward, having that number from a national organization will be a critical weapon for anyone trying to promote arts spending — or protect it from getting shitcanned. Given the aesthetic tastes of Governor Rick Scott and President Donald Trump, they'll need all the help they can get.
That tidy-sounding "almost a quarter of a billion dollars" (and the 7,211 full-time equivalent jobs that the study states they support) is not lost on local business and governments. It's why Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater hypes "not just beaches, but the arts." It's why Bank of America and Duke Energy had their community outreach operatives on hand at the event. It's why the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance's motto of the day was "The arts mean business in Pinellas County!"
But during an event that featured plenty of talk about how artists can benefit tax rolls, neighborhood investment and corporate images, there were a lot of questions about when benefits would flow in the other direction.
"What are we going to do for these people?" John Collins, head of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance plaintively asked the panel. He pointed out that between 2002 and 2014 the number of writers, artists, and other creatives moving to the area increased 54 percent.
What, indeed. Median income for these huddled masses, he later told me, hovers around $18,000. (Sounds about right.) A few things Collins was hoping to hear: What about live-work zoning? What about artist residencies? What about increased grants?
On a panel that included County Commissioner Ken Welch and the director of the Small Business Development Center, Dr. Cynthia Johnson, no one bit on Collins's line of interrogation. (Local government revenue from arts is over $11 million per year, according to the study.)
Certainly no one denied the importance of arts in the abstract. Johnson hailed a new pattern where, instead of moving to an area for the sake of a job, people first choose a place because they like the community, and then look for a job.
"So arts is what we need to attract highly-talented people," Johnson said. "Arts is economic development, from my perspective."
But artists in attendance, like opera singer Thea Lobo, had questions about this model of using arts as a means to an economic end.
Lobo splits her time between St. Petersburg and Boston, and the contrast gives her insight.
"I am favorably impressed with the arts here per capita," she said. But, she added, she sees problems, like "not having reasonable healthcare for freelancers." She also singled out needs like public transportation, and special artist housing, "maybe partially subsidized."
Gordon voiced similar feelings about artists' side of the equation.
"I'd like to see more granular engagement with the artists. You know, the nitty gritty, getting down and dirty with them," she said. "Letting artists know how they fit in, how they impact the [economic] numbers by the work that they do."
After a speech from Director of the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Sandy Shaughnessy, down from Tallahassee, Lobo stood up and asked a pointed question. She wanted to know about how government entities will take those nitty-gritty facts of artists' lives into consideration.
She didn't get much of an answer. Given the kind of cash involved, Lobo hopes that there's one on the way.
This article appears in Jul 20-27, 2017.