KELO and the Sioux Falls Arts Council note that the "arts mean business" in Sioux Falls... over $35 million in business, plus 1300 jobs and $1.4 million in revenue for local government. That's a lot of nickels in the parking meter.
Americans for the Arts provides these numbers in a survey of economic impact. Let's play with those numbers and see what the arts might mean to the Madison economy.
- Sioux Falls has 24 times the population of Madison.
- Proportionate artistic activity in Madison would generate $1.5 million in economic activity.
- Proportionate Madison arts would support 54 jobs.
- Proportionate Madison arts would generate $58,000 in local government revenue.
So I wonder... how might the economic impact of the arts stack up against the economic impact of other economic development ventures, like... oh... say... a thrift store. Sioux Falls has numerous Goodwill, Salvation Army, and other secondhand outlets. In 2011, all used merchandise stores in Sioux Falls generated $26.6 million in taxable sales and $531,000 in local sales tax revenue. In Madison in 2011, used merchandise stores made $312,000 in taxable sales and generated $6200 in local sales tax.
The City of Madison and the Lake County Commission are considering investing $300,000 in a thrift store that will generate a tenth of the economic activity that the arts can. They make no comparable investment in artistic activity that could drive tourism and sales. Our leaders appear to be missing the big picture.
Bonus Madville Times Reach Across the Aisle: The Sioux Falls Residential Guide to Sustainability mentions thrift stores as a useful part of a community sustainability program. Sustainability, as we all know, is a code word for Agenda 21. Thrift stores are thus clearly part of the United Nations plot to eliminate private property and kill half the planet.
Your economic theory is largely unsound Mr. Heidelberger. Presuming that Madison would obtain a population proportionate tax benefit is clear error. Sioux Falls is the economic center of a large geographic area, Madison, as we know, is not. Madison cannot replicate a proportionate flow of shoppers with similer economic profiles to support, even on a per capita basis, what SF can.
You may be right, DA. If I take the used merchandise store taxable sales as a basis, the ratio in economic activity from Sioux Falls to Madison is 83 to 1. That would reduce the benefits of proportional arts activity to $420K in economic activity, 15.6 jobs, and $16.8K in local tax revenue... still more than the entire used-merchandise sector in Madison currently generates, and oodles more than we can expect from a community thrift store that will eat into the market of for-profit stores.
Just to toss some more numbers in the mix, currently the Madison Area Arts Council receives 5k a year in support from the City of Madison, and this past year has received 1,250 in grant funds from the South Dakota Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, along with small cash donations throughout the year. We have a small savings account on hand, which allows us some limited flexibility in programming opportunities.
We have no paid staff, organized by a small volunteer force, are housed in The BrickHouse Community Arts Center which is 820 sq ft on SE 2nd Street, we organize a dozen professional one-night gallery showings a year, bring around 6-9 musical acts to the community each year, along with 3 cultural speakers as part of our Chautauqua Series, with writers, historians, and of course we host our growing White Night Festival at Prairie Village and several upcoming concerts in the next few months. (not to mention the constant community advocacy we promote through our web media)
A pretty solid investment right there, and look at those apples for impact.
While DA is right about the relative sizes of the Madison vs. Sioux Falls market areas there is one aspect of the arts plan that is being overlooked. Madison's location between Lakes Madison and Herman makes it somewhat of a garden spot and the perfect location for outside festivals during the summer. One needs to look no farther than Prairie Village to see the potential that exists. The city should look into annexing PV, the sales tax collected there could finance a system of bike trails connecting the lakes and the city.
The empty park ground between Fourth Street SW and the creek would be an ideal location for arts festivals and other events. Hold bigger concerts out at PV and run a shuttle bus service from there to downtown.
Madison could become the weekend destination for summertime fun in eastern SD and southwest MN. It's not rocket science, Arnold's Park Iowa has been marketing itself like this for generations.
The lakes provide a lot of cultural draw for sure, but actual support, both financially and bums in seats, for the arts must come from within a solid base from the community, like 95% from within for sure, its just the way the specific rural dynamics and remoteness of our location makes that a set reality. Although, with MAAC events, we often have way more support from the Sioux Falls community than the Madison community, so that's always interesting to note and throw a kink into established thinking, and keeps me looking for more answers to unlocking that cultural puzzle that is Madison.
Music festivals are great ways for a community to reach out and connect, and art festivals are too, but there is a huge shifting dynamic away from the so-called traditional arts festival, as professional artists are being economically forced from attending, like a Brookings Arts Festival or the past Art in the Park in Madison for instance, as costs continue to rise for the artists as community support from patrons continues to decline sharply, resulting in a lower level of artwork presented, and less community support as a direct result of that...kind of a vicious cycle
The current thinking is to go more of a hands on approach, an interactive event, even the music festivals have to begin to account for that shift, since everyone thinks they're creative and amazing themselves, and such, expect to have the same stage as the headliner...it's an amazing dynamic cultural shift we're seeing as so far as expectations and participation and one which arts organizations and promoters are working through, much like what we are trying with 'White Night' at the village.
I read through the way the survey was conducted. What a bunch of specious reasoning. The basic error of the survey is that they assumed the money that was spent on the art attractions would otherwise not be spent or put into the economy. That is how they came up with their ludicrous numbers.
If they wanted to conduct a meaningful survey they would have to identify money that would otherwise not have been spent in the community. i.e. out of town money. As it sits now, the money that they identified would have been otherwise spent on other goods and services.
They didn't magically create more money by having arts events.
Hmm... sounds like the same reasoning used by the thrift store proponents. We pour $1.05 million into building the store, then lots of volunteer labor and donations into sustaining operations, and we don't expect those investments will reduce our spending elsewhere in the economy?
Artists create because of personal drive and not for economic need. We do what we do to improve our quality of life.
Michael Black, let's not forget that pretty much the entire South Dakota Tourism industry is driven by a big work of art... Four U.S .Presidents carved into a granite mountain. I'm just sayin'.
Michael: rather like teachers, right? I'll bet merit pay doesn't produce better art, either.
Bill: Rushmore! Great example!
No Cory. Teachers make a living doing what they love to do. Really creative artists working on their own projects seldom if almost never make a decent wage from their efforts.
There are exceptions like photographer Peter Lik, but 99% of artists do not see economic benefits from their efforts
Michael, you're sadly out of your element on this topic, I'm afraid. Just because some artists struggle in their craft doesn't mean the Arts don't benefit a community. Not at all.
Quite the contrary. Communities who embrace the arts are known to strive economically. And artists routinely give far more than they ever get back. That's just how it is.
Want to give up music just because most musicians have a hard time making a living playing it? Come on. Seriously.
Not "strive" "thrive" sorry. (See Seattle, Santa Fe, Taos, Loveland Colorado, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles, Hill City, New York City, Nashville, Austin, etc., etc. You know... culturally creative cities.)
http://seattlest.com/2011/07/22/seattle_named_third_most_creative_c.php
The arts as a collective whole are a huge economic engine, as as this study portrays even further, they are especially valuable in rural America, where small isolated communities are looking for a way to stand out, and attract top industries, who employ top talent...The arts are an incubator that brings creative people, and those who benefit from creative people, like technology-related and people-heavy industries, to their communities, and this can be seen in a number of instances, where some communities continue to strive, progress, and embrace their 'artsy' image, for instance locally, look no further than Hill City or Lead...as they re-imagined and encouraged their community to think outside the accepted norms to much success.
The arts are simply a powerful economic tool that for the most part is under-utilized and under-acknowledged, and that's a dangerous mistake to make, as those communities that continue to fail to fully invest into the shifting dynamic will be left behind, and that will impact the whole of their limited economic base.
Bill, we make our living as portrait artists. Check out our website by click on my name.
You don't get rich from art. You enrich your life.
Just to fuel this discussion,
Another cut in the works for the NEA...its become another sad annual tradition as this point...and remember Madison friends, your local arts council has received $1,250 this past year with assistance in part from the NEA, and another $400 is on the way next month, the NEA does great things for our community, and we've benefited a great deal as a state.
The new budget as proposed would be a 10% cut, to just 132 MILLION, that's way below 1970 levels of federal arts funding...so many programs and organizations continue to be cut, lost, and just disappear, and our communities suffer all the more, as yes, this will only continue to further isolate rural communities.
For more: http://racc.org/resources/us-house-recommends-10-cut-nea-funding-next-year
Grrr... call Kristi! Tell her to restore that funding! If that fails, the arts council may have to start a thrift store.
It's hard not to think about the Chautauqua that made Madison a destination for people as far as Minneapolis. Booker T. Washington was here. Soon we won't have a movie theater. The best our local cartel can come up with is a thrift store?
So we have a definite closing date on the theater yet? West Twin surpassed some expectations I heard last year that they'd close by the end of November 2011.
Sorry, Michael, B. I thought you were arguing against the intrinsic value of the arts in a community. Must have been reading you wrong.
The arts have an important place in any community. The cool thing is that you don't need large budgets to have a great impact.
But we could get so much more bang for the buck if we did invest more heavily in the arts. Think in terms of marketing: Madison and Lake County could invest $1.05 million in a community cultural center and say in its brochures, "Come see our great art exhibits, dance programs, downtown outdoor summer concert series, and Chautauqua revival!" Or we could spend $1.05 million on a thrift store and say, "Come see our thrift store!"
We artists understand the importance of image and message. But Madison tells its artists, "We don't need your kind."
Marketers understand the importance of image and message. Worry less about money and more about people.
Artists are awesome marketers, and we're probably the most dangerous kind of marketer, because we take risks outside the accepted norms of what things should be or say, and often, the results are more than inspiring, and I'd suggest they tend to re-write the establishment's book.
But without funding and support from above, and that's money Michael, we should worry a whole lot more as professional working artists, because without fiscal supports, many organizations, programs, and yes, artists themselves, will fail to survive, and create meaningful conversation, dialogue, and experiences...and don't doubt for a second that artists aren't creating work from their heart, or fulfilling an intrinsic passion, but we need to be paid and supported too, and yes, federal and local funding is part of the greater equation, we're professionals like any other field, and deserve the same kind of respect as anyone else.
I would argue that the arts are much more distressed than much of the economy, and thus deserve way more federal, state, and local support than not, as they impact such a wide and varied niche within the marketplace as a whole, and yes, they can turn a community around for the best, as they are essentially the spark to much of the urban and rural community revival as previously mentioned in the above comments, the power of the arts should never be doubted or tossed aside. (that's a dangerous and all around shortsighted mistake for sure)
And yes, creative people (who give a damn) are the biggest piece of the arts puzzle, you can throw money at really bad ideas, and the arts aren't removed from that, but with the right kind of ideas, visions, commitments, and more importantly, actions, these pieces come together to form something wicked and powerful...I think we can all agree on that.
I love the fact that Madison is positioned well to make headway...now we gotta continue to move forward.
Sadly, people who make these kinds of money decisions have a history of failing to distinguish between investing in community and investing in real estate. I've seen it happen time and again, no matter what the cause, it's always better if the objective is to build a building. How about a combination Creativity Thrift Center? ('Will paint for used furniture, or even paint your used furniture!')
I recall attending the past state arts conference and hearing Randy Cohen from Americans for the Arts (and several others) state something that rattled a few too many cages...that artists and the arts should never, ever, get into the building preservation game, we're just bad partners, and the federal funding for such projects is a distant memory...it will never happen again...and such relationships have taken so much emphasis away from these cultural organizations, that their missions and their effectiveness suffer, and their relevance becomes more about bricks in the eyes of the community...and over time, as they take their eye off the creative ball, they loose their most dedicated audience and base of support.
Cultural organizations are awesome with programming, inspiring communities...but not so much on the building front...that's why renting a modest existing facility is being encouraged more and more.
A perception can become one's reality. If you think that Madison doesn't need your kind, then you'll feel hostility towards your hometown. That's too bad.
That's one thing I've really tried to do with the arts council, try to re-establish relationships with our locals, and more so, those who have left the area in pursuit of making a life for themselves and their families. There is so much talent and creativity stemming in and from this community, it's an awesome punch to the gut for sure...just amazes me what our community produced (and supported) over the years.
Artist Bashing is a time honored South Dakota tradition. ;^)
Come to think of it, it's kind of a red state national pass time. It always amazes me. People who haven't developed their creative brain are at once in awe of those who can do it, but at the same time think it's fun and magic, and as such, somehow not worth very much.
As though they are somehow doing an artist a favor by asking them to make them something. (...as in: 'Here, make me a logo, it will be fun for you to do, and besides, I need one. But don't charge me very much for it. I want to pretend I did it myself. Oh yeah, and part of the deal is, if I let you make this, I want to own it exclusively, and I will sue you if you make one even remotely similar for someone else.' LOL)
Bill,
Something about your post reminded me of this Edgar Lee Masters poem, so I thought I'd foist it on everyone.
Fiddler Jones
The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.
What do you see, a harvest of clover?
Or a meadow to walk through to the river?
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands
For beeves hereafter ready for market;
Or else you hear the rustle of skirts
Like the girls when dancing at Little Grove.
To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust
Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;
They looked to me like Red-Head Sammy
Stepping it off to 'Toor-a-Loor.'
How could I till my forty acres
Not to speak of getting more,
With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos
Stirred in my brain by crows and robins
And the creak of a wind-mill--only these?
And I never started to plow in my life
That some one did not stop in the road
And take me away to a dance or picnic.
I ended up with forty acres;
I ended up with a broken fiddle--
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,
And not a single regret