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16 February 2009
Contact: Humanitarian Resource Institute
Arts Integration Into Education
Phone: (203) 668-0282
Url: www.humanitarian.net/university/arts
or www.countryup.org
Email: arts@humanitarian.net
CountryUp.org:
Arts in Crisis - $332 Billion/Year in Economic Activity
Dear Friends:
The arts community across the United States is in a state of crisis.
This last week:
The "Connecticut Opera" has gone out of business after
67 seasons, the latest arts group to fall victim to the economic downturn
and sagging charitable donations.
Orchestras, ballets and opera companies across the country are facing
huge deficits. The Los Angeles Opera is laying off 17 people, cutting salaries
and will stage fewer performances this year. The Miami City Ballet is cutting
eight dancers. The Baltimore Opera has declared bankruptcy.
The nation's premier opera company, Metropolitan Opera, this week dropped
four productions from the 2009-10 season and slashed salaries because of
the economy. The Opera Orchestra of New York also canceled its two remaining
performances this season because of the recession.
The nonprofit group Americans for the Arts estimates 10,000 arts organizations
could disappear in 2009. -- Connecticut Opera goes out of business, Associated Press,
12 February 2009.
Arts organizations across the United States have been crushed
and executive directors are in nothing short of a panic as they contemplate
their capacity for survival.
When the Connecticut Opera shuts down, in the state considered the hedge
fund capitol of the Universe, we know we have a challenge. At the Wharton
Hedge Fund Conference in August 2008, James Quinn, senior director of strategic
planning at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, sounded the
warning call:
I hate to tell you, but the storm has reached your
location and it is a Category 5 hurricane. The levees are leaking. Ignore
it at your own peril. -- The Great Consumer Crash of 2009, Wharton Hedge Fund
Conference, 13 August 2008.
No one listened and the economic impact has been equivalent to waiting
6 months before we engaged disaster relief operations and supplies to the
region directly hit by Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately the impact
of this occurrence has spread across the globe and is the focus of this
weekends G7 Meetings in Rome (CountryUp.org: G7: G-192 Discussion, HRI, 13 February
2009).
In 2005,
the nation focused attention on the arts and their large role in the economy
of the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. In the paper "The Case for Including the Arts in Hurricane Katrina Relief,"
(26 September 2005, National Endowment for the Arts), it was noted:
• A preliminary assessment of financial losses suffered by arts organizations
in the Gulf Coast regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and
Florida show damages in excess of $82 million.
• Culture is the second largest industry in Louisiana – second only to
healthcare. (According to an independent 2005 study by Mt. Auburn Associates.)
• Arts and culture account for 7.6 percent of Louisiana’s employment
– more than 144,000 jobs, 57,000 of them in New Orleans. Culture contributes
$1.1 billion to the state annually. (a direct contribution of $202 million
to the state economy, and an indirect economic impact of $934 million)
• Combined payrolls of artists/arts organizations/arts staff in the Alabama
counties of Baldwin and Mobile: $74 million. The economic impact of the
arts on Baldwin and Mobile counties: $94 million.
• Tourism is the fifth largest employment sector in Mississippi, with
more than half of those employed in museums, galleries, and the performing
arts. In hard-hit Harrison County, 28% of employed people work in tourism,
which depends heavily on cultural attractions.
According
to the report "Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact
of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences:"
Nationally, the
nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic
activity every year—$63.1 billion in spending by organizations and an additional
$103.1 billion in event-related spending by their audiences.
It is time for a Katrina level initiative in support of the arts community
and our youth, who encompass the future of our nation.
Stephen Michael Apatow
Founder, Director of Research and Development
Humanitarian Resource Institute
Phone: (203) 668-0282
Internet: www.humanitarian.net
Email: s.m.apatow@humanitarian.net
Director, Global Arts Integration Into Education Initiative
Url: www.countryup.org
MySpace Music Connection
Url: www.apatow.org
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"Arts Integration into Education" promoting the arts
as a vehicle for solution oriented strategic planning and development across
the globe.
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