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16
February 2009
Humanitarian
Resource Institute
Phone:
(203) 668-0282
Url:
www.humanitarian.net
United
Nations Arts Initiative
Arts
Integration Into Education
Url:
www.unarts.org
Twitter:
unarts
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
Stephen M. Apatow
Founder, Director of Research & Development
Humanitarian Resource Institute
Humanitarian University Consortium Graduate Studies
Center for Medicine, Veterinary Medicine & Law
Phone: 203-668-0282
Email: s.m.apatow@humanitarian.net
Internet: www.humanitarian.net
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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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