Allegheny County’s arts and cultural organizations are in good overall health and continue to be among the nation’s leaders in economic impact on their communities, according to a new study.
In comparisons of cities/counties closer to our size and scope, Pittsburgh/Allegheny County was No. 1 in total direct spending of organizations and audiences, with a combined $1.06 billion to its nearest big spender, Baltimore, at $606 million. For job impact, with a total of more than 32,000, the nearest city was St. Louis at 19,129.
Greater Pittsburgh ranks at the top in arts and culture spending Expenditures by arts and culture organizations and their audiences in comparable regions:
The arts effect on jobs Among the benchmark regions, Pittsburgh ranks highest in impact of the arts on jobs.
Source: New Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council report on the economic impact of the arts | graphics: Post-Gazette/Ed Yozwick, James Hilston
“With the size and support systems here, and being as healthy and robust as we are, that’s why there is such a positive economic impact,” said David Pankratz, research and policy director for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.
The study unveiled Tuesday is titled “From Pointe Shoes to Pierogies: Impacts of the Arts in Allegheny County” -— a reference to items that can be bought with the $641 million in household income generated by county arts and culture employees. In a press conference at Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s evolving home in the West End, the GPAC introduced findings such as that arts and culture accounts for $2.38 billion injected into the economy. That includes $1.06 billion in direct spending, triggering indirect spending (dining out, hotel stays, parking, etc.) of $1.32 billion. The county’s arts and cultural organizations also accounted for more than 5,700 full-time equivalent jobs and generated more than 26,400 more — measured by the ripple effect from stagehands, contractors and accountants to tourism, transportation and restaurants.
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald mentioned the “cold, hard numbers” of 32,000 jobs and tax revenue of $115 million, “but we all know it does more than that,” he said of arts and culture. “It’s the vibrancy, it’s making people feel good and make it a wonderful, livable place that we have here.”
He mentioned that The Andy Warhol Museum was the top attraction for tourists in the county and added the arts are “why, when we put our foot forward to win the competition that Amazon has put forward, of where they want to do HQ2, the arts are going to be front and center of why they want to locate those 50,000 people here.”
The report was produced by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, in partnership with Americans for the Arts, and employs the latter’s findings from Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 (the fifth such national survey). Some of the findings were provided by GPAC’s own surveys and data collection, plus information gathered from the national DataArts database and other sources.
The nationwide study of more than 14,400 nonprofit organizations includes benchmark comparisons, with Allegheny County represented in the national report by 194 groups with DataArts profiles — a requirement of many funders — or a significant economic imprint. GPAC delved further to recognize 668 groups and customize some findings for the Pittsburgh area.
Pittsburgh/Allegheny County ranks in the top 10 lists for nonprofit industry expenditures (No. 10) and jobs generated (No. 9) among the larger cities. Other benchmark city/counties in this group were Washington, D.C. (No. 1 in expenditures); Chicago (No. 1 in jobs); Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth; San Francisco; Miami/Dade County; Boston; Houston and San Diego.
The study concludes Pittsburgh’s strengths are its public funding, where it is No. 2 among 11 benchmark cities (the Twin Cities are first, according to a 2015 study by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance), mainly due to a continued rise in Allegheny Regional Asset District funding. RAD is by far the county’s biggest public funder, with the NEA and Pennsylvania Council for the Arts also contributing.
“We were way up there in most measures in the [previous report four years ago] as well,” Mr. Pankratz said. “Much of that is because of our foundation support and RAD, which is the envy of so many areas. Those kind of long-term supports are maybe less solid in other cities.”
The section of the report titled “Allegheny County’s Arts & Cultural Sector” counted the participation of 37,000 volunteers and audiences of more than 24 million — with more than 75 percent of the events free.
In 2016, the county’s arts organizations were No. 2 in per capita funding from foundations and one of only two cities to see a rise in corporate donations in the past five years. In that same time, 60 percent of organizations broke even or had a surplus, and 55 percent met or exceeded their audience projections, according to the report.
State Sen. Wayne Fontana, a member of the Legislative Arts Caucus with Jay Costa, noted that despite the budgetary challenges facing the state, “members of the caucus and its partners are in Harrisburg regularly to remind us of this region’s robust arts scene and the need to support the arts industries in southwestern Pennsylvania.”
He particularly appreciated the report’s inclusiveness of small arts organizations folded into its conclusions, several in his district, such as the Father Ryan Arts Center in McKees Rocks.
Among the arts groups representing a cross section of the performing arts at the report’s unveiling were the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, New Horizon Theater and City Theatre.
Challenges to funding and inclusiveness remain. Those include “persistent issues of racial inequity and unequal access to resources,” a decline in individual giving for the arts over the past five years, modest increases in earned income by most organizations and the fact that employment increases have been mostly in part-time positions.
The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council is in the process of conducting a more in-depth report on how race and ethnicity are factors in funding in our area.
“It’s something GPAC’s board is prioritizing, so we have an equity committee,” Mr. Pankratz said. The current report’s conclusions were based on “feedback from our constituents, individual artists and organizations as they do that type of development and address those issues.”
Social engagement and the importance of the arts as they relate to cultural identity and education got high marks in surveys that included 37 arts organizations with more than 1,000 respondents.
The numbers tell only a part of the story of what the county has to offer in museums, music and theater that light up the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust or attract neighbors to the black box theater down the street.
“You have to have stuff people like,” Mr. Pankratz said. “How absorbing it is, how it helps you connect with friends and is in touch with different cultural traditions -— those qualitative factors make a difference up front, and the economic impact will follow.”
Event-related spending in Allegheny County Audiences in Allegheny County spend an average of $30.64 per person above and beyond the cost of the ticket, a total of $509.5 million in 2015.
Source: New Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council report on the economic impact of the arts | graphics: Post-Gazette/Ed Yozwick, James Hilston The arts effect on household incomes, tax revenues Compared to regions of similar economic, demographic, historical and socio-cultural features (benchmark regions), the Pittsburgh region ranks highest in economic impact of the arts on household income.
Source: New Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council report on the economic impact of the arts | graphics: Post-Gazette/Ed Yozwick, James Hilston
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: September 26, 2017, 2:00 p.m.
Updated: September 26, 2017, 2:14 p.m.
