The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Shea’s Performing Arts, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Zoo.
It is a distinguished but hardly complete list of this region’s cultural assets that together have created a serious economic impact.
A new report commissioned by the Buffalo-based Arts Services Initiative and completed by Rochester’s Center for Governmental Research provides the details: the equivalent of 2,900 full-time jobs, $87.4 million in labor income and $4.3 million in local and state tax revenue.
The report was funded by a $25,000 grant from the New York Community Trust and included 105 organizations in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.
This is not the first time the Arts Initiative has sought to generate some hard numbers. The group commissioned a similar study back in 2007, and it was time for a fresh look, as reported by News Arts Critic Colin Dabkowski.
The actual economic impact of the arts is even greater than reported because the study left out such things as touring productions that come to Shea’s and musical acts booked into the region’s numerous concert venues. Tickets to those shows generate big money, so that spinoff is also significant.
ASI Executive Director Tod A. Kniazuk said that beyond the economic impact, the culturals provide benefits such as “tourism, education and veterans services, health services, national and international recognition, obviously community service and then of course the fact that the ‘product’ we produce actually inspires people and actually makes them think, too. All of that’s the real impact.”
In focusing on the nonprofit cultural industry, the study found that people attending events spent an average of $17.77 beyond the ticket price and, even more significant, that 19 percent of audiences for events at the 105 organizations included in the report came from outside of the region. And spending by the out-of-town audience reached $52.10 per person.
This is good information for those who sit in legislative chambers and nonprofit boardrooms and, for that matter, the everyday citizen contemplating where to start a career and raise a family.
Indeed, the culturals have an impact that goes far beyond the strictly financial, getting to the heart of quality of life here and what it means to live in an enlightened and progressive area that is drawing people from near and far who want to live, work and play here.
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