Author: Hollis, Susan Mooring

Publication Year: 1980

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.

Abstract:

Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.

Economists have evolved two approaches for determining the economic impact of the arts activities within a city. The first view assesses the direct and secondary, or multiplier, effects of arts institutions within a local economy. In this approach, economists consider the arts as businesses that consume and provide goods and services while supplying jobs and tax revenues. The second approach is broader; it assesses the impact of the arts as a strategic tool in economic development.

The narrow approach has prevailed since the development of the Cwi-Lyall method in 1977. While the model has been deemed conceptually sound, the results of its application suggest that the arts have little or no claim to a special economic impact when viewed in such a narrow framework. These results have led David Cwi and James Shanahan, in papers for this conference, to state the need for studies of a broadened role for the arts as a factor in economic development strategies. Such studies would examine the impact of the arts in terms of the historic, social, economic and political conditions within a city.

The problem then becomes one of finding a subject for study, for seldom does a city proclaim its use of the arts as its major strategy for economic development. Winston-Salem, North Carolina has made such a pronouncement, and in fact claims to be the first city in the to make use of the arts as the primary vehicle of its center-city revitalization. This relatively small city (population approximately 135,000) has undertaken a massive downtown revitalization effort that has as its focal point two large-scale, multiple-use arts facilities. Implicit in the evolution of the city's planning partnership, and of the plans themselves, is the expectation that the arts focus would produce desired economic development. The city is therefore a bold proving ground for the nascent theories of economists advocating the broad, developmental approach to arts impact. Further, Winston-Salem is a good general case since it has already begun to display impressive spin-off effects in the center-city area as predicted by broad-approach economists.

This case study investigates Winston-Salem's utilization of the arts for its economic development program. It is not a detailed statistical analysis, nor does it explore the attendant questions of arts policy and the possible dangers of addressing essentially non-arts related problems with arts solutions. Rather, it traces the origins of Winston-Salem's expectations for the arts in its downtown revitalization scheme and analyzes the elements that have led to the scheme's apparent economic success. This evaluation raises the question of replicability, and the paper concludes by gauging the extent to which Winston-Salem exemplifies the predictions and caveats of the broad impact approach. (p. 1-2)

CONTENTS
I. The need for a development strategy.

II. The response: why the arts? 

A. The salience of the arts in Winston-Salem. 
B. A comprehensible consensus. 
C. The centerpiece: a culture block: 
    1. NCSA and Stevens Center. 
    2. The Arts Council and Winston Square. 
    3. Project fundraising. 
D. Impact of the arts-centered strategy. 
E. Problems and conflicts.

III. The future.

IV. The appraisal.

Footnotes [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies