Author: Washington Regional Arts Project

Publication Year: 1974

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Preliminary data were collected on the arts industry to gauge its economic significance and financial health. In addition, interviews were conducted to ascertain organizational needs and suggestions for improvements in the management and coordination of the arts - means through which the economic significance and financial health of the arts can be enhanced.

Abstract:

Preliminary data were collected on the arts industry to gauge its economic significance and financial health. In addition, interviews were conducted to ascertain organizational needs and suggestions for improvements in the management and coordination of the arts - means through which the economic significance and financial health of the arts can be enhanced. Findings are presented in this preliminary report. They are limited in scope and meant to be suggestive rather than rigorously representative in the strict scientific sense, but they are useful as first indicators on a subject about which little, at least in the Washington area, has previously been researched.

This report has several sections including an appendix and this introduction. Following Section 1, a summary of findings and conclusions, the second section deals with the significance of the arts in the economy of the region. Conclusions are derived mainly from the application to Washington of data from published sources and findings from other cities and the nation as a whole. Some estimates are also made in this section of the size of the total arts industry - profit as well as non-profit.

The third section presents original data on the income and expenditures of the 15 organizations studied, their earning gaps and their deficits. Trend data on grant giving by the three types of sources studied are given in this section, as well. Finally, drawing upon data from interviews with local arts figures, suggestions for ways of increasing the base of financial support of the arts are discussed.

Section four draws most heavily upon the interviews with arts figures to present prevailing views on several topics relating to the management, coordination and promotion of the arts in metropolitan Washington. A final section of the report attempts a synthesis of what we learned from the study about what those who make up the arts community feel is important, problematic and deserving of further attention.|Detailed data on grants by the three types of sources studied - the National Endowment for the Arts, State Art Councils, and three local foundations - to the 165 organizations that have received grants over the past four years are presented in an appendix of lengthy tables. Though these tables are summarized in the section of the report on financial data, the detailed statistics will be of interest to many. A selected bibliography is also attached.

Summary of findings and conclusions:

1. The arts are big business in the Washington metropolitan community, responsible directly for expenditures totaling an estimated $25 million each year, plus many more millions in spinoff expenditures. (See Section II.)
   
   
2. The arts as a group are a growth industry in metropolitan Washington but many individual organizations including some of the region's largest and best known, are seriously in the red. Of 15 organizations whose balance sheets were examined for their latest fiscal year, nine had deficits. Together they fell behind over three quarters of a million dollars last year. (See Section III.)
   
   
3. Government and foundation grants to the arts have increased substantially over the past four years despite the recession, and they have been distributed to a larger number of organizations each year. The proportion of total grant funds (from the sources studied) going to a few large organizations has shown a significant downward trend. (See Section III.)
   
   
4. Several approaches to broadening the economic base of support of the arts are being considered in the arts community. Among them, a hotel tax and a united arts appeal. (See Section III.)
   
   
5. Arts leaders cite a broad range of organizational, management and coordination problems, but it may be possible to reduce these problems to a set of perhaps a half dozen broad community-wide perceptions of need. (See Sections III and IV.)

CONTENTS
List of figures and tables.
List of appendices.
Introduction.

1. Summary of findings and conclusions.
2. Contribution of the arts to the Washington economy.
3. Financial characteristics of arts organizations.
4. Organizing the arts: Some room for improvement.
5. Where do we go from here? Or, is there anything we agree on?

Appendix:
     A. Tables.
     B. Data sources consulted.
     C. Selected bibliography.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Funding