The Arts Building is having an economic impact in Chattanooga.For years, arts and cultural leaders in cities and counties around the country have maintained that their organizations can have a positive impact on the communities in which they work. They’ve known it and believed it, but very often they’ve only had what Rodney Van Valkenburg calls “cardiac research.”
“I know it in my heart, but how do I measure it?” he said.
Van Valkenburg is the director of grants and initiatives with ArtsBuild, the local arts advocacy organization that raises funds and promotes local arts and cultural groups in Chattanooga and Hamilton County. Now, thanks to a new survey, Van Valkenburg and other arts organizations across the country, state and nation have real numbers showing the economic impacts of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations.
The Arts & Economic Prosperity survey, conducted in a partnership with Americans for the Arts, found nonprofit arts and cultural organizations generate about $170 million dollars in one year for Hamilton County. For the state, the number is closer to $1.2 billion.
The numbers include things such as meals, hotel rooms, wages, taxes, tickets and parking.