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The Arts Mean Business By Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts In my travels, I meet business and government leaders who speak passionately about the value the arts bring to their communities—fueling creativity, beautifying downtowns, and providing joy. Many also share with me the challenge of balancing arts funding with the demands to support jobs and grow their economy. To these community leaders, Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 offers a clear and welcome message: the arts are an investment that delivers both community well-being and economic vitality. Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 (AEP5) is Americans for the Arts' fifth economic impact study of the nation's nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and their audiences. By every measure, the results are impressive. Nationally, the nonprofit arts industry generated $166.3 billion of economic activity in 2015—$63.8 billion in spending by arts and cultural organizations and an additional $102.5 billion in event - related expenditures by their audiences. This activity supported 4.6 million jobs and generated $27.5 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal governments (a yield well beyond their collective $5 billion in arts allocations). AEP5 is the most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted. It provides detailed economic impact findings on 341 study regions representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data was gathered from 14,439 organizations and 212,691 arts event attendees, and our project economists customized input-output models for each and every study region to ensure reliable and actionable localized results. When Americans for the Arts published its first economic impact study in 1994, it worked with 33 local communities. As evidence of the value of these studies, AEP5 has grown this local participation ten- fold. We also have witnessed a corresponding growth in the understanding of the economic value of the arts. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, for example, now publishes an annual Arts R Cullural Production Satellite Account, which extends beyond the nonprofit sector to include the full breadth of commercial and for-profit arts, education, and individual artists, and lists the sector as a $730 billion industry (4.2 percent of the nation's GDP—a larger share of the economy than AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS I Arts R Economic Prosperity 5 transportation, tourism, agriculture, and construction). As another example, many state and local governments have established agencies to track and grow their creative economy. What continues to set AEP5 apart from other studies is exactly why it is so useful: it uses localized research that not only focuses on arts organizations—but also incorporates the event -related spending by their audiences. When patrons attend an arts event, they may pay for parking, eat dinner at a restaurant, enjoy dessert after the show, and return home to pay the babysitter. The study found that the typical attendee spends $31.47 per person, per event beyond the cost of admission. AEP5 also shows that one-third of attendees (34 percent) traveled from outside the county in which the arts event took place. Their event -related spending was more than twice that of their local counterparts ($47.57 vs. $23.44). What brought those visitors to town? Two- thirds (69 percent) indicated that the primary purpose for their visit was to attend that arts event. The message is clear: a vibrant arts community not only keeps residents and their discretionary spending close to home, it also attracts visitors who spend money and help local businesses thrive. AEP5 demonstrates that the arts provide both cultural and economic benefits. No longer do community leaders need to feel that a choice must be made between arts funding and economic development. Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 proves that they can choose both. Nationally as well as locally, the arts mean business.