Call it cultural tourism, call it commerce, call it the creative industry, think of it as enhancing the quality of our life, but any way you couch it local art and cultural entities are economic indicators and create jobs, support families and add to our region’s vitality.
Our art and culture commodities from art galleries and museums to theatre and dance companies are a catalyst for growth…..a growing segment of our region that seems to stem the tide of economic decline.
In 1994, when we launched Cascade Business News, we included art galleries and art organizations in the first Book of Lists – a compilation of industry lists highlighting the regional economic segments.
Many business people in our community at the time rolled their eyes when they saw that we had included the arts as an economic factor. And yet, 18 years ago the arts-related workforce displayed in the small 40 page Book of Lists showed 16 art galleries, 40 employees, 24,740 feet of exhibit space. In 1996 we added arts organizations and listed the major ones, nine to be exact, employing 88 people with estimated revenues of $3.6 million.
Enter the new 104-page 2012 Book of Lists that shows an amazing growth in key arts segments. It’s hard to roll your eyes at these numbers:
42 galleries and frameshops. 98 employees. About 44,000 square feet of exhibit space (more than doubling previous numbers).
We now list 34 arts groups, employing 185 people with a total of nearly $20 million in annual revenues.
In employment alone this represents a 200 percent increase in just art galleries and framers and arts organizations in our region over the last decade.
You would be hard pressed to find another industry segment that has grown as much and sustained itself.
The state’s Creative Vitality Index suggests that Oregon’s creative health remains robust. The CVI is impressive even in today’s economic climate by measuring public participation in the arts as well as arts-related employment.
We know by looking at another set of data in our Arts Resource Guide that there are at least 350 artists just in Central Oregon. Granted not everyone is a full time artist and many make their living doing other things, but what this information suggests is that the artistic community in the high desert is extremely vibrant and active.
While data is interesting and certainly tells a story, it’s the wide impact of those employment areas that are of significance. As we specifically zero in on directly related arts businesses such as artists and art galleries, the creative sector casts a much wider web including graphic designers, writers and architects, book and music sales, photographic and art supplies, manufacturing and sale of musical instruments, retail sales at boutiques, and of course, the media (and everyone knows how creative we can be).
It is also important to recognize the significance of the arts and the economic value it brings to the table in attracting companies to the area whose leaders want diverse and cultural environments for their workers.
The fact is that art, culture and commerce nurture and enhance each other. There just cannot be a workable economic environment without the participation of creativity, without arts education, without the expansion of young brains…………..as business people you wouldn’t have branded your company, marketed your products and services without creativity and some use of art. Your own creativity set the stage for building a successful company.
A decade ago the galleries association in Bend developed the First Friday Art Walk. It seemed a lofty project at the time to get local businesses to stay open until 9pm displaying local artwork and offering Bend up as a hot spot. For years now Art Walk has been a favorite form of entertainment…and for you perhaps it’s just good fun….but what it is to businesses is the creation of commerce….artists selling their work, shops getting people in their stores and merchants greeting customers.
Redmond has now formed this same kind of collaboration between art and business. A viable, successful downtown environment depends on art, culture and the eccentric mix of commerce.
Creating Art Walk was about forgetting our limitations and becoming both spontaneous and directed, which can bring forth sublime creativity. I am struck by how the arts communities in our region continue to emerge and blossom despite the struggles in the economy.
Here in Central Oregon we have a diverse arts community enhancing cultural tourism, creating jobs, bringing enjoyment and expansion to our lives. It’s our task as community and business leaders to embrace the art and culture as a viable economic contributor…….it deserves that level of reverence and certainly has earned our respect. pha
