If you pay federal taxes in the U-S, you might find it interesting that just $1.30 of what you pay goes to fund arts organizations across the country
That comes to0.003% of what the federal government spends each year on everything. That is really low, compared to what many other major countries with highly-developed economies spend.
I’ll give you an example. The comparison isn’t exact, but Germany and France spend ten times as much as the U.S. does, measured as a percentage of those countries’ annual federal budgets.
And the economic impacts that arts organizations have are far larger than what governments spend on them. For example, in the U.S., the National Endowment for the Arts’ annual budget is about $200 million.
The economic activity that arts organizations funded by the NEA generate – that’s people who have work, ticket sales, audiences spending money at nearby restaurants and all related activity, totals about $150 billion a year.
We invest $200 million, we get back $150 billion. It’s a huge return on investment.
I found out these numbers while working on a related story for Marketplace. I’ll have more on that when the story is broadcast and published online.
But I’ll leave you with this: right now, Congress is considering whether to cut federal arts funding in the next budget by about a third. Arts leaders around the country are worried about what that would do to organizations big and small, but especially small ones, and those in rural communities.
InterArts Fresno 