Just how important are the arts to us when times are as tough as they were in 2009?  There are a number of ways to respond to this question.  One level is simply normative—that the arts sustain our spirits and touch us in ways that make them crucial in difficult times.  We believe this, but there are more empirical ways to answer the question.  During 2009 (in July and December), ArtsFund collected data regarding participation in the arts and financial issues from a very large number of cultural organizations in King and Pierce Counties.  The data driven answer is that attendance at arts organizations has not just remained stable but has actually been increasing during the last twelve months.  That’s the good news; the bad news is that revenues are down even while attendance is up.  Why is this so?

 New Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, takes a direct approach to indicating why arts are important.  His guiding principle is summed up in two words:  “Art works.” As explained on the NEA web site, Chairman Landesman argues that “Art works” has three important meanings.
 
First, as  a noun, “Art works” are the work products of artists:  books, crafts, dances, designs, drawings, films, installations, music, musicals, paintings, plays, performances, poetry, textiles and sculptures. In good times or bad, creative people find themselves compelled to produce works that give them meaning.
 
Second, as a verb, and this is why arts are especially important in down times, “Art works” on and within people to change and inspire them; it addresses the need people have to create, to imagine, to aspire to something more.

Third, as a declaratory sentence, arts jobs are real jobs that are part of the real economy.  Art workers pay taxes, and art contributes to economic growth, neighborhood revitalization and the livability of American towns and cities.  The contribution of the arts to overall economic activity remains hugely important all of the time.  This has been repeatedly confirmed by the periodic economic impact studies done by ArtsFund (a major new regional study will come out at the end of this year thanks to primary underwriting by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation) and by Americans for the Arts in Washington, DC.