Arts are just an integral part of tourism. Our crafts, our native arts and crafts if you will, are very important to tourists. If you look at all of these programs that fall under “arts” as a broad category, they are all sorts of attractions that people want to go see . . .People like to visit the museums, the galleries . . . The opera and the Opry are both important too, for tourists and visitors to Kentucky to do . . . Certainly, the dance, the music, the theatre; these are performance arts and people want to go see them. Obviously, the more people that see them, the better it is from our standpoint.

Ann Latta, Secretary, Kentucky Tourism Development Cabinet

Kentucky offers a unique blend of nature and culture; a beautiful setting for everything from bluegrass to ballet, from theatre to craft fairs.

Trying to track and enumerate the economic impact of the arts in Kentucky presents enormous challenges because, unlike other industries, the arts are thoroughly embedded in diverse aspects of Kentucky’s economy: tourism, information technologies, advertising and marketing, graphic, architectural and product design, as well as entertainment. Few industries can claim as profound an impact on the state as a whole.

Take tourism, for example.

FACT—The cultural tourist spends on average $615 per trip compared to the average traveler spending $425.

Source: “Profile of Travelers Who Participate in Cultural and Historic Activities,” Travel Industry Association of America.

FACT—Kentucky is home to more than 40 performing arts venues serving the state’s 4,040,000 residents. These venues are part of the overall economic impact of the arts which was recently calculated at $293.8 million in combined attendance and arts support.

Source: “Arts and the Kentucky Economy,” Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Kentucky, February, 1998.

From the Kentucky Opera in Louisville to the Kentucky Opry in Prestonsburg, the arts are present in every corner of the Commonwealth. Paducah’s new performing arts center will present local, national and international performers while Covington’s mosaic artists create art for public spaces. From the tourists who will stop at the Kentucky Artisans Center at Berea to those who travel US 23’s cultural heritage corridor in Eastern Kentucky, the arts take in the four points of the compass and involve many different activities.

FACT—Tourism and travel is Kentucky’s third-largest revenue-producing industry, generating $7.8 billion in 1999 ($5.3 billion by out of state travelers).

Source: Kentucky Tourism Development Cabinet.

Success story—Route 23 Corridor, a Model for the Nation

Kentucky is leading the nation in developing a new kind of tourism based on the personal, authentic experience of a region’s culture. The Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) has been actively engaged with eight counties along Route 23 in eastern Kentucky in creating a cultural tourism plan that will be a springboard for economic, community and cultural development. In these counties, the KAC takes its cues from the communities with which it works to develop the project, creating grassroots partnerships among artists, musicians, tourism practitioners, local government officials, church leaders, teachers, community-based arts organizations and economic development offices. There are plans underway to create a Web site and arts marketing network along the corridor, a video highlighting the attractions and cultural assets of each county, and an audio driving tour. An even more substantial outcome of the KAC’s efforts is that, in the course of sprucing up their region for visitors, local residents have met new neighbors and rediscovered the potential they had overlooked in the past.

Source: “State Spotlight,” National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, www.nasaa-arts.org.

Cultural tourism can be a great catalyst for building arts organizations, arts events and opportunities for artists and craftspeople, not just to draw tourists, but also to benefit the local people who live there year round.

Craft artisans and their products alone are an economic force in Kentucky.

FACT—According to the Craft Organization Directors Association (CODA) survey, the first-ever survey of crafts’ impact on the national economy, the fine crafts market is a $13.8 billion industry. As a point of comparison, the crafts industry is about half the size of the $29.9 billion toy industry (source: Toy Manufacturers of America). It is roughly three times the size of the $4 billion organic foods industry (source: Organic Trade Association). And it is just slightly smaller than the $16 billion retail floral market (source: Society of American Florists).

Source: “The CODA Survey: The Impact of Crafts on the National Economy,” Craft Organization Directors Association Economic Impact Survey.

FACT—Kentucky’s Craft Marketing Program, a division of the Kentucky Arts Council, has been recognized as a model for other states and has led the way in its support of artisans in business. Its annual show, Kentucky Crafted: The Market, is unique in the country and generates $3 million annually for Kentucky producers.

Source: Kentucky Arts Council.

The Kentucky Craft Marketing Program actively lends its support and serves as an advisor and partner to statewide programs focusing on crafts as integral to economic growth. The programs include development of the Kentucky Appalachian Artisans Center and the Kentucky School of Craft, both of which are located in Hindman, the county seat of Knott County, as well as the Kentucky Artisans Center at Berea.

Success Story—Paducah’s Artist Relocation Program

One of the first community development programs in the nation centered around artists began in 1999 as a way to revitalize Lowertown and Downtown Paducah. The program’s goal is to create a sort of “artist colony” and to market the area as a unique collage of studios, galleries, shops, and artistic businesses. The city’s larger revitalization plan includes a performing arts center as well as spaces for artists to live and work.

Spearheaded by Paducah visual artist Mark Barone and sponsored by the City of Paducah, the program is designed to rehabilitate neglected structures, add cultural diversity to the city, and increase the tax base and tourism.

Source: “Paducah’s Artist Relocation Program,” Arts Across Kentucky, October, 2000. See also: Paducah Artist Relocation Program, www.paducaharts.com.

FACT—Kentucky tax revenue from arts workers ($10.5 million) in 1998 was 2 1/2 times the dollar amount awarded in Kentucky Arts Council grants ($4.1 million) to communities, schools, organizations and individuals in that same year.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Kentucky Arts Council.

FACT—Art works to employ 3500 Kentuckians in full or part time jobs. This figure places arts occupations at #7 compared to the top ten manufacturing employers in the state, behind Ford Motor Company at #2 with 9,580 and Toyota at #3 with 7,900 but ahead of Emerson Electric with 3,065 employees. Clearly the arts are a major employer in Kentucky.

Source: 2000 Kentucky Directory of Manufacturers, published by Harris InfoSource in cooperation with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research.

FACT—In 2000, the growth rate of artists’ occupations in the workforce exceeded that of the overall labor force.

Source: Kentucky Workforce Development Cabinet, Department for Employment Services, Research & Statistics Branch.

“Artists don’t always wear berets. When you think art, think movies. Think television. Think music. Think power lunches cooked by celebrity chefs . . . Think software . . . Web pages . . . Advertising . . . Products of every stripe. The packages they come in. Billboards. Labels. In fact, just about everything we see or touch in daily life has an arts component. Bridges are beautiful. Houses are designed not just to give shelter but to look good too.”

Source: “More Art, Better Schools” by Tamim Ansary, June 20, 2001. MSN Encarta.

FACT—While occupations that require a 4-year or graduate degree will average 16 percent employment growth, arts-related jobs will grow at a rate of 33.3%. Four categories (Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Managers; Instrumental Musicians; Music Directors, Singers and Related Musicians; Artists and Commercial Artists) of the top twenty-five fastest growing occupations in Kentucky are arts-related.

Source: Kentucky Workforce Development Cabinet, Department for Employment Services, Research & Statistics Branch.

 

Herman Web, Loretta Lynn’s brother on the Country Music Highway near Paintsville, Kentucky.

Source: www.kentuckytourism.com

People’s Bank benefits from our support of artisans as well as all businesses in this town do. We find that as we support and give support to our artist community and in turn they grow, that it brings a number of people into Madison County, and into Berea that are shopping. And not only does the artist community have increases in revenue, but the entire business community of Madison County and Berea has an increase in revenue… I would hope that no community would take their artists and craftsmen for granted.

Larry Harrison, President, People’s Bank of Madison County

A year ago, if someone told me I’d be working part time for the city, I’d say they were nuts. But this program is about getting historical property saved, about reclaiming part of Paducah through the arts.

Mark Barone, Artist Relocation Coordinator, City of Paducah