Measuring the health of arts and culture

By Glen S. Howard
President, Strategic Philanthropy Advisors
Member of the Arts and Humanities Working Group

Last month, Americans for the Arts released the first National Arts Index – a quantitative measure of the health and vitality of arts and culture in the United States. Covering an 11-year period (1998-2008), the Index is a unique annual scorecard of the arts’ impact on our society and economy. It includes valuable insights for arts organizations, government, and funders – including those who don’t regularly fund the arts per se.

Each of the 76 national-level indicators of arts activity – including finances, capacity, participation and competitiveness – has its own story to tell. But, by combining (and equally weighting) all of the indicators, the Index provides a single number that can be used to compare how the arts are doing from year to year. By that measure, the “state of the arts” reached its high point in 1999 and dropped to its lowest point in 2008 – with the greatest single decline between 2007 and 2008.

For example, the number of arts groups grew from 7,000 to 104,000 during the past 50 years. But one out of three failed to achieve a balanced budget even during the strongest economic years of this decade – suggesting that sustaining this capacity is a growing challenge. At the same time, overall audience demand/participation in the arts has also grown but at a pace that has lagged behind that at which the supply of arts has increased.

Of special significance to the funding community are the Index’s findings: (1) that an arts-based nonprofit was founded every three hours between 2003 and 2008, while (2) the nonprofit arts sector is losing its “market share” of philanthropy to other charitable areas. This phenomenon is quite evident in the our own region as more and more nonprofits are competing for audiences (and ticket revenues), affordable venues for their programs, and philanthropic revenues. While grantmakers have been seeing a large influx of applications in virtually all funding areas, the arts and humanities sectors are especially familiar with such funder responses as “no unsolicited proposals,” “only past grantees” and “changing funding priorities.”

Why is the National Arts Index important? The Index exists to measure the arts and humanities and to show that there is value to this sector. While numerous studies aim to demonstrate the societal (including economic and community-building) benefits of the arts and humanities, the National Arts Index is the first rigorous national resource to help satisfy private and public funders’ demands for further evidence of the arts’ positive and wide-ranging impact.

The Index also validates certain presumptions that funders may currently have about the arts sector – including its struggling “subsidy model” – that may stimulate the formulation of much-needed new strategies and models for increased public advocacy and support.

Americans for the Arts has committed to update the Index each year to maintain its relevancy, and it also plans to develop region-specific scorecards to provide better snapshots for nonprofits and grantmakers.

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National Arts Index

• Full Report
• Executive Summary
• One Page Summary

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This is a part of a monthly series sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Working Group. Read past installments here.