The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey of nearly 1,700 Americans — including more than 1,000 adults living in rural areas and small towns — finds deep-seated kinship in rural America, coupled with a stark sense of estrangement from people who live in urban areas. Nearly 7 in 10 rural residents say their values differ from those of people who live in big cities, including about 4 in 10 who say their values are “very different.”
Category: issues
The Arts’ Economic Impact Around The U.S.: Richard Florida Crunches The Numbers
“Across the nation, arts and culture industries employed roughly 1 million Americans in 2014. That’s less than 1 percent of all workers. … [Yet] arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), or $729.6 billion [that year], … growing by roughly 2 percent annually.” With colored maps and charts, Florida shows the impact this activity has in various states and cities. And there are some surprises.
Creating A True Democracy Of The Arts, Using People’s Everyday Creativity
“Only 8% of people regularly engage with publicly funded art, but every day people are creating their own versions of culture. Nick Wilson and Jonathan Gross report on research that makes the case for a new approach to cultural policy.”
Residents Of Venice Vote Overwhelmingly To Ban Cruise Ships
More than 18,000 people voted at 60 polling booths set up by activists and 17,874 chose to eject the ships, which are accused of shaking the delicate foundations of Venice’s venerable palazzi.
Artists Must Realize They Have A Role In Gentrification (And What To Do About It)
“We recognize that art is an industry with a structural reality that must be acknowledged in order for artists to challenge their complicity in the displacement of long term residents in low-income and working class neighborhoods and fight against this. It’s important that people see the devastating impacts of securing housing in working class and poor neighborhoods, and setting up investment properties posing as art spaces.”
The Problem With ‘Woke’ Pop-Culture Criticism
“The takes are scorchingly hot, the opinions often on point. And yet the pronounced progressiveness of opinionated pop culture writing stands in direct contrast to the increasingly regressive nature of America’s actual politics. What accounts for the discrepancy?” Shaun Scott explains what.
$166.3 Billion – That’s How Much U.S. Arts Nonprofits Outside LA And NYC Generated In 2015
“The average culture vulture in the US spends an additional $31.47 whenever she attends an arts event: almost $17 on food, about $4.50 on souvenirs and gifts, over $3 on local transportation – it all adds up. This is the micro level of the $166.3 billion in economic activity that the nonprofit arts sector contributed to the US economy in 2015, according to a study released on Saturday by Americans for the Arts.”
Portrait Of An Arts Economy By The Numbers: Sarasota
According to the “Arts & Economic Prosperity Report V,” a data-intense survey released during the weekend by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts, Sarasota County’s arts and cultural organizations and audiences pumped $295 million into the economy in 2015, up 64 percent from $180 million in 2010, when the previous survey was taken.
Calgary Arts Orgs Ask City For $2 Million From Economic Development Fund
Ten major organizations, among them the Calgary Opera, Alberta Ballet, and the National Music Centre, are arguing to the city council that they’re the best bet for increasing tourism. Says Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître, “If we develop a thriving cultural sector, they may stop by in the city for a while before they get out to the mountains and before you know it, it won’t just be Banff that’s thriving right now.”
Terrible News For UK Arts Funding: Lottery Revenue Down £55 Million
“[National] Lottery operator Camelot has warned it expects the decline in sales to continue this year, which means arts funding is also likely to fall further. It is launching an internal review of its operations.”