Talk Back: Arts and the $600 Proposal

The federal economic stimulus package is designed to put more money into the economy, and eligible taxpayers -- including aspiring and veteran actors -- can in turn stimulate both the economy and their own creativity by spending that money on the arts. This month, taxpayers will begin receiving rebate checks of up to $600 ($1,200 for couples), and it's not too early to think about how to spend that windfall. Stimulating spending -- rather than saving -- is, after all, the program's intent.

For some taxpayers, the money will be used to meet basic expenses. But for others, the rebate creates a discretionary spending opportunity, and the arts are a terrific vehicle for enhancing self and community.

The research makes clear that the nonprofit arts are a major economic engine for the United States. According to a recent study by Americans for the Arts, they generate $166 billion in economic activity annually -- a 24 percent increase in just the past five years alone. That's greater than the gross domestic product of most nations. The arts support 5.7 million full-time equivalent jobs -- an increase of 850,000 jobs in five years, all of them located in this country.

Every dollar spent on the arts results in substantial economic activity. And the arts are a very good buy:

> At New York's acclaimed Signature Theatre Company, every seat is $20 -- a spectacular deal in any economic climate.
> A one-year dual membership at the Whitney Museum of American Art is $100 (fully tax-deductible).
> Student tickets, priced at $10 each, are available to select events at Carnegie Hall.

Did you know that the typical attendee at a nonprofit arts events spends $27.79 per person in addition to the cost of admission? For $600, one could take advantage of these or countless other opportunities in the arts and still have money left over for a meal, snacks, transportation, and a gift shop purchase or two.

And even for those in one area of the arts, it's important to be exposed to other areas. We would never have had The Piano Lesson or Sunday in the Park With George if August Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, and James Lapine hadn't slipped out to a museum or two. And both works won Pulitzer Prizes in drama -- not a bad return on an afternoon at a museum.

In addition to the positive impact on the local economy, the arts inspire, delight, challenge, and offer new perspectives -- for students as well as adults. The Arts Education Partnership's report Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development includes 62 separate studies pointing to "critical links" between arts education and reading, writing, mathematics, cognitive skills, motivation, social behavior, and the school environment.

Arts education encourages creativity and innovative thinking, and those are crucial skills in an information age and a global economy. The content of virtually every website involves graphic design, photography, and writing, in some cases music, and increasingly video. What is YouTube if not a potential engine for artistic expression?

The arts also fuel a far broader part of the economy, known as the "creative industries." Those industries -- comprising arts-centric businesses and organizations from museums and symphonies to architectural and advertising firms -- employ nearly 3 million Americans, according to a 2008 study by Americans for the Arts. And they provide the artistic training and talent that drive much of the "information economy" -- the fastest-growing segment of the nation's economy. Expanding the arts community will cause those businesses to increase as well.

For $600, what a return on investment: admission to world-class performances or art exhibits, a chance to be inspired and encouraged to be more creative, the enhancement of one's own community, and a national economic stimulus. That $600 really can go a long way, if spent artfully.

-- Robert L. Lynch

Robert L. Lynch is president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, a leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America.