Arts groups in US cities that increased culture funding during Covid have rebounded more quickly: report
While municipal funding covered a modest share of organisations’ expenses, it had an outsized impact in cities that increased their cultural support, a new study from DataArts shows
Recent report reveals that arts groups in US cities which increased funding for culture during the Covid-19 pandemic rebounded more swiftly, according to a study by DataArts, a research center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The study examined ten US cities - Atlanta, Cleveland, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle - that had been tracking their arts sectors between 2019 and 2024.
The report found a direct link between increased municipal arts funding and strong financial performance and higher attendance in the arts sector of the city. Cities like Atlanta, Cleveland, Phoenix and Sacramento, which either grew or maintained their investments in culture, experienced stable or improving arts sector during and after the pandemic. In contrast, Philadelphia and Seattle faced notable contractions during this period.
Jen Benoit-Bryan, the executive director of SMU DataArts, noted Phoenix as a notable case. Phoenix rebounded much more than other cities, attributing it to the fourfold increase in local arts agency support - from accounting for just 0.85% of arts organisations' budgets in 2019 to covering 4.2% of budgets in 2024.
Similarly, Atlanta's arts sector was at its lowest in 2019 with only about 1% of expenses covered by the city's Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs. However, it substantially increased its support over the period, leading to strong growth in local cultural organisations.
Philadelphia, on the other hand, experienced the greatest contraction of all the cities studied. The city's cultural agency budget fell from 7% of local government coverage in 2019 to 1% in 2024, leading to significant repercussions across the sector. Full-time staffing fell by 47%, and revenues for arts organisations declined by 26%.
David Andersson, the arts research lead at Bloomberg Associates, noted that even small levels of local government support can have a significant impact. The study found that local support generally ranged between 5% and 10% of the organisations' total expenses, providing a kind of approval that might attract additional revenue from corporations or private foundations.
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