LI ARTS: ‘Arts & Economic Prosperity 6’, Impact of Nonprofit Arts & Culture Industry / Survey

Long Island Arts Alliance (LIAA) Drives Local Survey Collection

in National ‘Arts & Economic Prosperity 6’ Study

Long Island Arts Alliance (LIAA) is pleased to announce new efforts to drive public awareness and participation in Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6), the most comprehensive economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry ever conducted in the United States. Administered by Americans for the Arts approximately every five years, AEP6 will examine the economic impact of the arts and culture on Long Island and 398 additional communities representing all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

Audience-intercept surveys are currently being collected from attendees at arts events in Nassau and Suffolk counties through May 2023. The simple, anonymous surveys take about three minutes to complete and ask about expenses related to the arts event being attended (meals, parking, babysitting). New for AEP6, the traditional paper version of the survey has been translated into 23 languages, and is also available electronically via customized QR codes (in English and Spanish). LIAA is nearly halfway to their goal of collecting 800 surveys by May 31st, 2023. An additional survey of nonprofit arts and culture organizations will occur from February through April 2023.

Americans for the Arts is committed to addressing equity and inclusion as a critical component of the methodology, organizational participation, and collection of data for AEP6 by centering and representing BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) identifying communities—a segment of the nonprofit arts and culture sector that has been underrepresented in past studies.

For the first time, AEP6 will require that the local and state research partners collect a portion of audience surveys from attendees at events hosted by arts and culture organizations that primarily serve BIPOC/ALAANA communities. The AEP6 study will establish a benchmark of arts and culture organizations that primarily serve these communities, and the audiences that attend their events. It will also identify organizations that have a chief executive who identifies as BIPOC/ALAANA. Researchers will use this data to calculate and report on the economic impact of the BIPOC/ALAANA arts sector in each of the 399 study regions.

Findings for Long Island as well as nationally will be made public in October 2023, to lead off National Arts & Humanities Month. LIAA will receive a customized report on the unique economic impact results for Long Island including the number of jobs that are supported and the amount of government revenue that is generated by our community’s nonprofit arts industry. An additional analysis will be done on the economic impact of each community’s BIPOC/ALAANA arts organizations as well as the event-related spending by their audiences, documenting for the first time both their economic and social impact benefits to the community.

“LIAA is proud to be working with Americans for the Arts because this kind of widespread data collection goes a long way in demonstrating the value of arts and culture nonprofit organizations in our country.” Says Lauren Wagner, Executive Director of LIAA, “I’ve used the metrics from prior AEP studies in my work at the Alliance, and I would bet that most of our members have as well. But, in the past, I’d use their general formula to calculate impact. With our Island-wide New Data Collection Efforts to Support Most Comprehensive Study of Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Industry participation, we’ll have numbers that directly reflect the impact of our local arts community. The information gleaned from this study will help all 750 arts and culture nonprofits on Long Island build talking points and paint pictures that show how vital the arts are to our local economy, leading to better changes at grant funding and more leverage for lobbyists to drive legislative change in support of our sector. This is a challenging time to administer such a massive project, especially for an organization of LIAA’s size, but knowing just how much this would benefit our members and the sector as a whole, we made it our mission to ensure Long Island was a part of it and thanks to a generous grant from the Long Island Community Foundation, we are”

Nolen V. Bivens, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, commented, “The arts are fundamental to our humanity. Arts and culture inspire us—fostering creativity, empathy, and beauty. The arts also strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically. Community is where the arts make a difference, and while the national impact data are impressive, at its core, AEP6 is a local story. We are at a critical moment where data collection in local communities will provide a necessary narrative to support the arts, which will be key in persuading decision-makers that the arts benefit all people in all communities.”

In 2017, AEP5 documented that the nonprofit arts and culture industry generated $166.3 billion in economic activity (spending by organizations plus the event-related spending by their audiences) which supported 4.6 million jobs and generated $27.5 billion in government revenue. The AEP series demonstrates that an investment in the arts provides both cultural and economic benefits.

For more information and a full list of the communities participating in the AEP6 study, visit

www.americansforthearts.org/AEP6.

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LONG ISLAND ARTS ALLIANCE

www.LongIslandArtsAlliance.org

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Long Island Arts Alliance (LIAA) is an alliance of and for the region’s not-for-profit arts, cultural, and arts education organizations. LIAA boasts a membership of more than 150, including major arts institutions and arts education organizations, working artists, and universities. Formed in 2003, LIAA offers leadership and diverse support services to arts organizations, serves as an advocate for arts education in our schools and develops collaborative strategies for economic development and community revitalization.