Talking Points

California currently ranks 26th among the states in ongoing general funding support for the arts with .71 cents per capita spending (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies). We’ve collected meaningful data points from our partners and the field to bolster your advocacy for increased funding for the arts. 

Common advocacy language is critical to encouraging Californians to care about the arts as a critical component of their own lives and the lives of their communities. Use our shared advocacy messaging and individual data points to advocate for the arts in your community.

If you have additions or comments, please contact Julie Baker.

INDIVIDUAL DATA POINTS:

THE ARTS ACROSS SECTORS

IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 AND ONGOING CLOSURES

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE ARTS (Pre-Pandemic)

Shared Advocacy Messaging:

  • We are in the middle of a crisis. Not an arts crisis, but a business crisis. Our business happens to be in the arts and creative sector.

  • First to close, last to reopen to full capacity. Currently no state guidelines for live events.

  • Our industry thrives on creativity and innovation. We are being called upon now to advocate not only for our survival but for the survival of arts and culture within California.

  • Artists and the individuals who work for arts organizations are real people with real jobs supporting themselves and their families and provide essential services to their community. 

  • Highly trained classical musicians are talking about leaving the arts sector to find jobs in other industries because they cannot wait another year or more to get work again.

  • This is a business crisis and will soon be a civic and economic development crisis if institutions don’t receive relief funding soon. 

  • Unlike our friends in the restaurant business, there is no ‘carryout’ or “take out” in the arts. 

  • Online content is becoming increasingly challenging with licensing rights, delays in approval from social media giants like Facebook and Instagram, limited to no revenue streams, competition for attention over one medium, not to mention the huge paradigm shift for artists and presenters. 

  • Recording performances, editing, and all the modifications needed to present quality performances via online stream all require huge amounts of up-front costs, which many live presenting houses and small performing arts organizations cannot mount given the already fragile ecosystem.

  • Approximately one-third of orchestras in the ACSO network have been offering high-caliber virtual programming largely for free. They are doing it to stay connected to and support their communities, to keep their musicians working, and to retain donor engagement, but there is a financial cost to producing it and they cannot do it indefinitely. It will not generate the revenue they need to sustain themselves until normal operations can be resumed. (based on a survey of virtual events by ACSO members in October 2020)

  • No business can be expected to survive without relief aid who have been forced to close to the public for eight months, with all indications they will not be able to reopen until well into 2021. 

  • If our industry doesn’t get financial help, this crisis will become an education and human service crisis as our programs and services support and uplift schools, hospitals, health care, elderly care, early childhood development, and the underserved. 

  • Arts and culture are not looking for a handout. Our institutions have made challenging and prudent business decisions to survive. Relief funding for arts and culture is a critical investment. 

  • Arts and creativity make us stronger—as individuals, families, communities, states and as a country. They are a backbone of innovation, prosperity, and thriving people and places. Public funding for arts and creativity is a high-return investment that benefits every American in every city, town and rural community nationwide

  • Our industry is critical for economic development. We provide communities with a quality of life that attracts employers and retains employees. 

  • Without arts and culture, without theaters, museums, symphonies, choruses and operas, or ballet, communities will suffer, employers will leave, and jobs will disappear. 

  • Our industry is an economic driver for restaurants, bars, lodging, parking, and retail. According to the American for the Arts, for every admission ticket an art patron purchases, they will spend on average $31 each out to eat, at a bar, to park or stay overnight. 

  • This is a catastrophe unlike anything we’ve faced before. It’s not an urban disaster, it’s an ALL California disaster. 

  • Arts-education experiences improve school engagement and college aspirations. 

  • Arts organizations provide thousands of free programs to underserved communities.