We have known for a long time that the arts and culture are important to Cook County. They enhance our quality of life, bring diverse communities together, and make our area a magnet for jobs and businesses. A new study was released on November 3, 2015, by the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Cook County Chamber of Commerce, Grand Marais Art Colony, North House Folk School, Sivertson Gallery and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts that shows that, in addition to contributing to our state’s excellent quality of life, the nonprofit arts and culture sector is also a substantial industry in Cook County, generating over $4.6 million in total economic impact annually.
As the most comprehensive report ever done of the creative sector, Creative Minnesota is a new effort to fill the gaps in available information about Minnesota’s cultural field and to improve our understanding of its importance to our quality of life and economy. Today’s report release is the second wave of a concentrated effort to collect and report data on the creative sector every two years for analysis, education and advocacy. All of the research developed by the Creative Minnesota team will be available at creativemn.org.
Creative Minnesota: The Impact and Health of the Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector found that 17 nonprofit arts and culture organizations in Cook County support the equivalent of 127 full-time jobs in the city, and that 78,000 people attend nonprofit arts and cultural events annually.
Although Cook County ranked 16th of the 17 local areas studied in size of population, the county ranked 7th in overall economic impact. Amazingly, Cook County ranked 3rd among the cities studied in this report, behind only Minneapolis and St. Paul, in per capita economic impact from the arts and culture, with a whopping $889 for every one of the county’s 5,176 residents.
Creative Minnesota was developed by a collaborative of arts and culture funders in partnership with Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA). The report leverages new in-depth research made possible because of Minnesota’s participation in the Cultural Data Project (culturaldata.org).
The first round of studies, released in February 2015, looked at the state’s 11 arts regions and at the state as a whole. This round is about cities and counties. Creative Minnesota is a snapshot of the health and impact of nonprofit arts and culture organizations’ budgets in 2013 and looks at their spending and their audiences as well as other indicators.
The other Northland cities that were studied include Virginia, Duluth, and Grand Rapids.
We hope that arts advocates, legislators, local government officials and arts and cultural organizations will use this report to find new ways to improve their lives and economies with arts and culture.
Sheila Smith
Executive Director of Minnesota
Citizens for the Arts
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