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Creative Minnesota Report Shows Strong Local Impact of Duluth's Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector

New Study Shows Economic Impact of the Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector Statewide and Breaks Out Data Specific to Duluth

[DULUTH, MN] - We have known for a long time that the arts and culture are important to the City of Duluth. 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 yesterday by the City of Duluth, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council 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 the City of Duluth, generating over $36 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.

Download the full Duluth report here: http://creativemn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DuluthOnlineFullStudy.pdf

Creative Minnesota: The Impact and Health of the Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector found that 37 nonprofit arts and culture organizations in Duluth support the equivalent of 922 full time jobs in the city, and 835,898 people attend nonprofit arts and cultural events annually.

The City of Duluth ranked 3rd among the cities studied in this report, behind only Minneapolis and St. Paul, in total economic impact. Also among the highest is Duluth’s economic impact per capita from the arts and culture sector, found to be $418 for every city resident.

Sheila Smith, Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, said “Duluth has something really special going on with the arts and culture compared to the rest of the state.”

“The economic impact of the nonprofit arts and culture sector in Duluth is hugely significant,” said Duluth Mayor Don Ness. “For every dollar of economic impact, we can assume a deeper community impact –layers of connections made through art on cultural, generational, spiritual, personal levels. The economic impact signifies a whole world of ways in which the creative sector draws a community closer and stronger.”

“This study shows that the arts and culture have measurable impact on the economy of our city. Investment in the arts and culture is an investment in the overall wellbeing of Duluth and the surrounding communities,“ said Mary Mathews, President, Duluth Public Art Commission. “The arts create vibrant and modern communities, help us educate the next generation of leaders and recruit and retain top talent from across the country. When people attend or produce art or art events they spend money and support our local economy. The arts play a critical role in stimulating creativity and in developing a vital community.”

Thirty-seven local organizations are part of the city study:

• American Indian Community Housing Organization

• Arrowhead Chorale

• Arrowhead Regional Arts Council

• City of Duluth

• Common Language

• Duluth Art Institute

• Duluth Ballet

• Duluth Children’s Museum

• Duluth Festival Opera

• Duluth Fiber Handcrafters Guild

• Duluth Superior Symphony Association

• Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation

• Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin

• Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra

• Lake Superior Marine Museum Assn.

• Lake Superior Suzuki Talent Program

• Lake Superior Youth Chorus

• Lyric Opera of the North

• Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe

•Matinee Musicale

•Nordic Center

•Northern Bedrock Conservation Corps

•Poetry Harbor

•Prove Gallery

•Ressl Dance!

•St. Louis County Historical Society

•Sons of Norway

•Sound Unseen International Duluth

•Tamarack Dance Assn.

•The College of St. Scholastica arts program

•The Duluth Playhouse

•Three Bridges International Chamber Music Festival

•Tweed Museum of Art

•Great Lakes Aquarium

•Zeitgeist Arts

•Glensheen Mansion

•Wise Fool Shakespeare

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 eleven 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, Grand Rapids, and Cook County.

“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,” said Sheila Smith.

The Creative Minnesota team includes Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota, Target, Bush Foundation, Mardag Foundation, and Jerome Foundation, with in-kind support from the Minnesota Historical Society and others.

Kate Wolford, President of The McKnight Foundation said, “Like other entrepreneurs and small business owners, artists add significant economic and creative value across the entire state. Backed by hard data, Creative Minnesota reveals important truths about how our state’s artists and arts and culture organizations are making dynamic contributions to our economic vitality and to our high quality of life.”

Notes on the Cultural Data Project and other Sources:

This research was made possible by the state’s participation in the Cultural Data Project, www.culturaldata.org/ which is a web- based data system utilized by arts and culture grant makers in thirteen states and the District of Columbia. Many public and private grant makers in Minnesota require some or all of their arts and culture grantees to submit data to the CDP. Most CDP data is financial, though it includes information about services provided, numbers of participants, staffing and volunteers as well. CDP data in this report is from 298 arts nonprofits as they reported it to the CDP.

The CDP data was supplemented by the responses of 396 arts and culture nonprofits to a brief online financial survey and by 575 organizations’ grantee data provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, Regional Arts Councils and the Minnesota Historical Society. In addition, 3410 audience members completed a survey at arts and culture events around the state. Additional information came from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tourism Marketing Council, Explore Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Education and others. Americans for the Arts (AFTA) was commissioned to calculate the economic impact research portion of this report as part of Arts & Economic Prosperity® IV: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences in the State of Minnesota, Americans for the Arts, 2014 and the associated eleven regional Minnesota studies, which can be downloaded at creativemn.org. Additional data analysis was done by CliftonLarsonAllen using the data sources cited above.

The Legacy Amendment

The Legacy Amendment was passed by a statewide vote of the people of Minnesota in 2008 to dedicate a portion of the state’s sales tax to create four new funds for 1. land conservation, 2. Water conservation, 3. parks and trails, and 4. Arts and culture. The legislature appropriates the dollars from the Legacy Arts and Culture Fund to the Minnesota State Arts Board, Regional Arts Councils, Minnesota Historical Society and other entities to provide access to the arts and culture for all Minnesotans.

Sponsoring Organizations

• Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA) is a statewide arts advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure opportunity for all people to have access to and involvement in the arts. MCA organizes the arts community and lobbies the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress on issues pertaining to the nonprofit arts and conducts original research. MCA works with over 40,000 arts advocates in Minnesota. 651-251-0868, www.mncitizensforthearts.org @MNCitizen.

• The McKnight Foundation: www.mcknight.org

• Target: https://corporate.target.com/corporateresponsibility

• Bush Foundation: www.bushfoundation.org

• Mardag Foundation: http://www.mardag.org/

• Jerome Foundation: http://www.jeromefdn.org/

• The Minnesota State Arts Board: http://www.arts.state.mn.us/

• Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota: http://www.arts.state.mn.us/racs/forum.htm

• Minnesota Historical Society: http://www.mnhs.org/about

• Ideas that Kick: www.ideasthatkick.com

• Americans for the Arts: www.AmericansForTheArts.org

• Arrowhead Regional Arts Council: http://aracouncil.org/

• Duluth Public Arts Commission: www.duluthmn.gov/boards-commissions/duluthpublic-arts-commission