[FAC] Comm.: Arts-Related Businesses Employ Nearly Three Million People Nationwide, Study Finds

[Cynthia Cooper]

Arts-related businesses in the country's largest cities represent 4.3
percent of all businesses and 2.2 percent of all jobs in the United States,
a new report from Americans for the Arts finds.

Based on data from Dun & Bradstreet and geo-economic analysis, the report,
Creative Industries 2008: The 50 City Report, finds that there are more than
612,000 arts-related businesses employing some 2.98 million people in the
United States, and that employment by arts-related businesses has grown 11.6
percent in the past year ‹ more than four times the increase in overall
employment growth.

Arts-related businesses and employees were found in each of the fifty
most-populated cities, with New York City topping both lists, while Seattle
and Atlanta were found to have the most arts-related businesses and
employees, respectively, per capita.

"This study supports our mantra that the arts play a significant role in
building and sustaining economically vibrant communities," said Robert L.
Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. "It further supports the
need for arts education to fuel the creative industries with arts-trained
workers and arts consumers."

The Fresno Coalition for Arts, Science & History is conducting a Economic
Impact Study for Fresno County¹s Cultural Arts organization to determine the
impact the arts makes locally.  Funded through the Fresno Regional
Foundation, the Indian Gaming Committee/Fresno County, the City of Fresno
and the City of Clovis.

Data collection is expected to be complete by June with the results
available in October at the Second Annual Cultural Arts Conference.

Cynthia Cooper
Executive Director
Fresno Coalition for Arts, Science & History
1401 Fulton Street, S-904, Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 286-8282 
http://www.fcash.org

³The MFA is the new MBA.² - Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Moving
from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age