When the curtain rises on a musical performance, it doesn’t just lift the spirits of those in attendance, it impacts the economy of an entire community. Beyond the price of admission, a night at the orchestra or chorus unfolds into a cascade of economic activity: the Uber driver driving patrons downtown, the restaurant server working the pre-performance dinner rush, the bartender mixing post-show cocktails, the babysitter earning extra income, and the hotel clerk checking in out-of-town visitors.
This invisible economic symphony transforms a single arts event into a powerful engine for local commerce. Each ticket sold reverberates in the community far beyond the walls of the performance hall.
Recent research from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA) provides compelling evidence of this impact. Their study, Arts, Culture & Economic Prosperity: Greater Philadelphia, examines over 500 participating arts and culture institutions across the five-county region. The report also incorporates insights from more than 1,000 individuals attending arts focused events in the area between May 2022 and June 2023. The results are an overwhelming statement on the profound economic impact of the arts in Greater Philadelphia.
The study revealed that local patrons invest an average of $49 in the surrounding marketplace beyond their ticket purchase, while overnight visitors contribute a substantial $235 per outing to the local economy. GPCA also found that the region’s nonprofit arts and culture industry generates an annual fiscal impact of $3.3 billion. Approximately $1.9 billion are represented in direct expenditures, including retail shopping, dining, transportation, and childcare. The remaining $1.4 billion is found in indirect and induced economic impact. That $1.4 billion ripples through the economy in two ways: as indirect impact, when arts organizations purchase goods and services from local vendors, and as induced impact, when employees and local businesses throughout this economic chain circulate their earnings back into the community.
As GPCA explains, “when a theater company purchases paint from the local hardware store, there is a measurable economic effect of that initial expenditure within a community. However, the economic benefits typically do not end there because the hardware store uses some of its income to pay the clerk that sold the paint (induced impact), as well as to pay other businesses such as the electric bill (indirect impact), and so on through additional rounds of spending.”
The study found that the arts and culture sector creates the equivalent of 55,000 full time jobs in the region, bringing $1.3 billion back to the community in household income. Most surprisingly, less than 15% of these jobs are found at cultural institutions. The remaining 85% of jobs are in other industries. GPCA explains, “Of the roughly 55,000 full-time equivalent jobs that are supported by the sector, 7,700 are at cultural organizations and more than 47,525 are in other industries. These are jobs that provide paychecks not just to cultural staffers, but also to independent artists, designers and musicians; marketers, accountants and consultants; construction workers and contractors; and chefs, bartenders and hotel managers.” The organization estimates that arts and culture organizations contribute over $224 million in tax revenue, supporting public services and further contributing to the local economy.
The financial influence of the arts can be felt nationally as well. According the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, arts and cultural industries injected $1.17 trillion to the US economy in 2023. That same year, per the National Endowment for the Arts, the arts sector marked a growing trade surplus, with the nation’s cultural exports eclipsing those of other countries by almost $37 billion.
At The Presser Foundation, we witness firsthand the transformative power of the arts. We recognize that music builds community connection, fosters greater cultural understanding, promotes positive mental health, educates us, and challenges us to be better citizens. At their core, arts organizations make our communities better places to live.
As the data demonstrates, when we recount the many benefits of the arts in our communities, we must also recognize their role as economic catalysts. Each concert, exhibition, and performance creates ripples of prosperity that extend far beyond venue walls. As funding decisions are made across our nation, we must remember that supporting the arts means investing not just in culture, but in our collective financial wellbeing—touching the lives of stagehands, waitresses, hotel clerks, audience members, and countless others whose livelihoods are quietly intertwined with the arts.
