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Creative economics
BY ADAM REILLY
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When politicians talk about bringing new jobs to our city and state, they usually focus on the potential of the biomedical or high-tech sectors — witness the sundry state-of addresses given earlier this month by Boston mayor Tom Menino, House Speaker Tom Finneran, and Governor Mitt Romney (see "Between the Lines"). Meanwhile, more often than not, the ability of arts-related organizations to generate new jobs and bolster local economies goes unmentioned. As demonstrated by a recent press conference in Provincetown, however, that thinking is shortsighted. On January 15, Campus Provincetown, Inc., an umbrella organization of 16 Cape Cod educational and cultural partners geared toward bolstering off-season economic activity, announced the results of an independent evaluation conducted by UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Policy Analysis. The center found that Campus Provincetown — relying on only $11,500 dollars in state grants — generated a regional economic benefit of approximately $590,000. Put differently, that’s a return of about $51 on every $1 of state-grant money invested in the enterprise. Study after study devoted to assessing the economic impact of the arts has made more or less the same point. In 2001, for example, the New England Council estimated that the "creative economy" employs 245,000 New Englanders, generates billions of dollars in tourist revenue annually, and is growing faster than New England’s economy as a whole. With numbers like these, the only thing that doesn’t add up is why most politicians are slow to grasp the current — and potential — value of the arts as an engine for economic growth. As the governor and legislature address the job-creation issue in 2004, the arts deserve their attention.
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