The next growth industry in America? Public-private arts projects

When 30-somethings Rob­ert Hammond and Joshua David first proposed that a derelict 1-1/2 mile stretch of elevated railway in Manhattan be re-imagined as an urban park, there were certainly doubters.

Would busy New Yorkers use it? What would be the real “return on investment” for benches, bushes, and public art in a city with plenty of all three?

Thirteen years later, High Line Park – which just opened its second section over the summer – clearly demonstrates the power of the arts and the potential of public space. It draws countless visitors, has transformed neighborhoods, far exceeds projected tax revenues and private investment, and has generated thousands of jobs. And it’s not even complete yet.

At a time when America is facing severe unemployment, it turns out that a bench, a bush, and a vision – when infused with the arts – can be economic game changers.

Art and design, while often positioned as luxuries, are actually big, underutilized economic drivers. A new consortium called ArtPlace knows that, which is why they recently announced an unprecedented public-private funding effort, focused squarely on the arts’ unique ability to fuel economic development in locales nationwide.

Backed by a veritable who’s who of public and private partners, the move rightly flies in the face of congressional calls to defund the $150 million National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which has spearheaded the new effort.

Last year, the NEA dispatched its age-old slogan, “A great country deserves great art,” in favor of a two-word tagline: “Art works.” It’s a blunt, seemingly unsexy statement, though one backed up by hard numbers.

Based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, NEA researchers estimate a nearly 17 percent increase in arts-related jobs between now and 2018. That figure is about seven percentage points more than projected overall jobs growth in the US during the same period. Meanwhile, in 2009, the arts accounted for $250 billion of the US economy – a thriving sector that includes subsets as wide-ranging as the performing arts and the motion-picture industry.

1 | 2

Next