Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 27, 1994 TAG: 9403280145
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Well, yes.
Art and culture - broadly defined to include science museums as well as symphony orchestras, zoos as well as tutus - are "merit goods." They're valuable in their own right, notes a just-finished report on the arts and culture in the Roanoke Valley.
Wisely, "Blueprint 2000" lists this intrinsic value as a primary reason for a community to support the arts. Art and culture are the stuff of quality of life - and civilization: Humankind needs to be inspired, educated and amused as well as fed, clothed and sheltered.
Even so, the report argues, the arts' role in brightening a region's economic outlook is a legitimate reason to support them. Indeed, the impetus for this study was mostly economic: the harsh impact on arts of declining governmental and corporate donations during the recession of the early '90s.
Coordinated by The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, directed by consultant Terri Lynn Cornwell, and chaired by Wayne Strickland, director of the Fifth Planning District Commission, this project was intended to initiate a sorely needed planning process for cultural activities in our region. It involved virtually every arts and culture organization in the valley, and more than 1,200 people from all segments of the community.
Among them were members of a task force that drew an economic profile of the valley's arts-culture community. Based in part on their research, the final report concludes that the nonprofit arts-and-culture sector contributes, by conservative estimate, nearly $28 million to the Roanoke Valley economy in direct and indirect spending.
By itself, that doesn't justify stronger corporate, individual or government support for the arts. Other industries have bigger payrolls. And you can't assume that every arts dollar spent and recirculated locally would be withheld from the local economy if the arts did not exist.
Coupled with the inherent value of this industry's products and services, however, the analysis makes a good supporting argument. At the least, it suggests what a good deal the community gets with the bottom-line tangible costs of supporting volunteer-thick groups that provide so many intangible benefits.
Plus, while the broader economic impact is incalculable, it clearly is large. As "Blueprint 2000" observes, the strength of a community's cultural and artistic activities is increasingly important in the mix of measures by which potential employers choose where they'll put down roots - a factor that the Roanoke Valley could be on the verge of turning into a competitive edge.
The report cites Roanoke's steady rise in the arts ranking in the widely consulted "Places Rated Almanac," from 207th nationally in 1985 to 178th in 1989 to 162nd in 1993. Boosted by that climb, Roanoke has stayed among the nation's top 100 cities in the broader quality-of-life rating, of which arts and culture are a factor.
"Places Rated" aside, any fair-minded observer has to acknowledge how far Roanoke's artistic and cultural life has come in, say, the past 15 years. The Roanoke Valley, of course, can never compete with a New York or San Francisco in its array of offerings. But Roanoke can have an artistic and cultural life significantly better than most cities its size - while maintaining other quality-of-life considerations that come easier for smaller places.
The Roanoke region can at the least, in the vision of "Blueprint 2000," "be known as a pre-eminent cultural center of Virginia and a major cultural center along the Blue Ridge Parkway."
But there is nothing inevitable about it. The community at large must reach into its pockets and recognize the value of investing in arts. Artistic and cultural organizations must be willing to coordinate and cooperate, so that available dollars can be put to most effective use.
The results would be worth the effort. A thriving cultural scene is an economic-development tool that provides benefits apart from any economic consideration. That's one of the beauties of art.
by CNB