STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Wood River Valley residents don’t just say they like arts and culture—they put their money where their mouth is.

The Wood River Valley ranks in the top10 of American communities when it comes to spending per capita on nonprofit arts and culture.

The Wood River Valley ranks ninth spending $1,970 per capita on arts and culture, according to the Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study just released by the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for the Arts.

Crested Butte, Colo., tops the list with $6,642 spending per capita, followed by Jackson, Wyo., with $4,904 per capita; Washington, D.C., with $4,410, and Laguna Beach with $4,085.

In addition, the Wood River Valley’s nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $29.3 million in economic activity supporting 891 equivalent jobs annually in a valley that boasts about 10,000 jobs. And they returned $2.1 million in revenue to local and state coffers.

The study does not include for-profit enterprises, such as Ketchum’s private art galleries.

“I’m happy to see this on paper,” said Hilarie Neely, founder of the long-running Footlight Dance Centre. “One of the most important things for our community is to see that art is more than fluff. Arts are an economic driver. Arts is business, and our business is to make sure we retain our humanity.”

A committee comprised of Sun Valley Economic Development Director Harry Griffith, Neely and longtime arts advocate Claudia McCain presented the study’s findings to government leaders and members of the arts community Thursday at Community Library.

The study—the first the Wood River Valley has participated in since 2007—was conducted in 341 communities representing all 50 states. It is the most comprehensive study of its sort ever undertaken, with 14,439 organizations participating nationwide.

Twenty-three local organizations took part, conducting 700 surveys at 18 big and small events covering a spectrum of activities throughout the valley between March and October 2016.

Thirty-four percent of the local responders were from out of town; the remaining 66 percent were local.

Some of the study’s findings:

• Arts and culture is the second highest ranking industry in the nation after retail, generating $166.3 billion every year. It results in $28 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues and supports 4.6 million full-time equivalent jobs.
• Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry leverages $103 billion in event-related spending by its audience who eat dinner in conjunction with a cultural event, pay for parking, buy souvenirs and pay a babysitter.
• Eighty-seven percent of American believe arts and culture are important to their quality of life; 82 percent believe it’s important to business and the economy.
• $13.8 million of the $29.3 million spent annually on the arts in the Wood River Valley comes from audience--and that excludes the cost of admission. The remaining $15.5 million comes from organizational spending on employees’ salaries, supplies and contracts for services.
• Those dollars generated $15.9 million in household income for local residents, $0.7 million for local government and $1.3 million for the state
• Attendees spent an average $69 per person per event—an average $32 on refreshments and meals, $18 on retail, $5 on ground transport and nearly $15 for one night’s lodging.
• The Wood River Valley has 1,986 arts volunteers logging 59,796 hours. That would have a $1.4 million value if they were paid $23.56 per hour.
• The list of the top 10 American cities when it comes to spending per capita on arts and culture also includes the Southern Oregon region with $3,370, followed by West Palm Beach at $2,134, Boston at $2,064, Chapel Hill, N.C., at $1,970 and Falls Church Va., at $1,895

The study demonstrates that arts and culture are one of the most critical components of Sun Valley’s tourism industry, in addition to providing a foundation for our unique quality of place, said Griffith.

Griffith encouraged representatives of arts organizations to talk about the results within their organizations and the larger arts community to see how they might leverage the statistics to use in marketing and grant proposals.

In addition, he noted, Randy Cohen—vice president of research and policy for Americans for the Arts-- will speak at the Sun Valley Economic Development’s 2017 Economic Summit being held in Sun Valley on Nov. 1.

You can ask more questions of him, Griffith said.

“The number $29 million in direct economic activity was huge for me,” said McCain. “I knew the arts had a super impact but it looks great when you see it on paper.”

Kristin Poole, artistic director for Sun Valley Center for the Arts, said the results of the study call for a community-wide celebration.

Entrepreneur Neil Bradshaw, who is running for mayor of Ketchum, agreed: “That we’re in the top 10 as a community is really awesome,” he said. “But I hope we can use information from the study to measure ourselves against our potential.”

Michael Faison, who heads up the Boise-based Idaho Commission on the Arts, noted that the Americans for the Arts tends to be very conservative with its figures. That means the numbers in the survey are easily justifiable and supportable and their methodologies are verifiable, he said.

”It makes me want to get on my motorcycle and go to Jackson and back to Blaine County and figure out what’s different in the two communities,” he said, noting Jackson’s larger rate of spending per capita.

Neely said the numbers revealed in the study should help the local arts community be more viable.

“The Americans for the Art paid for this study and it wasn’t a cheap study so I’m grateful they allowed us to be part of it,” she said. “Those of us who might have retreated before when our value was questioned can point to the stats and say, ‘Stats show over 80 percent of American think arts important in their community.”