News Release from Hawaii Arts Alliance

The nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $159,605,567 in annual economic activity in the State of Hawaii – supporting 4,426 full-time equivalent jobs and generating $17,494,000 in local and state government revenues, according to the national research study, Arts & Economic Prosperity IV.

Partnering with State of Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), Creative Industries Division, the Hawaii Arts Alliance conducted the study, facilitated by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts.

Click HERE to download the full report or HERE for a quick look at the numbers.

The Hawaii portion of the national study evaluated the impact of spending by nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences on their local economies. Hawaii nonprofit arts and culture organizations spent $89,285,852 during fiscal year 2010.

Arts spending is far-reaching: organizations pay employees, purchase supplies, contract for services and acquire assets within the community.

These dollars, in turn, generated $126,504,00 in household income for local residents and $17,494,000 in local and state government revenues.

“We are pleased to have such concrete evidence for what we knew to be true.” said Marilyn Cristofori, CEO of Hawaii Arts Alliance. “Arts and Culture are an essential part of our island economies as well as the cornerstone of our education.”

Overall, the Americans for the Arts Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study reveals that the nonprofit arts industry produced $135.2 Billion in economic activity during 2010.

Full details of the report can be found at www.hawaiiartsalliance.org

Founded in 1980, Hawaii Arts Alliance is a private non-profit that serves as the intermediary statewide organization for all the arts, with 100 organizational and more than 400 individual members across the Islands.

The alliance is part of the national Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network, a major program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

As an intermediary, the Alliance represents all the arts while its members include the diverse, distinct arts and arts education disciplines.

The mission of Hawaii Arts Alliance embraces:

• EDUCATION: ensuring that all the arts are central to the education of every child
• COMMUNITY: using the power of the arts to build community with positive growth
• ADVOCACY: promoting the value and importance of all the arts to the general public

The alliance serves Hawaii public and independent schools and is one of the six ARTS FIRST Partners formally names in 2001 state legislation, helping to develop standards-based, arts-integrated curriculum for our public school system.

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