Arts CenterJamestown ND (CSi) The Arts Mean Business. That is the message being delivered today by the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) and The Jamestown Fine Arts Association, Inc (The Arts Center) who announced they have joined the Arts & Economic Prosperity® 5, a national study measuring the economic impact of nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences.

Arts Center, Director, Cyndi Wish says, the research study is being conducted by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s nonprofit organization advancing the arts and arts education. It is the fifth study over the past 20 years to measure the impact of arts spending on local jobs, income paid to local residents, and revenue generated to local and state governments.

While associated with nearly 300 study partners across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, NDCA and The Arts Center will collect detailed financial data about our local and state nonprofit arts and culture organizations such as theater and dance companies, museums, festivals, and arts education organizations.

The Arts Center, along with other cultural resources in Jamestown will collect surveys from attendees at arts events using a short, anonymous questionnaire that asks how much money they spent on items such as meals, parking and transportation, and retail shopping specifically as a result of attending the event. Previous studies have shown that the average attendee spends $24.60 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission. Those studies have also shown that, on average, 32 percent of arts attendees travel from outside the county in which the arts event took place, and that those cultural tourists typically spend nearly $40 per person—generating important revenue for local businesses and demonstrating how the arts drive revenue for other businesses in the community.

Surveys will be collected throughout calendar year 2016. The results of the study will be released in June of 2017.

For a full list of the nearly 300 Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study partners, visit www.AmericansForTheArts.org/AEP5Partners.

The Jamestown Fine Arts Association, Inc has been enriching the Jamestown area community through the arts for over 50 years.

The North Dakota Council on the Arts is the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts throughout North Dakota, and is funded by the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.