Jody Ulich reflects on how best to persuade policy makers that the one thing you shouldn’t cut is the thing that feeds the economy.
Here’s the truth about cities: we are all competitive. How many top-ten lists do you see every year—Most Livable, Most “Green,” Best for Families? We all want to be on that list, and no one wants to end up falling short. That’s why data can be so impactful for the decision-makers in a city, and it is precisely why economic impact studies are not new to the Fort Worth-area arts community. Yet despite our long history of participating in different regional economic impact studies, we—like so many others across the country—saw our arts funding at risk and decreasing every year. It became clear that in order for the numbers to be truly valid to our city leaders, we needed a study that reflected solely information from Fort Worth. Those past reports—as robust as they might have seemed—never quite belonged to us, and never gained the traction we hoped that they would with decision-makers.
That is when Americans for the Arts came in with the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV ™ report, and we started to see an important shift in the thinking. We stepped out to ask for the economic impact of Fort Worth, and only Fort Worth. Americans for the Arts delivered and the Fort Worth community listened. We presented those findings throughout the community to business leaders and citizens – then finally to the City Council. The Americans for the Arts data release was perfectly timed, coming out a month before our city budget was set in 2012. Yet even then, the council still reduced the budget.
Here’s the truth about cities: we are all competitive. How many top-ten lists do you see every year—Most Livable, Most “Green,” Best for Families? We all want to be on that list, and no one wants to end up falling short. That’s why data can be so impactful for the decision-makers in a city, and it is precisely why economic impact studies are not new to the Fort Worth-area arts community. Yet despite our long history of participating in different regional economic impact studies, we—like so many others across the country—saw our arts funding at risk and decreasing every year. It became clear that in order for the numbers to be truly valid to our city leaders, we needed a study that reflected solely information from Fort Worth. Those past reports—as robust as they might have seemed—never quite belonged to us, and never gained the traction we hoped that they would with decision-makers.
That is when Americans for the Arts came in with the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV ™ report, and we started to see an important shift in the thinking. We stepped out to ask for the economic impact of Fort Worth, and only Fort Worth. Americans for the Arts delivered and the Fort Worth community listened. We presented those findings throughout the community to business leaders and citizens – then finally to the City Council. The Americans for the Arts data release was perfectly timed, coming out a month before our city budget was set in 2012. Yet even then, the council still reduced the budget.