Ups and downs on the national arts front
More than 5,000 arts and cultural organizations from 11 metropolitan regions spend about $13 billion annually, are staffed by 900,000-plus employees and volunteers, and serve a combined population of about 75 million people.
More than 5,000 arts and cultural organizations from 11 metropolitan regions spend about $13 billion annually, are staffed by 900,000-plus employees and volunteers, and serve a combined population of about 75 million people.
Yet despite those big numbers, and despite overall revenue gains of 7 percent from 2009 to 2012, attendance gains of about 3 percent, and earned income gains of more than 25 percent, nearly half the organizations (42 percent) reported deficits in 2012, the most recent year analyzed, with 18.7 percent of the deficits greater than 10 percent.
"That's true of every metropolitan area," said Maud Lyon, president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, which compiled the report, "2015 Portfolio: Culture Across Communities." "It's true of every discipline. And it's also true of every Portfolio we've done on Philadelphia," she said of the reports GPCA has produced over the last decade.
Sometimes deficits go up, sometimes down, she said, but they can appear virtually anywhere with any arts organization, whether it's a museum or a performing arts group.
"The difference between a positive year and a negative year is a thin margin," she said.
In the past, Portfolio has delivered increasingly detailed biennial analyses of the Philadelphia region's cultural economy. The most recent, issued last year, is based on data from 2012.
The new nationwide analysis presents the same kind of data, from 2009 to 2012, compiled by the Cultural Data Project, a Philadelphia-based organization that gathers information from more than 14,000 groups in 12 states and the District of Columbia.
For the 2015 Portfolio, the cultural alliance used data from the Boston; New York; Philadelphia; Washington; Pittsburgh; Cleveland; Chicago; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Phoenix; Los Angeles; and San Francisco Bay regions.
New York is so big, and the concentration of arts organizations there so great, that the city generates 41.5 percent of sector spending nationwide and is home to 27.8 percent of the total organizations in the report.
That said, groups in the New York region suffered the same kinds of declines in contributed income (down 12.9 percent from 2009 to 2012) and increases in total revenues (4.6 percent) that are seen across the country.
And despite its huge total audiences, New York did not show the highest per capita attendance rate. That honor goes to Washington,when the free Washington Mall institutions are included in the mix, and to the San Francisco region when the Mall is excluded. (Philadelphia is in the middle, behind Pittsburgh, but ahead of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago.)
While the cultural sector nationally is slowly recovering from the fiscal crisis of 2008 and subsequent recession, contributed income has declined 3.5 percent. This comes even though giving from foundations has grown, as their endowments have recovered from the recession, and board giving is up.
The major factor in declining contributions income is a sharp drop in giving from individuals and corporations and the continued decline in government support.
Because contributed income constitutes 46.9 percent of total revenue in the sector, any decline in contributions is alarming.
According to Portfolio, individual giving declined 9.7 percent nationally from 2009 to 2012, and corporate giving dropped 7 percent.
Board and foundation giving rose 20.3 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively.
Government support at the local, state, and federal levels declined nationally from 2009 to 2012; city contributions dropped 29.7 percent, state support plummeted 35.6 percent, federal support fell 12.6 percent.
In this difficult environment, organizations managed to significantly increase earned income - funds raised through ticket and merchandise sales, rentals, and similar ventures - by 25.4 percent.
Ticket revenues rose 2.6 percent, admissions rose 9.1 percent, tuition increased 5.9 percent, and rental income spiked up 26.8 percent.
Subscriptions, largely used by performing arts groups to lock in season-long attendance, dropped 13.1 percent.
Comparatively, Philadelphia is basically in "the middle of the pack," Lyon said.
"We have challenges. The drop in individual giving is greater here than the national average. But, on the other side, the increase in board giving is greater."
"One big take away," she continued, "is the importance of the individual."
Focus on the individual builds audiences and builds revenues and contributions. Besides, Lyon said, "that's who we do it for."
To read the full report, go to www.philaculture.org/2015portfolio.
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