Report says arts, culture strong in the Pittsburgh region
Despite all the sound and fury that surrounds the Steelers, the Penguins and the Pirates, the arts and culture sector in the Pittsburgh region generates more money and attendance than its professional sports teams.
That’s one finding of “Culture Counts,” a measurement of the health of the arts and culture sector in the Pittsburgh region by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. The report released this week found that arts and culture attendance has increased by 37% since 2015-16, while sports attendance has dipped by 18%.
The arts are “an integral part of the region and culture,” according to David Pankratz, the newly retired research and policy director for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Live theater, art galleries, museums and other attractions provide obvious economic benefits in the form of jobs and making the region more attractive and vibrant, but they also provide “many, many ancillary benefits,” Pankratz pointed out, in the form of parking, babysitters and other costs.
“When people spend that money, it ripples out,” Pankratz said.
At the same time the report found the arts and cultural community is faring well, it also found that Southwestern Pennsylvania has seen a decrease in the number of arts and cultural organizations since the last “Culture Counts” report in 2015. Broken down by county, Washington experienced a 26% drop, Fayette experienced a 43% drop, while Greene experienced a 250% increase. The report notes that some organizations may have closed or merged over the last five years, but the shift is more the result of how council defined arts and cultural organizations for the report, leaving out booster organizations, garden clubs or non-arts schools.
Pankratz noted that Washington County experienced the loss of the Washington Community Arts and Cultural Center (WashArts), which folded in 2015. No comparable organization has emerged to take its place.
There are a little more than 15,000 full-time jobs or the equivalent thereof in the arts and culture sector regionally, the report found, leading the real estate and utilities sectors, but well below areas like health care, science and technology and higher education.
Among metropolitian regions, Pittsburgh stacked up well in the number of arts and cultural organizations it has. Per 100,000 residents, it has 23.7 organizations. It ranks third, behind benchmark cities San Diego and Cleveland, and ahead of such cities as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Boston.