New Data Reveal Significant Economic Impact by Michigan’s Creative Sector

Creative State Michigan shows that 211 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations contributed nearly half a billion dollars in expenditures to the economy of Michigan in 2009. We have always known that Michigan's arts and cultural nonprofit organizations have a tremendous economic and social impact – and now we have hard numbers to back it up.

As Michigan has sought methods to overcome its economic challenges, arts and culture nonprofits largely have been overlooked, despite the significant value they bring to the state's economy, as well as their ability to attract and retain professional talent and business investment. Creative State Michigan reveals that for every $1 invested by the state, the arts and culture nonprofit sector contributed $51 into the Michigan economy. The benefits are not just short term: from 2006 to 2010, the number of arts-related jobs increased by 4 percent in Michigan, while arts-related businesses increased by 43 percent.

Data for the Creative State Michigan report come from the Americans for the Arts' annual Creative Industries Reports, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation/Pure Michigan and the Michigan Cultural Data Project (Michigan CDP). The Michigan CDP data are from 211 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in Michigan that completed data entry and review. Michigan is home to more than 2,000 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. More information will be available every year, as more groups add to the database.

The Michigan CDP is a standardized, national, secure, online database and support network in which nonprofit arts and cultural organizations enter financial, programmatic and operational information once a year. From the database, they can then generate instant annual and trend analysis reports, benchmark their performance against other organizations and create instant reports to be used as part of grant applications to participating funders. The database also provides reliable data to researchers on the organizations' economic impact and contributions within Michigan. The CDP is operated by The Pew Charitable Trusts, www.miculturaldata.org.

The MASCO Corporation Foundation provided initial seed funding and has been joined by seventeen more Michigan foundations in supporting the Michigan CDP and Creative State Michigan. Melonie Colaianne, president of the MASCO Corporation Foundation, said, "The Creative State Michigan report makes a compelling case for the contribution of the arts – it takes the wealth of data from the CDP and other sources and distills it to the key facts about arts and culture in Michigan. We are looking forward to sharing its findings widely."

Data Driven Detroit provided research support for ArtServe Michigan, as an independent examiner of the information. "This effort provides a critical reminder of the importance of the nonprofit sector in Michigan's economy, supporting previous research from the Michigan Nonprofit Association," said Director of Data Driven Detroit Kurt Metzger. "By drilling down within the arts and culture sector, the Michigan CDP brings forward a rich new source of detailed data with solid collection methods to deliver a more complete picture of the region's economic and social activity. We look forward to learning more in the years to come."

Visit CreativeStateMI.org to download the report and learn more about Creative State Michigan.