Middleteown Arts Center
130 N. Verity Parkway, Middletown
www.middletownartscenter.com
(513) 424-2417
Features: Various art classes and exhibits and special events
Pendleton Arts Center
1105 Central Avenue, Middletown
www.pendletonartcenter.com
(513) 217-5678
Features: Monthly First Friday that opens more than 60 studios to the public. All About You Cafe inside. Can be rented for special events
Fitton Center for Creative Arts
101 S. Monument Ave. Hamilton
(513) 863-8873
www.fittoncenter.org
Features: Various exhibits, classes, concerts, family shows and theater performances
Fairfield Community Arts Center
411 Wessel Drive
www.fairfield-city.org/cac/
513-867-5348
Features: Various exhibits, classes, concerts, family shows and theater performances
Area art centers help contribute millions of dollars to the economic impact of their communities, arts officials say.
Most arts centers, including the Middletown Arts Center and the Pendleton Art Center, are nonprofit agencies, as is the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton. Even so, those art centers have a notable financial impact on their cities.
Middletown leaders pursued Cincinnati’s Pendleton Arts Center so a branch could open downtown with the aim of helping to revive the downtown and increase traffic. The Pendleton has seen a good measure of success with its First Friday events, where local residents tour the various artists’ studios on the first Friday of every month.
Although people may not traditionally think of the arts as a revenue generator, national statistics show it has a considerable impact. According to a 2012 national study by Americans for the Arts, arts groups generate $135.2 billion annually, which breaks down to $61.1 billion in spending by organizations and $74.1 in event-related spending by audiences. In addition, employment at arts groups accounts for 2.2 million full-time jobs, which equates to .87 percent of the workforce. That’s more than police (.51 percent) and firefighters (.24 percent), according to another study by the group
The Fitton Center for Creative Arts
The Fitton Center, which opened in 1993 as part of the centennial celebration of Hamilton, has an estimated economic impact of about $4.5 million a year on the city, resulting from such things as visits to restaurants after a show, said Rick Jones, the executive director of the center.
However, the economic impact of an arts center goes beyond its ticket sales. And the Fitton Center has been directed by its parent organization, ArtsWave of Cincinnati, to determine exactly what that impact is. .
“An inaccurate measure of the right thing is far more important than a very accurate measure of the wrong thing,” Jones said.
This is part of a shift in ArtsWave, formerly known as the Fine Arts Fund. Previously, financial figures accounted for as much as 90 percent of their analysis. Nowadays, that has shifted to 50 percent financial impact and 50 percent social impact.
“They’ve come around to understand that butts in seats at a Mad Anthony (theatre) performance is not as important as how those butts were changed when they walked out of the theater.” Jones said.
“What’s truly important is, were they changed in some way because they participated in your programs? That’s where we’ve always lived, we’ve just not been good at measuring it,” he added.
The arts stand to make even more of an impact in Hamilton when the long-awaited ArtSpace project finally comes to fruition. ArtSpace, which will bring 42 artist lofts to the Hamilton Center by 2014, is expected to provide a boost to Fitton’s programs.
“It will be a great resource. We’ll have access to more teachers, more exhibiting artists and more board and committee members,” Jones said.
The Fairfield Community Arts Center
Fairfield has a unique situation among Butler County arts centers. Its arts center is actually an arm of the city, being part of the parks department. The center, at 411 Wessel Drive, opened in 2005 at a cost of $10 million.
“That was decided even before we built the building,” said Tim Bachman, the city’s development director, of the decision to have the arts center be funded through the city
Heidi Schiller, the venue’s manager, said there has never been an impact study for the center, but she does know the impact “in terms of what it brings to the city, and that’s quality of life. That’s a term people recognize everywhere. Residents receive a balance of arts and sports and city amenities.”
When a program comes to the center, that means surrounding restaurants like Symmes Tavern and Applebee’s and La Pinata benefit, she said.
The Arts Center has a total income budget of $245,000 and an expense budget of $735,000. She said the expense budget is higher because the arts center serves as the “physical plant” for the city’s parks department, under which the arts center operates.
The Middletown Arts Center/Pendleton Art Center
Even though the Middletown Arts Center on 130 N. Verity Parkway is not funded by the city, it’s still a long-standing part of it, having existed in some form since 1957.
“We’re trying to draw more traffic in from outside sources, especially with Cincinnati State coming on board,” said the executive director Patt Belilsle, referring to the new campus that begins classes this month with the expectation of drawing 200 students.
“We’re doing a lot of collaborative work with other agencies, such as the YMCA with their Damon Park Facility. And we’re hoping to have new hours so that we’d be open in the evenings on Mondays and Fridays,” she said.
The Pendleton Arts Center at 1105 Central Ave. which opened in the spring of 2011, has become a fixture downtown, adding foot traffic from hundreds of visitors the first Friday of each month, when artists open the doors of their studios to display and sell their latest creations. It houses 65 galleries/studios.
“Art is an economic driver. Middletown has a strong history in support of the arts, with our own symphony, our own arts center, as well as the Pendleton and other arts-related activities. We believe that art, education and entertainment will be the nexus of our downtown revitalization,” said City Manager Judy Gilleland.
Suzanne Sizer, the spokeswoman for Pendleton, has said, “The interest to be downtown is growing stronger and I think we helped generate that.”
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