“Vibrant and impactful.”
Those words are used to describe Utah’s creative-arts industry in a new profile recently released by the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah). The study, titled “The Arts In Utah,” found that job growth in arts and entertainment the past five years was 22 percent in Utah, outpacing the national rate of 12 percent.
The industry generates over $10 billion in annual economic impact throughout the state, it said.
“We know from our conversations with companies in Utah and across the country that a vibrant arts culture adds to quality of life and fosters talent recruitment in all industries,” said Theresa Foxley, president and CEO of EDCUtah. “This profile presented us with the opportunity to quantify the impact of the arts in our state, to better support our corporate recruitment and retention efforts.”
The profile indicates that 79,328 people work in the creative industry in Utah, accounting for 2.6 percent of the state’s total workforce. Compared to the rest of the U.S., Utah has an above-average concentration of dancers, actors, photographers, musicians and singers, and art directors. Utah also is eighth among states for the percentage of arts-related businesses. It has about 7,000, which equates to 2.38 arts-related businesses per 1,000 residents.
A 2016 study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts indicated Utah had the highest participation in the arts nationally. Also noteworthy is that Salt Lake City is one of the only markets its size to have a full-time symphony, ballet and opera.
The arts industry study was undertaken following a business survey EDCUtah conducted with the Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development.
“We discovered that the arts and entertainment scene is a driver of Salt Lake City’s net promoter score,” said Matt Hilburn, EDCUtah vice president of marketing and research. “The city’s cultural offerings influence a company’s likelihood to expand within the city rather than leave, when faced with an expansion opportunity. … Companies that are prospects for expansion into Utah are leaning more toward employee-centric metrics, rather than the cost-centric measures of the past few years,” Hilburn said.
“It has been said in the economic development industry that focus on arts and culture is not a driver for decision-making, but we are seeing more and more that it is,” said Lara Fritts, director of Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development. “People want to live and work in cool and unique places. We know from SLC’s business survey that arts and culture not only attracts organizations to our city and state, but helps in retaining businesses and workforce as well.”
The arts profile, available at http://edcutah.com/research, joins other EDCUtah profiles focused on aerospace, data centers, financial services, life sciences, advanced materials, headquarters and shared services, information technology, outdoor products, fintech, manufacturing and distribution.