Connecticut’s cultural economy ranks 7th in US
Connecticut saw slowing growth in its arts and cultural sector in 2022, according to new federal estimates, but the state remains ranked in the top 10 for the segment’s impact on the larger state economy.
Spending at Connecticut arts and cultural venues rose 2.9 percent in 2022, according to estimates published Monday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts, trailing the 4.3 percent increase for the United States as a whole. NEA estimates that Connecticut’s arts sector supported about 54,700 jobs in 2022, kicking in about $12.8 billion to the state economy.
BEA and NEA analyze both nonprofit and for-profit venues and lump a number of industries into their economic modeling, including those that provide services to arts and cultural organizations such as construction, technology or food catering services.
Performing arts drove the U.S. increase as theaters resumed a fuller slate of production runs as COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in 2021. Some nonprofit theaters in Connecticut continue to fall short of their pre-pandemic ticket sales and season memberships, however, mirroring the struggles for the U.S. stage circuit.
“Museums are really coming back,” said Liz Shapiro, director of arts, preservation and museums for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. “Performing arts is the sector in Connecticut that is not coming back in the way that other sectors are.”
Still, turnouts have been strong for some venues, to include the open-air Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport which kicks off its third full season on May 18 with a Neil Young + Crazy Horse concert. The amphitheater’s early success prompted plans for a smaller, indoor venue next door to stage shows year-round.
And the Bruce Museum and Yale Peabody Museum are among several in Connecticut that are showing off new renovations or expansion.
With support coming to an end from the American Rescue Plan and other pandemic lifelines, the Connecticut Arts Alliance is advocating more hospitality-related tax revenue be funneled from the Connecticut General Fund into support for the arts and cultural sector, alongside Connecticut Humanities
and the Connecticut Tourism Coalition.
The run-up in inflation in 2022 and 2023 cut into some household budgets with a ripple effect on theaters, according to Brett Thompson, executive director of the Connecticut Arts Alliance. Thompson noted that ARPA funds are now drying up that helped leverage the Connecticut Cultural Fund and other initiatives, putting additional pressure on venues that were relying on it to carry them through the post-pandemic years.
“It’s a bit uneven — outdoors activities are doing well, but theaters are up and down,” Thompson said. “Theaters that are doing smash shows are perhaps doing better than other ones that are doing smaller productions or first-time productions.”
Across the 50 states, spending on arts and cultural activities rose nearly 5 percent in 2022, ahead of a 2 percent gain in overall U.S. gross domestic product that year, according to BEA estimates. Washington led the nation in 2022 for the “value add” of the arts and cultural economy, at 9.5 percent of the state’s overall gross domestic product, followed by California at 8 percent and New York at 7.4 percent, with Washington D.C. also ranking high at 8.4 percent.
After Nevada, Connecticut and Massachusetts were in the next tier of states with the most significant arts economies at about 4 percent of state GDP in 2022, on par with Georgia and Tennessee.
Thompson said he remains hopeful state policymakers will see both value of the arts sector both to Connecticut’s communities, as well as the larger economy.
“People are eager to get back to their regular lives and obviously the arts are part of that,” Thompson said. “One thing about the arts community — they know how to scrape things together and make it work no matter what.”