Fact: The Arts Industry Is Bigger Than Agriculture
Time to Raise Our Voice — Made Easy Right Here
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) shows that the arts and culture sector is a $763 billion industry that directly employs 4.9 million arts workers. This represents 4.2% of the nation’s GDP — a larger share of the economy than transportation, warehousing, or agriculture. To put a finer point on it, in 2015 (the most recent reporting year), the arts added four times more to the U.S. economy than the agricultural sector and $200 billion more than transportation or warehousing.
When I learned these facts, I about fell over because we so rarely talk about our industry this way. This isn’t talking about “art for art’s sake.” And it’s not just about saving the NEA, which admittedly doesn’t give enough money to any of us to put us under if eliminated. It’s about raising our voice and speaking in a language that resonates with our elected officials and policymakers. The message is that this industry has a too-big-to-be-ignored economic impact on our nation while creating millions of jobs, and Arts Advocacy Day is designed for us to make some noise about it.
Below is shareable content for your social channel of choice. Share today for Arts Advocacy Day, and then next time someone talks about farming subsidies or transportation infrastructure, chime in that the arts and culture sector is a larger portion of our nation’s GDP than either of those. They’ll probably fall over, too.
P.S.
For the readers who are wanting the next post full of California Symphony experiments and data, we have several projects and tests we’re running this season whose results I’ll begin sharing soon!
Out now, order my book, Run It like a Business: Strategies to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money — Without Losing the Art.
You’ll learn how to:
- Grow audiences and keep them coming back again
- Make our organizations more inclusive
- Get younger attendees in the seats and on the donor rolls
- Generate millions more dollars in revenue
- Continue to create the art we love — without the stress of figuring out how to afford it
Just because your arts organization is a non-profit, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t make money; it means the money the organization makes goes back to fund the mission — whether that’s music, visual arts, theatre, dance, or one of many other mediums that enrich our lives.
Order today and get the playbook to generate the revenue you need, grow audiences, and build a vibrant artistic future: www.aubreybergauer.com/book
About the Author
Hailed as “the Steve Jobs of classical music” (Observer) and “Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony” (LA Review of Books), Aubrey Bergauer is known for her results-driven, customer-centric, data-obsessed pursuit of changing the narrative for the performing arts. A “dynamic administrator” with an “unquenchable drive for canny innovation” (San Francisco Chronicle), she’s held offstage roles managing millions in revenue at major institutions including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As chief executive of the California Symphony, Bergauer propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base.
Bergauer helps organizations and individuals transform from scarcity to opportunity, make money, and grow their base of fans and supporters. Her ability to cast and communicate vision moves large teams forward and brings stakeholders together, earning “a reputation for coming up with great ideas and then realizing them” (San Francisco Classical Voice). With a track record for strategically increasing revenue and relevance, leveraging digital content and technology, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion on stage and off, Bergauer sees a better way forward for classical music and knows how to achieve it.
Aubrey’s first book, Run It Like A Business, published in February 2024.
A graduate of Rice University, her work and leadership have been covered in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, and Southwest Airlines magazines, and she is a frequent speaker spanning TEDx, Adobe’s Magento, universities, and industry conferences in the U.S. and abroad.
