YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Power of the Arts, a regional arts and cultural advocacy group, will host a “Call to Action” event Tuesday at the Butler Institute of American Art. The event will provide an opportunity for all to hear about the progress and ongoing developments of the initiative as it prepares to involve area legislators.
The event, which will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m., is open to the public.
“The Power of the Arts initiative has been very active over the past three years, and we are looking to the upcoming event as a means of sharing some of the extraordinary accomplishments and some of our goals," said Bryan DePoy, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts at Youngstown State University and co-chairman of the initiative's advisory committee.
Those who attend also will hear updates about the area’s participation in an economic impact research study that evaluates the financial impact of arts and entertainment on the local economy, DePoy noted. More than 20 different arts and culture organizations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties participated in this study, facilitated by Power of the Arts and conducted by Americans for the Arts. The local Power of Arts is one of 200 study partners across the United States participating in similar studies.
The local study findings will be released at the Americans for the Arts’ national conference in San Antonio in June and will reveal the financial impact these organizations and attendees provide to the local economy. Results will cover the total dollars spent by Mahoning Valley area nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, total dollars spent by audiences, number of full-time, equivalent jobs supported by arts spending, amount of resident household income including salaries and wages generated by arts spending and the amount of local and state government tax revenues generated by arts spending. The study results will be released locally in July when Randy Cohen, vice president of research and policy at Americans for the Arts, visits the Mahoning Valley.
“While supporting the vibrancy of the arts is alone a strong enough rationale to collaborate together, we felt it prudent to demonstrate to the citizens of the Valley that a strong arts community is an economic generator as well," said Erie Planey, vice president of international business attraction for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and co-chairman of the Power of the Arts advisory committee. "We sometimes take for granted how rich our arts and culture community is for a metro our size, and we must work to ensure it continues as such."
The initiative, formed in response to a June 2009 program on the role of arts and culture in revitalizing communities, seeks to develop an entity that will raise the visibility and increase participation in and highlight the role of arts and culture in the Mahoning Valley and develop and implement a plan to secure new sources of funding for arts and culture in the area. There are more than 120 arts and culture organizations and individuals that are Power of the Arts members. Power of the Arts receives support from The Raymond John Wean Foundation.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.