Photo from Pixabay
Topline: The arts and entertainment sectors have been devastated by the pandemic, experiencing an 45% decline in employment. In a pioneering move, Jersey City’s Mayor, Steven M. Fulop, looks to launch New Jersey’s first municipal Arts and Culture Trust Fund, providing sustainable support for artists to hone their skills even during busts.
Arts, entertainment, and recreation experienced the largest drop in employment over the pandemic out of any sector, falling by 50.7% between February 15 and April 25 and 31.7% between February 15 and June 20, followed by accommodation and food services and retail trade.
Although national and state quarantine policies have mechanically limited the amount of in-person interactions, the main differentiating element in the arts is that the consumption of its services are largely in-person. For example, my research shows that there are many fewer digital workers in the sector, which helps explain why these services slowed substantially over the pandemic.
New Jersey Fund Offers Template For Arts And Culture
In a new plan to make the arts sustainable, the Mayor of one of the most diverse cities in the nation, recently announced his support for the Arts and Culture Trust Fund in Jersey City after seeing the critical need for sustainable funding to support local artists and arts organizations that are often severely underfunded even in good economic times.
Here’s how it works. Individuals and/or organizations can apply for funds, proposing a specific use case and budget for how the funds would be used. Each council member appoints a community member who reviews applications, which helps mitigate the probability that politics is injected into the equation. These community members will assess the applications and award funds. One of the important implicit benefits of that approach is that it engages community members and civic participation, which has been on the decline despite its importance.
This would provide people in the sector with a lifeline over business cycles. According to Mayor Fulop, “its important to be investing in peoples' creativity and to allow that part of young people to flourish.” While financial anxiety is harmful for mental and physical well-being for anyone, it is especially costly for artists because of the cognitive effects.
Reflecting on her agglomeration of research studies, Carrie Leana, Professor of Organizations and Management at the University of Pittsburgh, remarked that “financial precarity has a corrosive effect on people’s cognitive and emotional functioning, and, consequently, their ability to perform up to their potential. For artists, this is a particular concern since the creative process arguably requires more cognitive and emotional effort than most any other type of work. Despite the caricature of the ‘starving artist,’ financial worry can hobble rather than enhance the creative process, to the detriment of not just the artists themselves, but to all of us who find inspiration in their work.”
In exactly two weeks, Jersey City voters will decide on the implementation of the Arts and Culture Trust Fund to be funded at a maximum rate of $0.02 per $100 of assessed property value. One of the reasons that this is a smart idea is that property tax revenues are not very sensitive to business cycle conditions. For example, my research finds that year-to-year changes in state employment and property tax revenues are not statistically or economically related.
That’s important since a long-term commitment to the arts and culture requirements a sustainable revenue generating mechanism that is not subject to the whims of an areas’ business cycles.
Jersey City is home to one of the region’s most unique and vibrant arts communities. And, while some might critique the Fund as excessive, it is far from a bailout: it simply provides a lifeline for freelancers who contribute to the economy and society in ways that don’t always have immediate payoffs. It would be just enough to keep artists afloat so that they can continue practicing their craft during economic busts.
Artists can make side income, while continuing to practice their craft. For example, Soula Parassidis, internationally-acclaimed opera singer and CEO & Founder of Living Opera, began creating educational content and teaching opera students before the pandemic. Because the sector has been shut down in the U.S. without plans to reopen until 2021, she has focused on helping aspiring singers navigate their careers, remarking that many of her students “are unable to justify the expenses associated with their continuing education with the industry in flux and the opportunities for work at maximum uncertainty... the cancellation of performances, and therefore the ability to earn income, nationwide has only added fuel to the fire in terms of their anxieties.”
Investments, even during “off periods,” are necessary so that artists can have their “on periods.” Parassidis elaborated that opera singers “are in a state of perpetual learning and collaborative work and all of that costs a lot of money. For a top level opera singer to stay in optimal shape, it’s not unusual to invest in a weekly voice lesson, as well as several musical coachings to prepare roles with a pianist. This can range from $350-$1000 per month depending on the complexity of the music, and that burden is placed on the artist, not the hiring company.” In this sense, the Arts and Culture Trust Fund could provide performers with the resources to continue honing their skills so that they are in a position to delight audiences for years to come.
Art And Culture Are Integral For Human Flourishing
Arts and culture are an integral part of our economy and society. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released a study in 2020 showing that arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.5% of GDP, or $877.8 billion, in 2017. Moreover, for each year between 2015 and 2017, it grew at a faster rate than other sectors—over 5% in 2016, for example.
Even beyond the direct economic contribution, they have broader social benefits, including: attracting businesses, enhancing social capital, expanding educational opportunities, and boosting property values.
Moreover, since good art and culture reflect beauty and truth, they also provide a way of diffusing political polarization. Political polarization often emerges when people arrive at an impasse, viewing the world through different lenses. However, art and culture bring people together not only conceptually, but also physically in-person through community and fellowship, providing opportunities to reconcile differences—or at least build bridges over common areas of interest.
We also know that, as economies develop and per capita income rises, the composition of goods and services also changes. That’s because peoples’ tastes change: they don’t need to worry about subsistence, so they allocate time towards activities that are good for the mind and soul.
Artists have been impacted especially hard during the pandemic. The Arts and Culture Trust Fund pioneered by New Jersey Mayor Steven M. Fulop provides a feasible and low-cost way to ensure that freelancers in the arts and entertainment sector have the resources that they need to invest under uncertainty, allowing them to focus on what they do best: creating and expressing beauty to entertain and edify society.
