Vermont arts organizations alone attract 7 MILLION visitors a year.- The Arts are a $443 Million Economic Engine. (Source: Burlington Free Press)
- Vermont ranks seventh out of the 50 states in the per-capita number of artists who are in the civilian workforce. It ranks fourth for visual artists, and first for writers. (Source: US Census Bureau (2000) Note: and these are just the people who list their occupations as “artists” on the Census forms; it does not include the number of undeclared artists or artists who support themselves by means other than their art)
- Vermont invests about $4 per capita in the arts and cultural sector each year, or about $2.5 million. In income, sales/use, and room/meals tax revenues, it takes in about $31 per capita from the sector, or about $19.44 million. This “ROI” is just under 800% per year. (Source: The Vermont Arts Council & The Economic Footprint of the Arts in Vermont, Doug Hoffer, November 2010)
- The arts sector accounts for about 10% of all Tourism-related revenues in Vermont...that's $19.44 million out of $200 million. (Source: Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing Annual Report, 2010)
- The Arts Sector employs about 4,300 people in Vermont; this makes it larger than the Insurance Sector, the Food Manufacturing Sector, and Wood Products Sector. (Source: Hoffer)
- From 1994 to 2003, meals tax revenue increased by 38% in Vermont. During the same period in Vergennes, however, it increased by 57%. Sales and Use taxes increased 28% in Vermont from 1994-2003; in Vergennes, they increased 47%. These increases were a direct result of the restoration of the Vergennes Opera House. (Source: Vermont State Tax Data as quoted in Advancing Vermont’s Creative Economy, VCRD Report, September 2004)
- In Bellows Falls meals tax revenue increased 120% from 1994 to 2003, compared to the state average of 38%. Sales and Use Tax increased 36% compared to the state’s average of 28%. These increases were due to the catalytic impact of the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP) whose work not only brought cultural activities to the downtown of Bellows Falls, but rehabilitated the downtown “Exner Block” into affordable “live/work” space for artists. (Source: Vermont State Tax Date as quoted in Advancing Vermont’s Creative Economy, VCRD Report, September 2004)
Click here to read the study done by Doug Hoffer at the request of Melinda Moulton.