Study Finds Arts-Related Businesses Generate $1.27 Billion Yearly

A new city-commissioned study says businesses dealing with the arts generate $1.27 billion a year in economic activity.

The six-month study found that businesses dealing with the arts employ more than 8,500 people. In addition, art show visitors generate 10,000 additional jobs.

Art exhibits also benefit the city spiritually, said Maria Luisa de Herrera, city cultural affairs administrator. “The human race’s creative nature needs to be fed. The wide variety of the arts is the best way to nurture it,” she said.

As part of its growing emphasis on the arts, the city is hanging three orange-red rowboats under the Santa Monica pier. Titled “Twilight and Yearning,” the boats are meant to evoke archetypal ships from Noah’s Ark, de Herrera said.