Quad City Arts Celebrates the Impact of Arts with Randy Cohen

​Quad City Arts hosted Randy Cohen, VP of Research at Americans for the Arts, on May 16. Cohen was in town to share the findings of the Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 study released in October (AEP6 Results Release Blog). Quad City Arts worked with Cohen and his team in 2022 to collect data in our region from nonprofit arts and culture organizations to ensure the Quad Cities were represented in the national study and to learn more about the impact locally.

Some of the highlights Cohen covered included:

• The Quad Cities Region’s nonprofit arts industry alone generates $29.0 million in economic activity annually—spending by organizations and their audiences—which supports 712 jobs and generates $6.2 million in local, state, and federal government revenue. (2022)
• Attendees at the Quad Cities Region’s nonprofit arts and culture events spend an average of $27.18 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission on items such as meals, parking, and lodging
• 20% of attendees live outside of Scott County (IA) and Rock Island County (IL); they average $42.71 in event-related spending​

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Randy Cohen shared this and more throughout the Quad Cities meeting with the public at an event at the Figge Art Museum in partnership with Visit Quad Cities, at a lunch event with local legislatures, to the media, as well as a keynote at the Quad City Arts’ Celebration of the Arts.
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​Looking for Reasons to Support the Arts in 2024? Or looking for words to express the impact of the arts locally? Look no further! Download the 10 Reasons to Support the Arts in Quad Cities in 2024.

In addition to the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study, Quad City Arts also invested in a location-based economic calculator. This calculator will help determine your organizations economic impact based on the data collected in the Quad Cities: Calculate your impact! 

To dive deeper into the AEP6 findings:

• AEP6 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
• AEP6 FINAL REPORT
• ARTS ECONOMIC PROSPERITY6 BROCHURE

In addition to these findings, Executive Director, Kevin Maynard, shared the impact of Quad City Arts from 2023, which can be found in our Annual Report. Maynard also shared a look ahead to 2024 as Quad City Arts launches two pilot programs!

- The Quad Cities Performing Arts Mentorship program: Designed to work with performers in our community to help them create an educational component. We are often asked why we don’t hire locals for our Visiting Artist Series, and one big reason is that local performers don’t have a school show. This pilot program will work with a handful of local talent to help them highlight the educational components already there in their work. This will help artists learn how to support their touring endeavors outside of the QC by supplementing it with an educational engagement add-on. This pilot program is a proof of concept to develop something bigger in future years.

- Project L.A.B.: A partnership with the Creative Empowerment Initiative, Project LAB. (Learning the Art of Business). This will create an opportunity for artists to learn the business of the arts to take them to the next level. Allowing artists to increase their knowledge and skills in areas including financial literacy, legal obligations, marketing, and more. In addition to the business component, it also will help artists network with one another and connect them deeper with our programs.

Thank you to everyone who joined us through the day, we can't wait to host more events that help our community gain knowledge of the economic impact of the arts and help our community of artists!