Reports
In order to better support the arts in Buncombe County, ArtsAVL tracks the health and impact of the local creative sector through a number of different reports. While ArtsAVL continues to track the overall creative economy, this year the we have also been focusing on creative manufacturing, outdoor events, and the impact of the nonprofit arts sector.
Creative Economy
Impact ReportBuncombe County’s vibrant creative economy spans across 8 sectors, accounts for $1B in annual sales, and supports nearly 8,500 jobs.
ArtsAVL, in partnership with Riverbird Research at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, works to monitor the impact and health of local creative industry and jobs.
There is no right way to define the creative economy. Instead of taking an expansive view, this report looks at the creative economy through the lens of an arts agency. Therefore, the scope has been limited to industries and occupations that feasibly fall within an arts agency’s sphere of influence.
Reports
2022 Creative Economy Snapshot
(Oct 2023)
2019- 2023 Creative Economy Comparison
(May 2023)
2019-2022 Creative Jobs Pandemic
Report |Infographic
(August 2022)
2015-2019 Creative Jobs Pre-Pandemic
Report | Infographic
(May 2021)
Creative Earnings & Spaces
Cost of LivingReports
Creative Spaces Report
(May 2024)
Buncombe County Creative Wage
Infographic | Earnings Table
(2020)
Comparing Buncombe County’s median earnings of $21.06 to the living wage rate of $24.61, Buncombe County’s median is 14% less with 50 out of 66 (76%) occupations having median earnings that fall below living wage.
Creative wags are not keeping pace with the rising cost of living in Buncombe County, forcing local creatives to make difficult decisions. In response to growing concerns from the local arts professionals and businesses, ArtsAVL launched the Creative Spaces study in 2023.
The nearly 100 page report primarily looks at creative work spaces– locations where arts professionals and/or arts professionals create, present, or sell their work. Findings include occupation demographics and median earnings, survey results assessing current and needed workspaces, an inventory of current creative spaces, local and national case studies addressing these similar space challenges, and next steps.
Arts & Economic Prosperity
Nonprofit ImpactIn 2022, nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated over $51 million dollars in economic activity in Buncombe County—$25 million dollars in spending by the organizations, which leveraged an additional $26 million dollars in event-related spending by their audiences.
The Arts & Economic Prosperity Report is an impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry in the U.S. This study is conducted approximately every five years to gauge the economic impact of spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and the event-related spending by their audiences. Previous studies were published in 1994, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017, 2023.
Arts & Economic Prosperity 6, or AEP6, is an economic and social impact study of the nation’s nonprofit arts and culture industry. This report documents the economic and social contributions of arts and culture in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. To measure industry spending, local and statewide research partners representing the 373 study regions collected expenditure and attendance data from over 16,000 arts and culture organizations and the event-related spending information from nearly 225,000 of their attendees.
Reports
AEP6 Buncombe County
(2023)
AEP5 Buncombe County
(2017)
AEP6 (2023)
AEP5 (2017)
AEP4 (2012)
AEP3 (2007)
Arts Education
Arts in SchoolsFor the past 15 years, the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education has been working with arts education data in partnership with state departments of education, state arts councils and significant foundation partners to demonstrate the actual impact of publicly releasing arts education data for an entire state (on a school by school basis) and increase access and participation. Known as the Arts Education Data Project, this initiative is accomplished by taking data gathered by each state department of education, standardizing the data and then transforming it into a publicly available interactive dashboard, updated annually to reflect the true status of arts education in every school, at every grade level for every student.
Creative Manufacturing
Building InfrastructureOutdoor Events
Festivals, Fairs, & ConcertsIn 2016-2017, the City of Asheville’s special events office was awarded a grant by the Appalachian Regional Commission to conduct an independent year-long research study to better understand the entrepreneurial impact of its outdoor special event ecosystem.
Unlike more common economic impact studies, this new study looked at how special events contributed to vendor business growth, and even to the extent of questioning whether a community with more opportunities for event participation motivated more entrepreneurs to start businesses. One of the study’s findings revealed a key benefit in promoting discussion related to the small business-vendor-event-exhibit experiences. The City of Asheville received The Entrepreneurial Impact of Asheville’s Outdoor Special Events final report in September 2017.
Music Industry
Small Town, Big SoundAccording to this 2016 study conducted by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce – Economic Development Coalition and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Research Center, showed the music industry grew 52 percent from 2010 to 2016 (at a faster pace than Nashville) and is two times more specialized compared to the national average.
Additional Reports
