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
2023
OCTOBER 2023 UPDATE
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.
To define the creative economy, industries and occupations that fall under one of six arts mediums were identified: performing, visual, craft, literary, media, and interdisciplinary. These mediums were then further refined to the following sub-categories:
Performing: theatre, dance, music, and other types of performance
Visual: painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media
Craft: ceramics, glass, fiber, metal or wood
Literary: writing, journalism
Media: graphic and web design, radio, television, film
Interdisciplinary: has a significant presence in more than one of the arts mediums
MAY 2023 REPORT
Jobs and sales for creative industries in Buncombe County have finally surpassed 2019 totals – after 4 years of stifled growth.
All-creative industry jobs experienced a sharp downturn related to the pandemic in the 2019-2020 time period with an estimated 16% loss or -2,129 jobs. The percentage loss of -19% in other creative industries was greater compared to the -12% for core creative industries in this downturn.
Sales in the all-creative industry group reached an estimated $2B in 2022. After a decline in 2020, other creative industry sales began to recovery in 2021. Core creative industry sales were slower to recover– continuing to decline in 2021. However, by 2022 both other creative industries and core creative industries had surpassed 2019 sales totals.
BUNCOMBE COUNTY CREATIVE JOBS REPORTS
Pre-Pandemic Report (2015-2019): Press Release | Full Report | Infographic
Pandemic Report (2019-2021): Press Release | Full Report | Infographic
Health concerns, supply chain issues, and employment challenges continue to impact the local creative sector – particularly Leisure and Hospitality, and Manufacturing industries. Lessons learned by these industries provide creative solutions for future crises, such as public health messaging that emphasizes creative engagement and socially distanced community gatherings in public spaces.
The Creative Jobs Report looks at creative industries at the end of 2019 to the end of 2021 – showing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these industries over time. This study is a follow-up to the Buncombe County Creative Jobs Pre-pandemic (2015-19) and Buncombe County Creative Sector Earnings reports published by the Asheville Area Arts Council last year.
Some highlights include:
- From 2015-19, creative industry jobs in Buncombe County grew 24%— reaching approximately 14,000.
- By 2019, creative industry sales had reached $1.6 billion, representing 44% growth since 2015.
- As COVID-19 struck the nation in March 2020, many creative industries faced significant challenges — including up to 14 months of closure due to state mandated health restriction.
- Jobs in Buncombe County creative industries declined 18% from 2019-20 and by 2021 jobs were estimated to be 2,259 below 2019 totals.
- The majority of these job losses are in the Arts and Entertainment industries under Leisure and Hospitality, with Historic Sites and Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers making up 56% of the losses.
- Sales, which had reached over $1.6 billion in 2019, declined to $1.5 billion in 2020 and increased little in 2021.
- Manufacturing topped sales in 2019, and saw a 2% sales increase by 2021– among core creative industries these sales gains reached 41%.
- Musical instrument manufacturing; custom architectural woodwork and millwork manufacturing; and pottery, ceramics, and plumbing fixture manufacturing were among the top core creative manufacturing industries to see increases in sales and jobs.
Buncombe County Creative Sector Earnings
2021
There is a growing gap between local living costs and creative wages. On average, earnings for creative occupations in Buncombe County are 14% lower than the state average and 22% lower than the national average. Meanwhile, the cost of living index is now the highest in the state.
While an average, the report also shows that several core arts occupations such as Craft Artists, Fine Artists, Painters, Sculptors, Illustrators, and Camera Operators have wages that fall below the living wage $15,50/ hour for Buncombe County as reported by Just Economics.
See the full infographic for more details. A comparison of all 71 ‘creative’ occupations with State and National average hourly earnings is also available here.
ARTS MARKET STUDY (2018)
Center for Craft in partnership with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, hired Artspace, a nonprofit real estate developer that focuses on affordable housing, studio, and performance space for artists, to conduct a community-wide survey to assess the needs of area creatives. to determine if there is sufficient demand to support the development of new affordable space for the creative community and if so, what types of space(s) and amenities are most preferred. The quantitative Arts Market Study (AMS) follows the Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) conducted in March 2017.
Arts & Economic Prosperity Report
2023
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 (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. Nationally, the sector generated close to $152 billion dollars in economic activity in 2022—$73 billion dollars in spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and an additional $78 billion dollars in event-related expenditures by their audiences. It also supported 2.6 million jobs, provided $101 billion dollars in personal income to residents, and generated $29 billion dollars in tax revenue to local, state, and federal governments.
ArtsAVL spent over a year collecting over 1,400 audience surveys for this report, and 62 local arts nonprofits completed the organizational survey. Results show that in 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. This economic activity supported over 1,200 jobs and generated nearly $13 million dollars in tax revenue.
Arts Education
2022
For 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
2022
CREATIVE MANUFACTURING SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PLAN
A study entitled “Transitioning and Scaling Creative Sector Businesses: A Sector Development Plan for Creative Manufacturing in Western North Carolina” was spearheaded by the Land of Sky Regional Council of Government in 2022 to examine ways to scale creative manufacturing businesses. The final report entitled Creative Manufacturing Sector Development Plan from the consulting team Bridgeway Capital and Brocade Studios provides a series of recommendations for scaling creative manufacturing in 13 counties in WNC including: Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Mitchell, Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey counties.
ASHEVILLE METRO CREATIVE MANUFACTURING BRIEF
Preliminary findings through the WNC Arts Economic Impact Snapshot reports– which the Asheville Area Arts Council also helped develop– showed 87% of creative manufacturing among core creative industries come from Asheville Metro, which includes Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, and Madison counties. So, as part of this study, the ArtsAVL worked with Riverbird Research on an assessment of creative manufacturing industries specifically in the Asheville Metro area.
Outdoor Events
2017
In 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 Study
2016
According 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
