Impacts of Arts Centers on Communities

The arts and culture have been shown to foster economic development by attracting workers and businesses in the knowledge industry, spur tourism, and improve the housing market. However, regardless of whether the arts and culture have a positive impact on financial capital, they can potentially impact other forms of capital in the community. Small- to mid-sized community-based arts centers are effective in drawing people together due to their participatory nature. Recent studies credit community art spaces with enhancing social interaction as well as revitalizing economies. The widely used Community Capital Framework (CCF) is an analytical tool used to observe and critique the relationships among various types of community assets: social, human, financial, creative, built, natural, and political. This study used the CCF to observe the impacts of arts centers and their programs on the various capitals in their surrounding communities. The results demonstrated impacts of arts centers and their programs on social, environmental, and business assets, particularly in the financial, social, cultural, and human capitals, thereby serving as a means to examine sustainability. The results of this study can be used by community leaders as a starting point when discussing the costs and benefits of investing in a new arts center.