Dear editor,
Thank you for the thoughtful piece in
last week’s Springfield Business Journal about the need for more and bigger public art in Springfield. Your call to action is exactly what we need to help inspire local philanthropists, the local government and the community at large to step forward and make a significant push for more. We have the talent; we have the passion. Now we need to work together to move our community to the next level.
As business/talent attraction and retention initiatives continue to be a priority for both private and public sectors, it is essential we also consider supporting a strong arts and culture sector. People who are making decisions about relocating, whether by moving a family or a business, make a major consideration of the larger community. Mr. Olson points out a perfect example where “corporate offices are flocking to the area around Pappjohn Sculpture Park” in Des Moines, Iowa.
Great public art creates a unique sense of place. Public art elevates a city from an average Midwestern place that looks like all the rest to a unique destination with pride, passion and vision. People are drawn to those places. People want to be a part of those communities. More people bring a growing tax base, increasing sales tax revenue and jobs.
Americans for the Arts, a national organization supporting the arts through research and advocacy, conducts a national study every five years to better understand how the arts impact the local, state and national economies. The latest Arts & Economic Prosperity report, completed in 2011, revealed that the nonprofit arts sector is a $135.2 billion industry, supporting 4.1 million full-time employees nationally. (Springfield is participating in the newest study with local data to be released in spring 2017.)
In addition to supporting jobs and generating tax revenue, the AEP study found that the arts/culture sector helps keep spending local. Over 41 percent of locals and 52 percent of nonresidents surveyed said they would have gone to another community to access a similar cultural experience. That means money that might have been spent within the local economy would have gone elsewhere.
Ensuring that Springfield truly has a unique sense of place where people want to work and live means that we need to:
1. Develop and implement a percent-for-art program as a revenue source for future public art projects.
2. Improve ordinances to guarantee fewer hindrances to public art.
3. Partner with local philanthropists and businesses to provide funding and develop an endowment for long-term sustainability.
We have made great strides to demonstrate the value of public art in our community. The work accomplished by the board of Sculpture Walk Springfield in four years should inspire us to keep the momentum going.
—Leslie Forrester, Springfield Regional Arts Council
