Hi guys, I know it’s been a couple days since our meeting with Randy Cohen from Americans for the Arts but I wanted to take some time to go back and reflect a little bit on all the information he provided us with in his presentation as well as his description of his work within the organization.
So in comparison to the other “special guests” we’ve gotten to have on the Arts and Democracy show who have been administrative members and curators, Randy Cohen is a lobbyist- meaning his job is to speak about the organization and get people to invest/donate money and express a viewpoint to policymakers to try to positively influence the arts in America. I think this was a super interesting new perspective on arts nonprofits that we got to see especially because we got to look at a lot of statistics regarding the Arts in todays current political and pandemical (that’s definitely not a word but I’m using it because it sounds cool) atmosphere.
One of my favorite and most impactful stats that he provided was that the arts contribute $12.6 billion dollars which is 3.3% of GSP (state’s economy), and makes up 95,024 jobs for the economy.
“If you care about the economy you should care about the arts” -Randy Cohen
It was also interesting to hear about why some of the ticket pricing for things like Broadway can be so expensive- when most of them only profit off of things like ticket sales, they are forced to raise prices in order to keep performances up and going. But then this also raises issues of accessibility. Like Randy said, It is so important for the local and federal government to fund the arts because it makes it more accessible and affordable for the general public to engage with.
I think it’s statistics like these that are so important to visually see and hear from an arts “professional” because personally i’ve always known that the arts are proven to up gpa, build community and have a positive impact all around, but to see actual statistics and numbers proving the positive impact the arts have on the world is what is so impactful-especially when you have a job like Randy’s, and he definitely proved that to us in our meeting.
My favorite resource he provided was also the social impact wheel located on the Americans for the Arts webpage that provides a lot of insight into the effect the Arts can have on just about every aspect of the world- and includes a fact sheet for every one of those aspects with statistics on the impact of the arts. Super good place to ignite ideas f
or our policy proposals.
Overall I think we got a great glimpse into what the advocating for Arts organizations can do, and how much change you can enact by doing the research and providing information when it comes to our policy proposals as well as taking a look at the positive change the Americans for the Arts organization is enabling through their many programs and donation tools. This meeting was personally super helpful as it re ignited my passion for advocating for the positive impact the arts have on our country ESPECIALLY in this pandemic age.