Artists, too, are singing the blues in these economic hard times, telling Congress that layoffs and art organization closures are hurting communities across the United States.
Representatives of the arts industries told the House Education and Labor Committee hearing Thursday that the repercussions of the recession go well beyond musicians having to put down their guitars and get "real" jobs. The nonprofit art and cultural industry alone supports 5.7 million jobs and generates $166 billion in economic activity every year, they said.
Robert Lynch of Americans for the Arts said his group estimates that one-tenth of all those organizations, 10,000 groups, are at risk of closing down this year, with a loss of 260,000 jobs.
He said ticket sales, which make up 50 percent of income for nonprofit groups, and donations, which comprise another 40 percent, are down as the economy shrinks. "The arts in America are at risk."
Actor Tim Daly, co-president of The Creative Coalition, said it was his mission "to make America understand that the arts are part of our cultural and economic main course, they are not dessert."
Daly, a cast member of the TV show “Private Practice,” said it takes nine days to shoot one episode of the show, during which time the show employs hundreds of people, spends about $20,000 on food, $25,000 to $40,000 on clothes and costumes, $2,500 on dry cleaning and $15,000 on furniture for the sets. "People seldom make that connection," he said.
Those testifying cited a recent National Endowment for the Arts report that 129,000 people in the arts industry were unemployed at the end of 2008, up 50,000 from a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 6 percent, double the rate for professionals in general, and would have been higher had not many left the workforce.
The $787 billion economic stimulus package signed into law last month contained $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to give out in grant money.