The city of Houston has used its economic advantages and large diverse population to keep the creative arts thriving successfully. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States allowing approximately 6.1 million people to call it home. Houston Arts Alliance is an extremely successful nonprofit arts organization that thrives on enhancing the city by supporting and promoting arts through programs initiatives and alliances. Houston Arts Alliance enables artists and art organizations to succeed by connecting nonprofit art programs to the larger creative Houston Industry.
The Houston Arts Alliance website provides annual reports that document the success they have had with expanding and promoting the creative arts economy in Houston. A Survey conducted by The Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University concluded that 73% of people surveyed claimed that the arts significantly contributed to their quality of life. The HAA has also created an online arts funding program called power2give.org as well as investing in the work of more then 250 Houston arts organizations and artists. In partnership with Americans for the Arts National Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study, reveal that Houston’s local nonprofit arts industry generates $869 million in total economic activity annually. This study, which is conducted every five years, also showed that Houston’s arts support the full-time equivalent of 19,651 jobs and displays a 39% increase in Harris County Texas from 2005-2010.
How can other cities, implement successful creative arts programs as well? Can the model used by the Houston Arts Alliance be applied to other cities, such as Miami to keep the arts thriving?
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-Samantha Wagner
