Art is Wealth: How Art Drives Revenue in Your Community
You are a local business owner in Chicago. You've built your business through sweat equity and established yourself in a neighborhood, investing in a community.
What brought you there? What keeps you there?
Is there wealth in your community to sustain the demand of your business?
Wealth is "having plentiful supplies of a particular resource".
Art is a resource within your community and it was plentiful in the city of Chicago. If your neighborhood had a thriving theatre scene, your coffee houses were full, the restaurants had patrons and your businesses had visitors.
Art is commerce in Chicago, it drives revenue by bringing visitors to the "mecca of comedy", the home of groundbreaking theatre and a livable city for artists who are on their artistic journey. I personally came to Chicago to pursue comedy, and I stayed to pursue my art. Along the way I was cast in an incredibly successful show on NBC which films in Chicago called Chicago Med and I've been working there for 9 years as the snarky Nurse Doris. I bought a house with the money I made in Chicago, had two children in this city and contribute my taxes here.
Art has directly lead to my wealth in Chicago.
I recently sat on Congressman Danny K. Davis' Art and Culture Advisory Committee. One of the questions he asked us was " How can economy be built through the arts, especially for young people and constituents facing economic challenges." He also asked us how the arts can build revenue for the city. I offered that the arts already drive revenue to the city just by existing in its excellence. I moved from Florida to Chicago because of its arts scene and I've invested my money here by renting and then eventually buying property. I am one of thousands of hopefuls that come to the city of Chicago for its arts scene and end up integrating our lives here. Theaters could have a better chance at staying open if we could close the gap on individual donors and corporate sponsors. A possible step in the right direction is the help a politician could provide by thinking strategically. Politicians are surrounded by high net worth individuals looking to get closer to policy makers like Congressman Davis, who admittedly loves the arts. Congressman Davis could host an event where the high net worth individuals co-mingle with representatives from the arts scene pitching for funding. Strategic partnerships like this would go a long way towards building the kind of wealth that makes a city thrive.
On a hyper-local level, a small business could then participate in wealth building within their community by investing in an arts organization like a local theatre. By doing so, they are driving commerce into their neighborhoods and literally participating in the economic growth that would feed their business in return. We all read the same articles coming from the same reputable spaces, engagement is key when building your brand. There is no better way of engaging than literally upping the quality of life in your neighborhood by investing in a space that is driven by servicing the joy of their community.
After-all, how many opportunities are out there to build your brand and drive engagement to your business that you can actually write off at the end of the year via a donation to a 501-C3? When you're a sponsor of Teatro Vista, for example, you are getting content, videos, social posts etc. that tie your brand to the theater and it's productions in return for investing $1,000 - $2000 dollars in a season. That's a bargain when you consider the cost of a production team coming out to create personalized content for your business could run you between 5-10 thousand dollars. We don't just house actors at Teatro Vista Productions, we house artists who create content and marketing assets during the day and award winning critically acclaimed productions at night.
If joy is currency, then art is wealth and should be invested in by anyone who is looking to up the value of their community.
That's just good business. And good business builds great wealth.
- LORENA DIAZ, Executive Artistic Director