Researchers say planned arts center will fill city coffers, not
drain them
Chris Bone – Staff Writer
cb***@gi************.com
GILROY
Two months after local artists cut a ribbon for an arts center they don’t have, the group told the city council that they are still here, still fighting for the arts that they say will generate more money for the city – not less.
They were not just spewing nonsense either, according to a sleek PowerPoint presentation prepared by the Arts Council of Silicon Valley: a nonprofit in San Jose that recently completed an 18-month study of 156 communities from Gilroy to Palo Alto.
The results prove the financial energy of the arts.
“The arts mean business in Santa Clara County,” literally, said Carol Harris, Arts & Cultural Commissioner and president of the Gilroy Arts Alliance. “We need to realize the economic benefit of carrying our arts-related Garlic Festival reputation forward and making Gilroy a year-round arts destination,” she said.
The GAA is a year-old group of about 50 local artists and art-lovers who have spent the last year raising money to run the planned center at the northwest corner of Seventh and Monterey Streets. The alliance did this with the help of ACSV Executive Director Bruce Davis and his number-savvy staff.
“What our report finally does is debunk the myth that the arts are a hand-out,” Davis told the council when a slide of an importunate Oliver Twist appeared. “The arts drive income to the region.”
Davis said nonprofit arts and culture centers throughout the county generate $166.5 million in local economic activity. Part of this comes from $113.31 million in spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and an additional $53.19 million in event-related spending by their audiences. Then there are the associated 3,903 full-time jobs throughout the county that generate $80.28 million in household income. And, of course, there’s the $11.81 million in revenue for local and state governments.
ACSV Communications Manager Joshua Russell put this in perspective for councilmen by telling them that the $166.5 million figure exceeds the combined gross earnings of the 2004 world-wide tours of Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Jimmy Buffet, The Eagles and Paul McCartney.
In addition, Davis said art center patrons spend money on baby-sitters, parking, dinner, events and post-show cocktails at down lounges.
This piqued the interest of Pinheiro, who has pushed downtown revitalization, but after the presentation, he and Councilman Peter Arellano voiced concern over the upfront cost of the arts center, currently budgeted at $10 million even though the building’s likely to cost about $25 million, according to Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax.
“We have money in the bank for the arts center, and we know we don’t have enough,” said Andrade-Wax, adding that the city could put this money toward Gilroy Gardens and then bond the arts center. “Gilroy Gardens won’t pre-empt the arts center. It’s a matter of bonding for the arts center versus bonding for the gardens,” which could cost between $13 million and $25 million.
Councilman Dion Bracco agreed that any Gilroy Gardens purchase won’t derail the arts center, but he cautioned that the center “has to fly on its own.”
So far the GAA is doing just that thanks to the Gilroy Foundation, which kick-started the entire effort two years ago thanks to Donna Pray, executive director of the foundation.
The foundation, which has $6 million in assets, gave the Arts and Cultural Commission $50,000, Pray said. The commission has used that money to promote local art and artists and to establish the alliance, which, in turn, has spent $28,000 of the $50,000 over the last year on mailings and to host a series of “stakeholder dinners” that drew about $1.5 million in donations, $1.25 million of which came from Don Christopher, according to Pray. The GAA hopes for $3 million so it can finance the center’s operations with interest and not have to solicit the city for money.
