Op-ed touts growing importance of arts in rural America

Kentucky's Appalshop (Photo by Bridge Progressive Arts Institute)

"We're all too familiar with the stories of rural areas that didn't rebound from the last recession, where families are struggling to make ends meet and prospects for future growth look bleak. But there's a different story emerging across America that offers solutions and hope. It's a story of rural vibrancy, economic opportunity and community resilience catalyzed by a uniquely potent asset: the creative sector," Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Governors Association, writes for Governing magazine.

Pattison's examples include Appalshop in southeastern Kentucky, which "fuses technology and art to tell the story of an often overlooked and misunderstood region," and "the Clay Trail, the Fiber Arts Trail and other arts trails crisscrossing New Mexico," which are "living museums of traditions that predate the founding of the United States." Both, he writes, "can seem worlds away from the booming coastal metropolises where arts and culture are taken for granted. Across New Mexico, arts and culture account for $5.6 billion in annual economic activity and one in every 10 jobs."

The NGA has a new study and action guide, issued with the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. It says "that of the $763 billion that the arts and cultural sectors contributed to the nation's gross domestic product in 2015, some $67.5 billion came from states in which 30 percent or more of the population lives in rural areas," Pattison writes. "Arts and cultural production in rural states employed nearly 628,500 workers that year."