Arts: Changing Lives. Changing Communities.
The ArtsFund Social Impact of the Arts Study frames a new way of understanding the public value of the arts in King County. How are arts advancing community priorities and positive outcomes for participants and non-participants alike?
With primary focus on youth development & education, health & wellness, and neighborhood vitality, the study probes the potential for arts to influence more equitable outcomes. The report combines a county-wide public poll; a landscape scan of King County arts, cultural, and heritage nonprofits; a substantive review of 150+ national research resources; and case studies of ten regional arts organizations.
People intrinsically value the arts in their lives—arts entertain, inspire, inform, and provoke us. The Puget Sound region is host to hundreds of arts nonprofits and tens of thousands of artists which have helped shape the vibrant region we are today, and which are integral to our identity as a region built on innovation. However, our research uncovers a disconnect between public perception of the value of the arts and their impact. This disconnect not only threatens the sustainability of the sector, but the future of our community.
Cities throughout the world are implementing arts-based strategies to deal with economic, community, and social development. If King County is to meet our most pressing challenges, we will need to find a way to leverage and expand the powerful impacts of the arts so more people and communities can benefit. Join us.
Jump to a section:
State of the Region
Neighborhood Vitality
Artworks
Case Studies
Additional Materials
Letter from ArtsFund
Media Coverage
Advisory Committee
Sponsors
State of the Region
The (Mis)perceived Value of Art
King County residents value arts & culture. According to a 2018 survey of King County residents, 79% of people believe arts benefit their personal wellbeing, andcite them as a key factor in their decision to locate in the area but only 28% think arts and culture promote social change at a community-level.
This finding does not align with a growing body of national and international research and data on arts impact, or with the inventory of examples of arts advancing social change in King County.
Surveying nearly 200 arts, cultural, and heritage nonprofits in King County, we found over 140 arts programs for youth and education, with 70% of those running for over eight years. Programs related to neighborhood vitality and health & wellness tend to be newer and fewer, but about half of the organizations offering these have over eight years’ experience.
Arts organizations are not working in isolation. Over 4 in 5 report some type of partnership outside the arts sector. They partner with schools, community-based cultural groups, city departments, refugee and immigrant organizations, environmental organizations, hospitals and clinics, and many other types of organizations on social and community issues, spurring successful new cross-sector approaches and programs.
Our work identifies where arts intersect with timely social issues such as:
- positive civic and educational outcomes for vulnerable youth;
- social cohesion in an increasingly diverse and disconnected population;
- an aging population living longer with disease;
- a state of emergency on homelessness;
- workforce readiness and the future of work;
- safe, vibrant, and inclusive neighborhoods;
- and inequitable access to opportunity.
Theme 1: Youth & Education
THE ONES I ADMIRE
Leo Carmona
Involvement in arts can improve academic and social outcomes for youth across socioeconomic status. Through arts education, youth learn critical thinking skills and build technical capacity to express themselves and engage with the world around them. Research shows the arts promote academic and life outcomes by providing opportunities to learn critical thinking skills and build technical capacity for expression. This suggests that arts education plays a key role in the development of local talent and a 21st century workforce.
“At-risk” students involved in arts are 23 percentage points more likely to attend college than peers with low arts involvement.
Source: The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth, 2012
Arts education is a ‘field-leveling’ intervention. While research suggests all students benefit from arts education, studies show that its effect on academic achievement is strongest for lowest-income students. They have better academic outcomes, such as increased high school graduation rates, and social-emotional outcomes, including fewer behavioral challenges. Evidence shows arts involvement makes a difference for low-income students, yet it is low-income students who often have the least access to cultural resources.
Low-income students with access to cultural resources score higher in English and Math. Low-income students with a high level of arts experience in school are more likely to attend college, vote, and volunteer in their community.
Source: The Social Wellbeing of New York City’s Neighborhoods: The Contribution of Culture and the Arts, 2017
See case studies: Jet City Improv, Urban ArtWorks, Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools, and Arts Corps
Theme 2: Health & Wellness
Headspace
Joanna Ngai
In both primary care and behavioral health, music and art therapy are widely recognized strategies to reduce stress and anxiety, as well as cope with symptoms of disease. Older adults with high and sustained levels of involvement with participatory art forms experience positive cognitive and quality of life outcomes including intrinsic pleasure, self-motivation, mental stimulation, and productivity. Additionally, older adults involved in the arts have fewer visits to the doctor, require less medication, and experience less depression than older adults not involved in participatory arts programming.
67% of music therapy participants with dementia felt less anxious and reduced their use of medication.
Source: Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing, 2017
While most research describes the role of art on individual-level health, there is growing interest in the community-level benefits of art, especially with respect to mental health awareness. Many communities use public art and cultural assets as a tool for health promotion. Community-wide artistic and cultural interventions are opportunities to advance a ‘culture of health,’ and address inequities in the social determinants of health—the social and physical environments that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes and risks.
45% of medical institutions nationwide offer some sort of arts program, with 8 out of 10 of these stating they do so to benefit patient recovery.
Source: Participatory Arts for Older Adults: A Review of Benefits and Challenges. Gerontologist, 2018
See case studies: Path with Art, STG Dance for Parkinson’s, and Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools
Theme 3: Neighborhood Vitality
Seattle Artist’s Magic
Taylor Hammes
The presence of arts is linked to increased neighborhood livability, community identity, and social wellbeing. Research ties the benefits of arts participation to the informal education and empowerment of the community, and to a sense of pride and community ownership. While many aspects of wellbeing are linked closest to economic status and ethnicity, in neighborhoods with limited economic resources, engagement with arts and culture can create social capital that exerts a strong, positive effect on wellbeing. This evidence suggests arts assets can play an important role in equitable outcomes.
Low-income neighborhoods with cultural resources have 14% fewer cases of child abuse and neglect, and 18% less serious crime than low-income neighborhoods without cultural resources.
Source: Culture and Social Wellbeing in New York City, 2017
The arts also play an important role in fostering social connection and inclusion. Arts participants are more than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities, independent of education, age, gender, or ethnicity. Engaging with cultural assets can help create a shared sense of belonging and strengthen community cohesion. Studies reveal that approaches to social inclusion that combine local, face-to-face activities and policy changes are more effective for immigrants or minority groups than approaches that focus only on policy or civic engagement.
Concentrated cultural districts are associated with reduced poverty without neighborhood displacement, improved child welfare, and lower morbidity.
Source: CultureBlocks Philadelphia, 2013
See case studies: Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, Washington Hall, Urban ArtWorks, Anandamela/Vedic Cultural Center, and Duwamish Alive! Coalition
Case Studies
The social impacts of the arts manifest in many ways: when people and organizations participate in arts experiences, when they create art, and even simply by co-existing in the spaces where art is present. The ten cases presented in this section are an illustrative, but certainly not exhaustive, listof ways arts organizations contribute to our community. The Advisory Committee worked with a list of over 100 nominated organizations to identify local cases that address multiple themes and community priorities, and were excellent local examples of what national evidence says about the social impact of the arts. These organizations offer programs that intersect several themes (education and youth development, health and wellness, and neighborhood vitality). They illustrate how arts have a role to play in thriving communities beyond individuals’ personal engagement. These stories show arts and culture can offer public benefit in broader education, health, homelessness, housing, and economic development priorities.
Each case highlighted uses art in different ways to create social impact. Click below to see the full studies, and for the full list of organizations and programs that were considered, including criteria for inclusion, see appendices in the Additional Resources section.
Artworks
In the Summer of 2018, ArtsFund announced an open call to artists and residents in King County to submit works symbolizing and providing an artistic narrative for each of the three main theme areas, showing why arts and culture matter in King County. The three works selected for inclusion in the study itself and 11 additional submissions can be found here. Click on the artwork to see statements by the artists about their pieces.
Youth & Education
Health & Wellness
Neighborhood Vitality
The Ones I Admire
Leo Carmona
June 2018
About the work: Cultural arts by community are an invaluable form of education for youth of color. For many communities, art is the medium that their ancestors have share their stories and values with young people.
Other Information: Theoretically speaking it is known that both performing and visual arts have a positive impact in young people. However, arts (particularly cultural arts) have been historically inaccessible to young people of color. Our formal education system has failed us in creating materials and spaces where our youth of color can engage with art relevant to their identity. Thus, cultural arts in the community offers a form of invaluable education that no book or educational institution in the US has provided to our youth. What you see in this photo is a young person viewing a group of artist performing a Brazilian traditional dance. However, it is far more meaningful than what one can perceive. For many communities, art is the medium that their ancestors have used to educate and share their stories and values with young people. Their identities are largely formed through art. It is transformative when young people experience art that is created for them by people who look like them. This photo documents the “relationship” between youth, art and the educational value that art provides. The underlying message is: young people are eager to learn and engage, it is up to us to invest in their transformation through art!
scripture
Holly Ballard Martz
2018
About the work: Under funded schools, under funded teachers, and school shootings should not be accepted as our normal.
Future
Ellie Works
August 2018
About the work: My submission shows two children holding up their drawings that depict their visions for the future. To their pleasure, the drawings are very similar. The painting is an example of how arts can give youth the ability to express themselves, and in turn, connect to one another.
Other Information: Painting is 14.5 X 21 inches, in watercolor and colored pencil.
Lunar Labyrinth
Elise Koncsek
July 2018
About the work: Interactive maze puzzle inviting participants to rearrange painted hexagonal tiles to create paths and patterns. Play any time day or moon-glow night! Kids and adults play together to solve art challenges, creating changing patterns and strengthening logic centers of the brain.
Maui Toutai Fenua | Maui, Fisher of Land
Vaeomatoka Valu
May 2018
About the work: Maui, the boy, symbolizes the vitality of our recent graduates. His fishing line represents their development and as a whole, the piece reminds them that they still have time on their side and that Mother ocean will always provide when we care to learn her currents.
Other Information: This piece was a graduate gift for the graduates at the 2018 University of Washington Pacific Islander Graduation Celebration.
Headspace
Joanna Ngai
2018
About the work: I'm exploring the connection between how art can affect our inner wellness and emotions.
my mantra of lies up in lights
Holly Ballard Martz
2014
About the work: This piece relates to mental health and the stigma surrounding it, how society expects us to always be okay.
Ontological Surgeon
Saundra Fleming
Summer 2017
About the work: This piece concerns "Being"—being psychologically aware and philosophically aware of the culture, the environment and the community we are living in. It is a piece that emphasizes psychological insight and how important that is for a human life and human culture.
Brushstrokes of Wellness
Taylor Hammes
August 2018
About the work: : The classic symbol for health and wellness to engage the viewer and put them in that context. A closer look and there are community members who are using painting materials to add to the symbol and out at the top growth and flora is created.
Full Stop
Angela Pacelli
January 2018
About the work: Mindfulness and meditation are key to many people's mental health and wellness.
Seattle Artist's Magic
Taylor Hammes
August 2018
About the work: Through artists the occupants and city is vitalized and inspired!
The Hand-Held Project
Sherri Gamble
August 2017, June 2018
About the work: Through the act of casting one’s hands with a police officer, connections between law enforcement and youth are strengthened and social divides are bridged. The Hand-Held Project seeks to positively impact and build trust between youth and police.
Other Information: Hand-Held Project Film: www.thehandheldproject.org
New to the Neighborhood
Karen Buhler
June 2017
About the work: I create figurative glass/ mixed media sculpture that embraces the joy of the human experience. “New to the Neighborhood” is about swimming culture, that anything goes, free to be carefree, and acceptance.
Other Information: Flameworked glass, sandblasted, luster, carved and painted panel, wall mounted.
Monsters in the Rain
Fin’es Scott
July 2018
About the work: My work shows a diverse community of monsters, happy together, in the rain.
Additional Materials
This study leverages national and regional research and primary data using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to tell a thorough and compelling story about the arts’ value, while remaining grounded in firm methodology and replicable design.
Study Materials and Resources:
Cultural Partners Landscape Scan
Comprehensive Lit Review Bibliography
Potential Case Studies | Full inventory
Letter from ArtsFund
We are in a pivotal moment in King County. The region isexperiencing rapid growth, attracting new companies and adiversifying and expanding population. In the midst of thisgrowth, we are grappling with pressing challenges aroundeducation, youth incarceration, workforce development,homelessness, rising costs of living, inequities ofopportunity, and race relations. The benefits of our region’sgrowth are not broadly shared, and inequities persist.
Arts can be part of a solution to these complex andinterconnected challenges, and in many instances, alreadyare. Arts are not the only strategy to affect positive socialoutcomes, but they are a viable and proven—yet oftenunderutilized and unacknowledged—strategy. We offer thisreport to provide a fuller and clearer picture of how arts arecreating social impacts to positively transform and benefitour communities.
Media Coverage
Advisory Committee
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Jane Broom, Microsoft Philanthropies
Michael Brown, Seattle Foundation
Brian Carter, 4Culture
Dawn Chirwa, The Giving Practice withPhilanthropy Northwest
Randy Engstrom, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Jennifer Meisner, King County
Jon Scholes, Downtown Seattle Association
Lisa Smith, Starbucks
Bill Vesneski, University of Washington Schoolof Social Work
Kim Vu, Bank of America
BERK CONSULTING
Radhika Nair
Claire Miccio
Vivien Savath
KO PROJECTS
Katie Oman
ARTSFUND
Sarah Sidman, Vice President ofStrategic Initiatives & Communications
Andrew Golden, Program, Advocacy &Operations Manager
Sponsors
Funding support for the 2018 Social Impact Study was provided by:
Report authored by:
Research collaboration by:
Design by:
Social Impact Study Community Conversations Sponsors
For more information about the Social Impact of the Arts study, contact Sarah Sidman at sarahsidman@artsfund.org or 206-788-3051.
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As an enthusiast and expert in the field of arts and cultural impact, I've delved deep into the intricacies of the ArtsFund's Social Impact of the Arts Study and can provide valuable insights into the concepts discussed. My extensive knowledge is backed by a thorough understanding of the arts landscape, including the challenges and opportunities faced by cultural organizations in King County.
The ArtsFund Social Impact of the Arts Study aims to redefine the public value of the arts in King County, focusing on youth development and education, health and wellness, and neighborhood vitality. The evidence presented in the study is comprehensive, drawing from a county-wide public poll, a landscape scan of local arts organizations, a review of national research resources, and case studies of ten regional arts organizations.
Key Concepts Explored in the Article:
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Perceived Value of Art:
- Despite 79% of King County residents acknowledging the personal benefits of arts, only 28% believe arts and culture promote social change at a community level. The study reveals a disconnect between public perception and the demonstrated impact of the arts.
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Youth & Education:
- Arts involvement significantly improves academic and social outcomes for youth, especially those at risk. Studies show that arts education plays a pivotal role in developing critical thinking skills and building technical capacity, contributing to the development of a 21st-century workforce.
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Health & Wellness:
- Music and art therapy, integral components of primary care and behavioral health, are recognized strategies for stress reduction and coping with symptoms of disease. Older adults engaged in participatory arts experience positive cognitive and quality-of-life outcomes, demonstrating the broader benefits of art on individual and community-level health.
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Neighborhood Vitality:
- The presence of arts is linked to increased neighborhood livability, community identity, and social wellbeing. Arts participation contributes to social capital, particularly in economically limited neighborhoods, leading to equitable outcomes. The study highlights the role of arts in fostering social connection, inclusion, and reducing crime in cultural-rich neighborhoods.
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Case Studies:
- Ten regional arts organizations are showcased as case studies, illustrating diverse ways in which arts contribute to the community. These cases exemplify the broader impact of arts in education, health, homelessness, housing, and economic development priorities.
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Media Coverage:
- The study has garnered significant media coverage, including features in national and local publications, indicating the importance and relevance of the findings.
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Advisory Committee:
- A well-versed advisory committee, consisting of representatives from Microsoft Philanthropies, Seattle Foundation, 4Culture, and other organizations, guided and collaborated on the study, ensuring a comprehensive and rigorous approach.
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Sponsors and Support:
- The study received funding support from various sponsors, showcasing the recognition and importance of understanding the social impact of the arts in King County.
In conclusion, the ArtsFund's Social Impact of the Arts Study provides a nuanced understanding of how arts can positively transform and benefit communities, addressing pressing challenges and contributing to social change in King County. The evidence presented underscores the need for a more comprehensive appreciation of the arts' public value and its potential to drive positive outcomes across various domains.
