Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.

The author discusses the role of cultural facilities in economic development with emphasis on the building of an addition to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Discussion of the arts and economic development in recent years have centered upon the contributions the arts can make to local prosperity. Those discussions, to be sure, are not motivated wholly by the altruism of arts advocates; they are arguments for a quid pro quo in the form of government and business support for the arts.

Proponents cite actual expansions of local employment and spending attributable to artists and arts institutions. They explain the role of the arts in catalyzing local government by drawing people to downtown, prompting the reawakening and redevelopment of neglected neighborhoods, or attracting businesses to an area. In nearly all these instances, the arts are lauded for their capacity to stimulate commercial or residential development in their vicinity. If the arts share in the bounty, it is through outside support (of government or business) provided in the hope that the catalytic predictions will come true or by dint of the increased (and more prosperous) audiences resulting from a local boom.

Strategies for using the arts in this purposive manner center, of course, on the location of the artistic activity - the museum, theatre, concert hall, etc. This paper explores the opportunities available to cultural organizations to participate in and benefit directly from commercial and residential development by undertaking or fostering development on their own property. Planned and managed carefully - for there are risks and pitfalls - mixed use development of cultural property can lead to increased profit-sharing in local booms or neighborhood boomlets, which may have been sparked by the arts in the first place. What is more, mixed-use cultural projects may well be more effective development catalysts than single-use projects. And, for arts institutions in stable and already flourishing areas, mixed-use development may present an even more attractive source of revenue. (p. 1-2)

[Variant version can be found in Issues in Supporting the Arts: An Anthology Based
 on The Economic Impact of the Arts Conference, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University  
 Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, 1982. p. 66-75.]

Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.