Festival goers get their picture taken with the Kool-Aid Man
Balloonicle from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during
2011 Kool-Aid Days.
Every performance at The Listening Room and mug sold during Kool-Aid Days add up to big business in Adams County.
That was the local finding of The Arts & Economic Prosperity IV, a national economic impact study conducted in 2010 by Americans for the Arts. Kaleena Fong, executive director of the Adams County Convention and Visitors Bureau and president of the Hastings Community Arts Council, shared the survey results to an audience of a couple dozen community members at a news conference Tuesday morning at WineStyles in downtown Hastings.
Collecting financial data from 26 non-profit arts and culture organizations in Adams County, The Arts & Economic Prosperity IV showed that the organizations spent $5.43 million in Adams County during the study period.
The study also showed that 167,000 people attended arts and culture events in Adams County in 2010 and spent $3.24 million in the county, excluding the cost of admission, to bring the total spent to nearly $8.7 million.
“The arts are fun, they make us feel good, but they also generate revenue for local businesses from restaurants to gas stations, hotels to retail stores,” Fong said while releasing the study results. “They are a primary driver of tourism and they play a vital role in creating quality of life — quality of life considerations that are critical in recruiting top quality companies into our community and employees as well.”
To read more, see Wednesday''s Hastings Tribune or the Tribune e-edition.>>>
