RHINELANDER, WI (WSAU-WXPR) — A new study from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Endowment for the Arts shows that Wisconsin’s creative industries have a $9.7 billion annual economic impact and support over 94,000 jobs statewide.
The analysis tracks the annual economic impact of arts and cultural production from 35 industries, both commercial and nonprofit. Executive Director of a leading arts lobby in Wisconsin, Art Wisconsin, Anne Katz tells WXPR Radio in Rhinelander she hopes this will be the data necessary to get legislators to take funding the creative economy seriously.
Katz says nationally, there’s more than $800 billion in economic impact and with the nearly $10 billion impact, it tops some of the state’s well-known industries. “That means the arts sector is larger than the papermaking sector, the beer industry, and the bio-tech industry. So that’s reason to celebrate.”
She says the survey is done every two years and the number of creative jobs increased by 4,000 here since 2017. Katz says the American entertainment industry is a global economic force.
“Wisconsin invests in it’s economic growth and our message as an advocacy organization…is we should be doing more to invest in this industry as well.”
Katz says if you want to see the economic growth first hand, all you need to do is look in the Northwoods where arts and creative enterprises have sprung up in Rhinelander, Minocqua, Eagle River, Land O’ Lakes and other places.
