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Denver Arts Week Is Huge For City's Economy

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Nov 16, 2008 5:34 pm US/Mountain

Denver Arts Week Is Huge For City's Economy

DENVER (CBS4) ― Denver Arts Week is officially underway and that means there are a lot of special events and deals at cultural attractions.

"We have a very vibrant art scene whether that be performing art, visual art, galleries museums of all sorts and we just want to celebrate that," Daniele Robson with the Museum of Contemporary Art said.

It appears many have already bought into it. A new study on the economic impact of cultural attractions shows interest and money surrounding the arts has doubled in the past 10 years.

In 1997, 7.9 million people attended cultural events around Denver. In 2007, that number leaped to more than 16 million people.

When it comes to money spent, $823 million was spent on arts related activities in 1997. In 2007 it jumped to $1.6 billion.

Jobs are also being created. The number of employees in arts-related industries was 4,600 in 1997 compared to 8,200 in 2007.

"In 10 years we've seen a lot of growth in our institutions, both in terms of the quality of the programming, the staffing, and their ability to really perform on a national arena," Deborah Jordy with the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts said.

A good example of how those numbers play out is at the new Contemporary Art Museum. In its first year there were more than 50,000 visitors.

"The exhibits rotate every three to six months depending on the gallery, and all separately, so we have exhibits nearly every month that open up," Robson said. "So there's always something new to see here."

Leaders are hoping they can get people to realize the more that is invested in the arts, the bigger the pay off.

"A good example is the completion of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, the new Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hamilton Wing of the Denver Art Museum, as well as the lab at Belmar," Jordy said. "These are examples of how we see concrete growth in the community."

The Colorado Business Committee for the Arts conducted the study. It was based on a seven-county region surrounding Denver.

Denver Arts Week continues through Saturday.

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