A joint report by NEA and BEA found that the arts and cultural industries represented more than $1 trillion USD of the US in 2021.
On Wednesday, the National Endowment for Arts (NEA) and Business of Economic Analysis (BEA) released their latest report which analyses 35 industries related to arts and culture. The report found that between 2020-2021, the arts and culture industries grew at a rate of 13.7 percent – vastly more than the overall industrial growth rate of 5.9 percent. The sector brought a combined $1 trillion USD+ to the American economy. It represented 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP in 2021 – which is a record.
The NEA report stands in tune with the general assumption that the art sector did not suffer financially as much as the overall American economy. The report also found that none of the 35 industries were able to match the growth rate of their pre-pandemic levels. In terms of workforce, 4.9 million people were employed by the art sector in 2021. This was an improvement over 2020, when lockdowns forced mass layoffs. However, it was still lower than in 2019, when 5.2 million people were employed in the sector.
Also Read: The Met Collection Could Have 70+ Artifacts From Smuggler Subhash Kapoor
Meanwhile, another report published by Sotheby’s on Tuesday revealed more optimistic insights. The report suggested that almost half (45.2 percent) of the revenues via auctions between 2018-2022 came from works that sold for over $20 million. The report was made by art analytics firm ArtTactic and used 2022 data from Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Philips – the 3 major auction houses of the world. Nearly a third (32 percent) of the bidders in this period were from Asia. While private sales dwindled in 2022 compared to 2020, it was still higher than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
