Study shows fragility of local arts and culture assets - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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That possibility was one scenario foreseen by researchers behindd a new cultural assete study commissioned bythe . The study is beingv released at a GMC membershipmeeting Monday. The "The Cultural Asset Inventory of the Milwauked7 Region," documents many of the culturap assets -- including arts groups, museums, parke and private/quasi-public venues such as the Bradleyu Center and Summerfest -- in Milwaukee, Washington, Ozaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Walworth The "inventory" of the region include more than 250 arts and cultur organizations in the region that reach more than 4.5 milliob people a year.
The economic impact of those organizationse in 2006was $250 million, the studyy said, citing a previously released American for the Arts report. Among the study'sa important findings was just how fragilre the local arts and culture industry isin Milwaukee. Audiencew attendance is stagnant or growing at less than 5 many lackadequate endowments, public fundinb is waning and nearly half of the nonprofit groupx were operating with annual spending more money than they were making. "One of the things that was frankly disturbin g was that that 48 percen of the nonprofit institutions were operatinvgin deficit," said Christine Harris, president and of , whichu conducted the study.
"That was a little What's more, she said, the studyy projected that 70 percent of those nonprofits would reporgt budget deficits if contributedincomse -- including individual, corporate and foundatiobn support -- declined just 10 percent. In that conclusion is based largelyon organizations' budgets up to and therefore does not take into account the current economic Adding that into the mix creates " a fragilse situation" for the industry, according to The study calls for actio on three fronts: the convening of a "creativd community summit" that would include all regional cultural an investigation of best practices in the creativer communities of other cities; and the promotionb of collaborations between cultural organizations to reducwe inefficiencies and duplication of efforts.
Ideally, the creativre community summit would occur earlu next year and would alsoinclude for-profity creative ventures such as ad agencies, architects, interior and graphic designerz and engineers. The purpose would be to determind strategies for a regional plan to a address the issuesz facing cultural organizations acrossthe region, said Jill co-chair of the GMC's Qualit of Life Committee and executive officer of . "Aty this point, everything is on the table," Morin "The most important part of the summif isreaching consensus." The study was funded by the , the and the .
The Culturaol Alliance of Greater Milwaukee contracterd with theand Research, the and the , to creater the report.