New Research Illustrates California’s Arts Ecology

California has 11,000 arts and culture nonprofits, a number that places the state ahead of most nations in the world. Californians are more likely to participate than other Americans — but arts involvement and nonprofit organizations are unevenly spread across California’s geographic and demographic communities.

New findings generated by Markusen Economic Research and commissioned by The James Irvine Foundation offer fresh illustrations of the California nonprofit arts sector and the people who take part in it. Released today, California’s Arts and Cultural Ecology details the research and its findings.

This new research illustrates that arts and culture plays a significant role in the daily lives of Californians. The state is noteworthy for the avid participation of its people, the diversity and abundance of its arts organizations and the varied regional characteristics of its arts sector. California’s regions reflect distinctive populations, participation rates, numbers and types of arts and culture organizations, and levels of arts funding.

“We found the energy, expansiveness and diversity of these thousands of arts nonprofits stunning and reassuring,” said Ann Markusen, president of Markusen Economic Research and director of the Arts Economic Initiative at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. “They are at the heart of California’s cultural creativity and form a seedbed for the state’s globally competitive cultural industries.”

The research incorporated data from a range of sources, including the California Cultural Data Project. The full research materials are published as California's Arts and Cultural Ecology. Illustrated highlights of the research are published separately as Arts, Culture and California.

Both reports as well as a technical appendix, are available for download at www.irvine.org/ArtsEcology.