Arts Funding

Missouri arts educators say investment in arts education for students pre-K-12 helps build critical academic, social and practical skills useful in school and the world at large.

Tourists pay 71% more than local patrons at concerts, museums and festivals, according to a 2022 report by Americans for the Arts. The Regional Arts Commission is trying to bring more visitors into the city by giving federal coronavirus relief funds to local art organizations, venues and festivals.

The arts generate nearly $900 million in spending in the St. Louis region every year, but individual artists still struggle to get by. Two new reports shine a light on the St. Louis arts economy.

The report by UK-based consultant Sound Diplomacy finds that music supports nearly 30,000 jobs in and around St. Louis — 18.000 of them directly.

The charitable arm of PNC Bank awarded $250,000 in grants to Dance St. Louis, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Black Rep and St. Louis ArtWorks.

An upcoming research initiative by the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis will help the group establish its priorities.

The $4.5 million in grants is RAC’s largest yearly dispersal since before the pandemic. The regional arts funder also is allocating $10.6 million in one-time federal funding announced in November.

The Regional Arts Commission gets most of its funding from the hotel-motel tax. With tourism down since the outset of the pandemic, a new marketing campaign aims to raise the profile of St. Louis as an arts destination.

As the last of the 2022 performances and exhibitions wrap up, a handful of trends and takeaways have crystallized over the past year and lay a path forward for where the St. Louis arts scene is headed.

The Regional Arts Commission will distribute $10.6 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to St. Louis artists and organizations.