Arts and cultural organizations anchor city life — creating gathering spaces, generating economic activity, and safeguarding public access to culture. But since 2019, they’ve weathered pandemic disruption, inflation, shifting audiences, and changing funding patterns in very different ways from city to city.
City Arts Sector Trends: Divergence and Resilience Across Ten U.S. Cities (2019–2024) examines the finances and operations of the nonprofit creative sector in 10 geographically diverse U.S. cities — Atlanta, Cleveland, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Seattle — drawing on data from more than 4,400 nonprofit cultural organizations.
We found that as federal relief funding waned, the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing cities widened sharply. And while local public investment covers only a small share of most organizational budgets, it’s linked to stronger financial performance and higher attendance across a city’s arts sector.
The report draws on data from more than 4,400 nonprofit cultural organizations, assembled through the City Arts Data Exchange, a joint initiative of SMU DataArts and Bloomberg Associates that brings together a growing cohort of local arts agencies aligning data collection efforts to support shared learning.
