Some might have doubted whether the economic value of the creative arts could ever be quantified. Many others probably preferred that they wouldn’t be. Arts and culture are ethereal; economics are the opposite of that. There was never supposed to be common ground.
But if you look for it, you can always find common ground. And as of today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the National Endowment for the Arts have done just that.
Their joint study, examining data up through 2011, pegs the value of “arts and cultural production” (ACP) at 3.2 percent of the United States’ post-recession GDP, or $504 billion. Even with the noticeable fall-off in the aftermath of the 2007 Great Recession, the arts-and-culture sector still accounts for enormous economic growth, millions of jobs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in domestic wages.
This should come as a wake-up call to the anti-culture forces, who question every arts-related endowment and who have always insisted that investment in creative production is wasted money. And likewise, it should 
be a wake-up call for the cultural purists, who sneer at the idea of applying hard-science analysis to artistic endeavors.
The data speaks. It shows both groups are wrong. It proves that yes, the impact of art can be quantified, if only in a limited, mercantilist sphere. And it proves that on those terms, the arts are not only valuable, but are an irreplaceable contributor to economic growth.
If you already believed that arts and culture can and should be central to civilization, then you probably didn’t need any economic proofs. And if you believed that culture is corrosive, and that art not to your liking is immoral or worse, then no charts or graphs are going to soften your stance.
But somewhere in the middle is the vast majority of us. We have open minds and a faith in data. For us this report is conclusive: arts and culture have more than proven their worth.
