Montgomery County decides next steps after inaugural arts forum
For the individual, research shows that the arts can boost memory, decrease depression and foster creativity. For a community, it can improve the quality of life and benefit the economy. Despite finances drying up both nationally and locally, cities and counties are figuring out how to ramp up the arts because they see the benefits are increasingly worth it.
Arts for All
The sold-out Montgomery County “Arts for All” inaugural arts forum on April 13, “brought together a diverse group of attendees to explore how the arts drive economic growth, foster community identity and expand access for residents across the county and region,” according to a news release.
Montgomery County Commissioner Mary McDonald helped organize the event at Sinclair College and says, “The arts are not just something we enjoy. They are essential to who we are as a community. They are not just programs or events. They are infrastructure. They support workforce attraction, neighborhood vitality, tourism and civic pride. They help define who we are and who we aspire to be.”
Two key questions community leaders are trying to answer are ‘What makes Montgomery County arts and culture unique,’ and ‘How can we elevate the arts and culture sector across to our county?’”
Executive Vice President of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce Stephanie Keinath says, “I think it’s imperative that we come out on the other side with a strategy for how we want to maintain that really unique, those really neat things that make us Montgomery County, that make us the Dayton region.”
One commitment the county has made is to sponsor the entire funk season at the Levitt Pavilion. Brick by Brick’s Emiko Moore reports in this podcast what a difference the outdoor space is making.
Economic impact
Dayton Region
An Economic & Social Impact Study of the Dayton Region on the arts and culture sector found that in 2022 the impact was $239.4 million. It also:
- Provided $6 million in local tax revenue.
- Supported 4,490 jobs.
Montgomery County Commissioner Mary McDonald is committed to the arts. “Over the years, I’ve noticed that when we’ve looked at our budget, be it the city and the county, we often look at things that we may have to look at putting less dollars in. And typically, it’s things like arts and culture and I want to bring that back up to the level that it should be, simply because it is the beginning and the foundation of a community.”
Cincinnati Region
The Economic Impact of Arts & Culture in the Cincinnati Region, commissioned by ArtsWave and produced by the Cincinnati Regional Chamber, was released in 2024. It found that the total economic impact from 2019 to 2022 was $1.6 billion.
- Taxes generated $15,746,117
- Created or Supported 6,518 jobs.
- It Projects economic impact from 2023 to 2027 will be $2.8 billion.
The Chamber’s Vice President of Civic Strategy and Policy Pete Metz says, “I think we think about the arts sector in this community just like we think about manufacturing and just like we think about financial services and just like we think about the transportation and logistics sector. It is a crucial part of growing our economy and it is a crucial part of business growth in this region.”
Blink, an international festival of light and art in Cincinnati spanning 30 blocks, is October 8th-11th, 2026. In 2024 attendees representing 15 countries spent an estimated $142 million on hotels, food and drink, retail and travel.
The National Endowment for the Arts says arts and cultural industries grew at twice the rate of the U.S. economy between 2022 and 2023, adding $1.2 trillion, that’s twice the rate of the U.S. economy. The nation’s largest arts industry in 2023 was web publishing and streaming, which includes internet publishing and broadcasting, music and film archives, comic syndicates and news photo distribution services.
Benefits of growing the arts in a community
The Urban Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank that conducts economic and social policy research, says, “Arts and culture are key to inclusive community development. They bring people together, create welcoming and vibrant spaces and promote economic growth.”
It gives the following examples to understand and measure the local impacts:
- The Arts and Culture Indicator Project broadened how to think about participation and engagement and showed how arts affected quality of life.
- ArtPlace America’s field scans showed arts and culture can transform spaces, reflect community identity, bridge differences, facilitate collaboration, heal community trauma and more.
- Detroit Youth Arts Mapping Project made the following recommendations-invest in safe youth spaces in certain zip codes, understand the dynamics that have led to a lack of programming, more resources need to be devoted to the youth arts sector, develop a Detroit Youth Arts Directory, create a more comprehensive study, with deeper collaboration with the schools.
- Making Space for Art launched March 2, 2026 in suburban Boston, calling on “municipalities to inventory and map arts and culture activities and spaces, helping visualize the creative sector as an economic driver, while identifying gaps and opportunities.”
Results for elementary and middle school students
The Brookings Institute says “engaging with art is essential to the human experience and contributes to the health of civil society.” It conducted, what it says, is the first ever large-scale, randomized controlled trial study of a city’s collective efforts to restore arts education through community partnerships and investments.”
The study focused on the initial two years of Houston’s Arts Access Initiative and included 42 elementary and middle schools with over 10,000 third through eighth-grade students.
It found:
- A substantial increase in arts educational experiences has remarkable impacts on students’ academic, social and emotional outcomes.
- Positively and significantly affect students’ school engagement, college aspirations and their inclinations to draw upon works of art as a means for empathizing with others.
Cincinnati’s ArtsWave is committed to kids and the arts, which Brick by Brick’s Hernz Laguerre Jr. reports on in this podcast.
The harsh realities of funding
San Diego, a city where in 2022 the nonprofit arts and culture sector generated $1.2 billion in economic impact, is now looking at cutting a large percentage of arts funding.
The city’s fiscal 2027 budget proposes cutting funding from about 14 million to under $2 million to close a projected $146 million deficit, according to San Diego Magazine.
The Seattle Times reports arts groups in that city are laying off staff. “In the past six months (Nov ‘25-April ‘26) some of Seattle’s biggest arts organizations have laid off employees amid financial troubles attributed to rising costs, attendance swings and lagging subscriptions.”
SMU DataArts National Trends Analysis 2025 investigated the changing arts landscape and had these takeaways.
- Communities with greater access to cultural resources experience measurable benefits in livability and well-being.
- Inclusion is a driver of retention, job satisfaction and likelihood to recommend an employer.
- Of 2,500+ women artists surveyed, 79 percent cite peer networks as vital-yet only 25 percent feel treated equitably in the art world.
- Financial pressures mount across the sector, with impacts varying sharply by organization size and discipline.
- Artificial intelligence offers promise for public sector evaluation-with a framework for responsible integration.
SMU says staff counts have declined to their lowest point in six years. As a result of cuts in personnel expenses, part-time and full-time employees both decreased by two positions.
Looking ahead
At the beginning of the year ArtsWave listed three ways technology will shift the arts sector in 2026.
- How people write about the arts is changing. “As arts organizations continue to incorporate generative AI tools into their workflows, it will move beyond a first-draft tool toward real task automation.
- 2. How people find the arts is changing. AI-powered search relies on clear, structured information. That means details like event listings, descriptions and locations matter more than ever. The shift toward this new model has big implications for both discoverability and accessibility.”
- How people experience the arts is changing. “As AR tools become easier to use and more common, we will see growing demand for designers who can build interactive experiences for museum exhibitions, public art and community events. Technology is often seen as a way to escape the real world. This trend reminds us that it can also give us new ways to experience the world around us.”
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Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
