The City of Lynchburg and the James River Council for the Arts & Humanities to participate in national arts and economic impact study.
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Hi Partner,

We are excited to announce that the City of Lynchburg has been selected to participate in Arts & Economic Prosperity 5, the latest national economic impact study by Americans for the Arts. Our participation in this important research project will allow us to quantify the economic impact of the arts and culture industry in Lynchburg. We all know that this industry supports jobs and generates government revenue. In June of 2017, we’ll receive a final report that tells us just how many jobs and how much money the arts represent in our community!

TO COMPLETE THIS STUDY, WE NEED YOUR HELP! The study requires that we collect detailed financial and programming information from all of the arts and culture organizations located in the City of Lynchburg, as well as a minimum of at least 800 audience-intercept surveys from people who are attending arts and culture events. So we will be asking you to help us with these two critical tasks during the course of calendar year 2016.

  1. Beginning in January and lasting throughout the rest of 2016, we will be asking selected arts presenters and facilities to help us collect audience-intercept surveys from attendees at their events. Our plan is to send a few volunteers to collect surveys during your events or ask you to help us directly by collecting the surveys on our behalf and returning the completed surveys to us. All of the surveys are a simple paper survey and will normally take less than three minutes to complete. We will never ask to collect more than 50 surveys from any single performance or event and the surveys will be completely anonymous.

Please send us the dates of your upcoming events for the year. If you haven’t finalized dates and times yet, a general placeholder will be very helpful as we plan the survey schedule for the year. You may email the information directly to Kim Soerensen at info@jamesriverarts.org. If you have an admission fee, we would greatly appreciate a complimentary ticket or admission for the volunteer survey takers! 

  1. In the spring, we will begin contacting all of the arts and culture organizations located in Lynchburg and requesting that you complete a web-based organizational survey that is required for this important research study. We request that you take the time to fill out the survey as soon as it arrives.

The study is being conducted by Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. Americans for the Arts has conducted similar economic impact studies in more than 400 U.S. communities since 1994. Their methodology is sound. In fact, their economic impact data is used consistently by the Congressional Arts Caucus on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to support federal arts support as well as by our City’s Office of Economic Development to justify support for arts and cultural programs.

Thank you in advance for your support and participation in this very important study! We are your project contacts in the City of Lynchburg and will be in touch with you in the new few weeks. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

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Anna M. Bentson                                                Kimberly Soerensen
Lynchburg Office of Economic                           James River Council for the Arts & Development                                                       Humanities