Editorial
Support art and it supports us

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If one measured the arts only by dollar impact, the Seattle area surely would be blessed.

A recent study found that the region's arts and heritage organizations generated more than $1 billion for the state's economy, from ticket purchases to hotel stays to shopping and dining out.

But we can be grateful for a thriving cultural scene for many other reasons, not the least of which is the vitality the arts bring to a community's lifeblood.

Think of what this area would be like without an opera, symphony, ballet, art museums and galleries, or live theater.

The Very Rev. Michael G. Ryan, writing on these pages earlier this month to mark the 100th anniversary of the St. James Cathedral parish, put it as well as anyone when he said, "The human soul dies without beauty. ... "

He was writing about the splendid architecture of Seattle's First Hill cathedral, but his words easily could have been applied to the arts in general. So, too, could his further observation that something like a church might be only coldly inspiring without the warmth, faith and good works of its people.

Art, of course, is more than pretty pictures or gilded hallways. It invites us to consider new ways of seeing, listening and thinking.

Kurt Beattie, the artistic director of ACT Theatre who, with ACT Managing Director Susan Trapnell, received the Greg Falls Award for lifetime contribution to the arts last month, said in his acceptance speech:

"One thing we are doing — at least in the not-for-profit theater — is trying to make the world better. We can justly claim that. Few of us get rich. But we are doing good deeds. We help people laugh, and remind them that the world is full of mysteries and wonders. And great injustices."

For all the spiritual and financial benefits the arts world is providing, not all is clear sailing, according to the study funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation for ArtsFund, the umbrella organization for corporate and workplace giving for the arts in Pierce and King counties.

Many groups operate on the narrowest of margins and few have significant endowments.

"Our challenge continues to be maintaining the operations we've built. Seeing the scale of impact arts make on our economy gives us all the more reason to do so," said ArtsFund President Peter Donnelly, as reported in a story by Seattle Times music critic Melinda Bargreen.

Given the more than 23,000 full- and part-time jobs cultural groups have helped create in King County alone, the 6.8 million total attendance that local organizations have drawn in a year, and many other measurable standards of service, the arts and heritage organizations in our midst are proving worthy investments, and valuable builders of community.