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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > May > 01
Friday, May 1, 2009
Report finds Texas’ creative sector growing, but lacking state funding
By the year 2016, one out of 12 jobs in Texas is projected to be in the creative sector. And Texas will need to prime its future creative workforce with more arts education in public schools.
So says a new report, commissioned by the Texas Cultural Trust, that was released Friday at a press conference on the steps of the Capitol.
Among other findings, the report also found that currently Texas’s creative sector employs nearly 675,000 workers and had an employment growth rate of more than 20 percent in the past five years.
In Austin, the study revealed that creative sector jobs account for 11.8 percent of the workforce — more than in any other Texas metropolitan area. Statewide, creative sector jobs accounted for 6.7 percent of the workforce on par with the national average which is 6.6 percent.
Yet, Texas spends 22 center per capita on state funding for the arts compared with the national average of $1.14 per capita.
The study was conducted by TXP Inc., an Austin-based economic analysis and public policy consulting firm. The report used statistics from the Texas Workforce Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics among other sources. The creative industries as identified by the report include digital media, film, music, preforming arts, visual arts and arts-related tourism.
The Texas Cultural Trust, a state-wide non-profit arts awareness organization, released the report as part of the launch of its Create Texas campaign, a multi-year marketing and public relations effort to the promote arts education in Texas.
“The arts are real power behind the Texas economy,” said Amy Barbee, Texas Cultural Trust executive director.
Barbee praised the efforts of Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), chair of the senate education committee for her work on Senate Bill 3, the education accountability bill, which passed the State Senate Thursday. Shapiro amended SB3 to include a four-semester fine arts requirement for middle schoolers. The bill also specifies the inclusion of fine arts in the Texas accountability system.
“The arts are an integral part of a complete education,” said Shapiro. “The creative industries are the future and incorporating arts into education is the way to get there.”
Download a copy of the report at www.createtexas.org.
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Explosive new music: Free on Saturday
It’s something of a fitting finale to Fusebox — Golden Hornet Project unleashes new sounds in two free concerts tomorrow that will surround the audience with mesmirizing sound.
PVC in Surround: Piano, Cello and Violin in 5.1 Surround Sound.
When: 2 p.m, and 5 p.m, Saturday May 2
Where: 100 Congress Ave.
Who: Music composed by Peter Stopschinski, Gabriel Prokofiev (US Premiere), DJ Spooky, Josh Robins, and Graham Reynolds. Performed by Reynolds, Stopschinski, Leah Zeger (violin) and Hector Moreno (cello). Sound by Robert Fisher.
Graham Reynolds writes:
“Piano, violin, and cello is one of our favorite combinations, and it’s reasonably compact so we decided to create this show as our tour-able line-up of instruments and pieces. But the surround sound element is not particularly tour-able, so that will most likely be special to Austin and this performance. Robert Fisher is helping us out with this, putting the instruments through crazy effects that will send the sound all over the place. I recorded Austin’s fleet of trash trucks at 5:30 in the morning last week and am building a piece with those sounds in preparation for the Forklift Danceworks show later this year. Peter’s got these crazy drumbeats that swirl around the room.”
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