The eigth essay in the pARTnership Movement essay series addresses how the arts create jobs, spur urban renewal, attract new businesses, generate tourism revenue, and foster an environment that appeals to a skilled and educated workforce. By partnering with arts organizations, you can strengthen the health and vitality of our neighborhoods, cities, states, and nation.

This workbook series focuses on one of the many ways arts organizations can work with businesses—arts-based employee engagement. This broad concept can be defined as employee engagement training or a cultural experience, delivered through various arts disciplines (music, visual art, drama etc.).

Youth in social circus programs across the US are making big leaps in the skills they need to lead productive lives, according to a recently completed study commissioned by the American Youth Circus Organization (AYCO) and conducted by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality. The study found that circus arts has a positive impact on the Social and Emotional Learning outcomes of youth at risk. 

This study published by Royal Society Open Science is the first of its kind to apply quantitative evidence to the belief that public art increases property values in urban neighborhoods. Additionally, it demonstrates how online visual platforms both contribute to and inform us about social and economic trends at large. Using geo-tagged photos from Flickr and property prices over time, researchers suggest a direct relationship between Street Art and neighborhood economic growth.

In this infographic by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Commerce, we learn the arts encompass almost half of America's copyright-intensive industries, that the demand for performing arts events has increased over 10% over the last 15 years and that arts, culture and media are some of the U.S.'s most significant exports.

Arts partnerships offer companies effective and cost-efficient methods of achieving critical business goals. In fact, 79% of businesses agree that the arts increases name recognition, and 74% of businesses say the arts offer networking opportunities to developing businesses (2010 BCA National Survey of Business Support for the Arts). The fourth essay in The pARTnership Movement essay series, Engage Your Employees, shares stories of how some of America’s top companies partner with the arts to build morale, creativity, and innovation in the workplace.

"Arts and cultural economic activity – adjusted for inflation – grew 2.5 percent in 2013, according to estimates of the industries’ real value added by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). That compares with a 1.1 percent increase in 2012" (Aversa, Kern 2016).

The maker movement is the platform for today’s artisans to create, craft, develop and prototype new and interesting ideas and products. This new, hyperlocal manufacturing environment holds potential not only for individual hobbyists but also for community-wide advances in local entrepreneurship and job creation.

This Infographic, The Maker Movement: A Timeline of Key Modern Events, was develope to show key events the are helping to grow the maker movement in America.

Featuring successful case studies from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Kaiser Permanente, Americans for the Arts’ fourth pARTnership Movement essay, Advance Corporate Objectives & Strategies, demonstrates how arts partnerships can help companies creatively and effectively communicate with customers, employees, and other stakeholders, cutting through the clutter of the information age.