Arts and Economic Prosperity 5, the latest economic impact study by Americans for the Arts, shows that the nonprofit arts and culture industry in North Texas had an economic impact of over $1 billion in 2015. Americans for the Arts partnered with the North Texas Business Council for the Arts, one of 250 study partners nationwide, to collect data from arts nonprofits and their audience members in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The region also took part in the 2010 study Arts and Economic Prosperity IV, and the growth over five years has been staggering. Take the city of Dallas as an example: in 2015, Dallas arts organizations supported 33,554 jobs, a 308 percent increase from 2010.

“We are thrilled with the results,” Jennifer Scripps, director of the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, said of the study. “Everybody expected an increase between 2010 and 2015—so many arts venues have come online, right? But the quantity of the percentage increase was just staggering.”