As the blockbuster film Oppenheimer begins, swirling depictions of nuclear fusion are interspersed with scenes of the title character listening intently to classical music and pondering a Picasso. The patchwork of explosions and red-hot sunscapes is meant to suggest that art could have inspired the invention of the atomic bomb. It’s a vision of a brain that could unlock the codes to life-changing discoveries.
While humankind is flush with weapons of mass destruction, it can certainly use more creatives who think outside of the box. That’s a good reason to advocate for the arts, according to Kristen Dolan, executive director of the California Desert Arts Council. But there’s another incentive: The arts are good for business.
The CDAC recently released the findings of a year-long study of arts and culture in the Coachella Valley. The Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6) study contains aggregated data that shows how the arts don’t just drive culture and creativity; they also help drive the Coachella Valley economy.
The 60-page report’s summary statement points to “compelling evidence that the nonprofit arts and culture sector is a significant industry (here)—one that generated $110.9 million in total economic activity during 2022. This spending—$46.6 million by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and an additional $64.3 million in event-related spending by their audiences—supports 1,623 jobs, generates $57.6 million in household income for local residents, and delivers $19.5 million in tax revenues to local, state and federal governments.”
“The arts are not just an amenity,” said Dolan. “What I’m hoping this study does is start to open people up to how much art does, not only for a person who is looking for employment in any field, but how much it does economically for our area and for our county.”
Data for the study was gathered from May 2022 through June 2023. Of 182 eligible nonprofit arts and culture organizations, 40 participated in the study; 739 individuals took audience-intercept surveys while attending nonprofit arts and culture events, exhibits and performances. The study did not include casinos and commercial ventures like Acrisure Arena and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Dolan and Americans for the Arts vice president of research Randy Cohen gave a workshop on how to leverage the data for fundraising and advocacy work. Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based arts-service agency, directed the study, with CDAC acting as a research partner.
“(We) wanted to bring the arts organizations and people who directly touch the arts in the Coachella Valley together to hear the data, to ask more questions (about) how to utilize it,” Dolan said. “I want to continue that conversation and have more discussions about what it looks like to advocate in different arenas with this data,” said Dolan.
The Independent spoke with three workshop attendees—Jarvis Crawford, Diane Moore and Eric Linnert—about their roles in the arts community, and their reactions to the impact report.
Jarvis Crawford is president of the Palm Springs Black History Committee. The all-volunteer group puts on mostly free events to celebrate Black culture. A third-generation native of the valley, Crawford said it’s important that the committee’s events are accessible for the community and visitors.
“If we don’t share who we are and let you celebrate with us, how else will you know?” he said.
Crawford left the workshop to prepare for one of the committee’s Thursday-night events at the Palm Springs Art Museum in February. The final night featured a DJ spinning hip-hop in the museum’s tony sculpture garden, where a friendly breakdance battle broke out.
“A lot of local artists here are doing great things—and last night, we got some youth out, so there’s a lot of growth coming,” Crawford said.
Crawford said it was a no-brainer for the committee to partner with the museum. The museum’s free Thursday nights accommodated Black History Month events and coincided with VillageFest, Palm Springs’ weekly block party. Crawford said that while the Black History Month events—including the annual parade and town fair—were low-cost and not meant to be “super revenue generators,” they did draw visitors and locals alike who came for the “knowledge and understanding and entertainment,” and spent time and money in the region, all markers emphasized in the AEP6 report.
In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Diane Moore and Daniel Foster—two former arts-nonprofit leaders—sought a safe space for quarantine-weary artists to meet up and enjoy their craft. The Desert Plein Air Association was born.
Plein air—painting outdoors—was popularized by French impressionists Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Each year, the DPAA puts on a three-week “Paint the Desert” festival and competition that puts artists in nature. It draws crowds—and not just painters.
“I see it all the time: We’re in an area where the public is out hiking or walking their dog, and they see artists painting,” Moore said. “They just stop and their mouth drops open, and they catch their breath.”
It’s a business model right out of the AEP6 handbook: Nature inspires the artist, and when members of the public see the artist’s resulting work, they want to take it home.
“We’ve been growing every year; we just had our greatest number of sales just last month,” Moore said.
Beginners are encouraged to paint alongside experienced artists, and often times, their fledgling creations become the best kind of souvenir.
“People love Coachella Valley, and when they go home, wherever they’re from, they have that to connect back with the nature they saw here,” Moore said.
Her dream is to see “Paint the Desert” eventually draw a national audience.
“Our weather is fabulous when the rest of the country is having more winter,” Moore said. “It makes traveling to our area for an art event and a vacation just very attractive.”
For now, the all-volunteer organization funds its programs out-of-pocket. Membership dues are nominal, and the DPAA’s 11-member board gives as much time, energy and effort as possible. Moore said hiring staff to coordinate volunteer work would help expand the DPAA’s reach.
“This is our fourth year, and we’re looking to the goal of becoming a national festival,” Moore said. “To take this larger, I’m going to need funding.”
Eric Linnert is in the midst of a career change. After 10 years as a software developer, he’s now studying architecture at College of the Desert, with a focus on urban planning and development. He’s convinced there’s a role in the arts ecosystem for creative problem-solvers.
He attended the workshop to learn how the arts community is preparing for the inevitable G-word—gentrification. As popular destinations become oversaturated with visitors who eventually become residents, long-time residents—often the very artists and cultural leaders who made the place attractive—are priced out, a trend that was exacerbated by the pandemic.
“I started to see it very clearly through the lens of housing,” Linnert said. “… Not only was (it) displacing the local creatives that made this place so great; I started to see that new businesses coming into town were very much just catering towards the tourist economy.”
Linnert said he’d like to see the Coachella Valley take a more active approach to these problems. He mentioned inclusive growth, a concept that prepares for gentrification by growing the area’s economy, and putting safeguards in place.
“It’s a theory that gentrification is inevitable, perhaps,” Linnert said. “So instead of trying to fight it, is there a way where we can boost up the local community, so they can also ride that wave and grow with the new development? There are ideas around workforce development, where you’re training up the locals to prepare for the new jobs that are coming in—and, of course, there’s a housing side that is important.”
While the arts impact study did not specifically address housing or gentrification, it did address equity and representation in the arts. Linnert hopes these issues will be the subject of further study by CDAC and others.
Having “intention around growth,” Linnert said, can keep the Coachella Valley from becoming like Brooklyn or Austin or Venice Beach, “places that started off very edgy, and then the artists got pushed out because it got trendy and cool. … It’s a balance, and it’s a really tough challenge. It’s fascinating, just kind of observing and studying it.”
Haleemon Anderson is a California Local News Fellow. She can be reached at handerson@cvindependent.com.