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How Arts Promote Our Economy
When most people think of the arts, they imagine the end product, the beautiful painting, a wonderful piece of music, or an award-winning performance in the theater. But arts groups bring broader value to our communities. The economic impact of the arts is often overlooked and badly judged.
The arts create jobs that help develop the economy. Any given performance takes a tour bus full of artists, technical experts, managers, musicians, or writers to create an appealing piece of art. These people earn a living wage for their professional knowledge and skills.
Another group of folks is needed to help market the event. “If you build it they will come” is a misleading belief. Painters, digital media experts, photographers, booking agents and promoters are hired to sell tickets and promote the event. According to the Dallas Area Cultural Advocacy Coalition, arts agencies employ more than 10,000 people as full-or part-time employees or independent contractors.
A successful arts neighborhood creates a ripple effect（连锁反应）throughout a community. In 2005, when the Bishop Arts Theatre was donated to our town, the location was considered a poor area of town. After investing more than $1 million in reconstructing the building, we began producing a full season of theater performances, jazz concerts, and year-round arts education programs in 2008. Nearly 40 percent of jazz lovers live outside of the Dallas city limits and drive or fly in to enjoy an evening in the Bishop Arts District.
No doubt the theater has contributed to the area’s development and economic growth. Today, there are galleries, studios, restaurants and newly built work spaces where neighbors share experiences, where there is renewed life and energy. In this way, arts and culture also serve as a public good.
TeCo Theatrical Productions Inc. made use of Bloomberg’s investment of $35,000 to get nearly $400,000 in public and private sector support during the two-year period. Further, Dallas arts and arts-based businesses produce $298 for every dollar the city spends on arts programming and facilities. In Philadelphia, a metro area smaller than Dallas, the arts have an economic impact of almost $3 million and support 44,000 jobs, 80 percent of which actually lie outside the arts industry, including accountants, marketers, construction workers, hotel managers, printers, and other kinds of art workers.
The arts are efficient economic drivers and when they are supported, the entire small-business community benefits.
It is wrong to assume arts groups cannot make a profit. But in order to stay in business, arts groups must produce returns. If you are a student studying the arts, chances are you have been ill-advised to have a plan B. But those who truly understand the economic impact and can work to change the patterns can create a wide range of career possibilities.
Arts as an economic driver | Our communities |
Arts activity demands a(n) ★Artists make a living through their creative work. ★Others get paid by marketing the event. | |
Arts have a gradually spreading ★Besides tickets, some jazz lovers will pay their ★Arts contribute to cultural development when people gather together to share their experience and renew their energy. | |
Investment in arts could produce potential ★TeCo used a $35,000 art investment to attract an overall support of $400,000. ★In Dallas, one dollar invested in arts could harvest and extraordinary return of nearly $300. ★In Philadelphia the arts have created about 35,000 job opportunities for workers | |
Art students making a good living | With these |
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【推荐1】Millions of Americans sit behind a computer screen, chained to their desk all day because the vast majority of stable, high-paying professions(职业) are “office jobs”. However, having a successful career does not require you to sit behind a desk and plug away at a computer all day.
In fact, there are a large number of non-desk jobs in a variety of industries that are growing and offering workers a direct path to the middle class, according to a new analysis of labor market information from CareerBuilder. While most of the highest-paying non-desk jobs are medical professions that require a doctoral or professional degree, there are 170 non-desk professions that pay $15 per hour or more, do not require a bachelor’s degree(学士学位) for a typical entry-level position, and have seen at least 6 percent job growth over the last four years.
“The US workforce has gradually changed to office-based work because of the rise of the professional service economy and productivity gains associated with information technology,” Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources Officer at CareerBuilder, said in a statement. “But some of the healthiest areas of job growth year after year are in middle-skill professions that don’t require workers to sit in front of computer monitors and phones for 40 hours a week.”
Here are the top-paying jobs that don’t require you to work at a desk in various kinds — none of which require a four-year college degree — and their hourly salary(工资) and growth rate since 2010: professional assistants(助理) : $26.57, 14 percent; elevator repairers: $37.81, 6 percent; mechanical engineering technicians: $25.19, 10 percent; and electromechanical(电动机械的) technicians: $24.68, 8 percent.
While they tend to pay less than traditional office jobs, non-desk professions provide a variety of benefits. Haefner points to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey that discovered workers who don’t work at a desk all day are less likely to complain about their work environment and less likely to report being overweight.
1. What does the underlined phrase “plug away” in the first paragraph probably mean?| A．Turn off a switch. | B．Look for a job. |
| C．Keep on working | D．Give up working |
| A．A non-desk job may provide you with a middle-class life. |
| B．The last four years has seen an increase in desk jobs. |
| C．The college degree is the ticket to a position. |
| D．A non-desk job cannot offer you a secure life. |
| A．High salary. | B．Medicine. |
| C．Information technology. | D．Service industries. |
| A．Elevator repairers. | B．Professional assistants. |
| C．Electromechanical technicians. | D．Mechanical engineering technicians. |
【推荐2】A project in Gambia is empowering women and reducing dangerous waste at the same time.
The Waste Innovation Center, funded by the European Union’s Global Climate Change Alliance，shows women in the Brikama area how to recycle waste into useful materials and products, which they can then sell in local markets.
Wood-like waste is recycled into charcoal (木炭)，for example，which can be used to supersede firewood and reduce the number of trees that are cut down for firewood. Food waste is recycled into compost(混合肥料）to function as environmentally friendly fertilizers and plastic is turned into many useful things.
Supported by WasteAid UK and the Gambia Women’s Initiative (GWI), among others, the project provides women with skills they can use to become self-sufficient (自给自足的). Women learning at the center come from five communities, and some of them travel as far as 12 miles to learn these important skills that will provide them with an income, according to The Guardian.
Isatou Ceesay, who now leads the GWI，highlighted the need to focus on economic equality in her country, telling The Guardian, “In terms of education, women are the ones who are always behind. Boys are chosen to go to school. When we conduct our training, we find women can do a lot，but don’t know who they are, or how to implement (实施）things. ”
According to the World Health Organization’s Country Cooperation Strategy 2008—2013 report, the main environmental issue facing Gambia is poor waste management in urban areas.
Ndey Sireng Bakurin, executive director of the National Environment Agency, has voiced concern over health and environmental risks, such as water pollution, the increase of insects as well as flooding that occur as a result of poor waste management.
1. What does the Waste Innovation Center try to do?| A．Develop local markets in Brikama. |
| B．Teach women how to invent new things. |
| C．Keep women away from dangerous waste. |
| D．Help women in Brikama benefit from waste. |
| A．Replace. | B．Transform. |
| C．Burn. | D．Reserve. |
| A．don’t learn new things fast |
| B．aren’t interested in education |
| C．really hope for economic equality |
| D．are not fairly treated in the country |
| A．To summarize the previous paragraphs. |
| B．To provide some advice for the readers. |
| C．To add some background information. |
| D．To introduce a new topic for discussion. |
【推荐3】In the eighteenth-century one of the first modern economists, Adam Smith, thought that the “whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country” provided revenue to “three different orders of people: those who live by rent, those who live by wages, and those who live by profit”. Each successive stage of the industrial revolution, however, made the social structure more complicated.
Many intermediate groups grew up during the nineteenth century between the upper middle class and the working class. There were small-scale industrialists as well as large ones, small shopkeepers and tradesmen, officials and salaried employees, skilled and unskilled workers, and professional men such as doctors and teachers. Farmers and peasants continued in all countries as independent groups.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the possession of wealth inevitably affected a person’s social position. Intelligent industrialists with initiative made fortunes by their wits which lifted them into an economic group far higher than that of their working-class parents. But they lacked social training of the upper class, who despised them as the “new rich.”
They often sent their sons and daughters to special school to acquire social training. Here their children, mixed with the children of the upper classes, were accepted by them, and very often found marriage partners from among them. In the same way, a thrifty, hardworking labourer, though not clever himself, might save for his son enough to pay for an extended secondary school education in the hope that he would move in a “white collar” occupation, carrying with it a higher salary and a move up in the social scale.
In the twentieth century the increased taxation of higher incomes, the growth of the social services, and the wider development of educational opportunity have considerably altered the social outlook. The upper classes no longer are the sole, or even the main possessors of wealth, power and education, though inherited social position still carries considerable prestige.
1. If you compare the first and second paragraph, what groups of people did Adam Smith leave out in his classification?| A．Officials and employees. | B．Peasants and farmers. |
| C．Doctors and teachers. | D．Tradesmen and landlords. |
| A．They were still the upper class people. |
| B．They were owners of large factories. |
| C．They were intelligent industrialists. |
| D．They were skilled workers who made their fortune. |
| A．They saved a lot of money for their children to receive higher education. |
| B．They tried to find marriage partners from the children of the upper class. |
| C．They made greater fortunes by their wits. |
| D．They worked even harder to acquire social training. |
| A．increased income and decreased taxation |
| B．taxation, social services and educational opportunities |
| C．education, the increase of income and industrial development |
| D．the decrease of the upper class population |
【推荐1】Craft (手工艺）is becoming a heritage industry — but a record of disappearing skills might just come in handy in the future.
Mr. Lobb (of John Lobb the bootmaker) mentioned that custom clothing and shoe-making were once the norm for everyone. How come，then，today a pair of normal Lobbs would set you back over £2,000? The price has obviously gone up because of lack of competition and higher wages，but would custom clothing once again be affordable to all if the demand was there? Do we just wave goodbye to these skills，or should we fight to maintain them?
The disposable (一次性的）culture we “enjoy” today has existed in our life for almost two generations now. We like our products to be made by either a robot or invisible，cheap hands so that we can accumulate them cheaply and frequently. The concept of “craft” is something that’s now largely considered to be strange，and seems to be limited to museums and dusty, independent shops. Hobby crafts such as knitting do undergo revivals (复兴）from time to time，but I think that’s because they are seen as short-lived fashionable leisure pursuits rather than a craft worthy of revivals on a commercially feasible (可行的）scale.
To drive a revival in any of these crafts, you would probably need to apply the same marketing techniques that are used to sell any other items today. The consumer must believe that they just have to have it. If they don't have it now, it will either go up in price or go out of fashion --- both reasons enough in themselves for a shopper to act.
But does it finally matter if these skills will no longer serve any practicable use in the decades to come? I don’t know the answer to that，but I have long thought it would be a good idea if we “banked” these skills somehow，just as we are not attempting to do with seeds. You just never know whether we’ll need them in the future. Maybe it’s time to establish a worldwide network of volunteers to record，through the written words and videos，as many of these dying skills as possible. Actually, a rough look on YouTube fills me with hope that an army of willing volunteers is probably out there already and just needs someone or something to gather them together.
1. According to the text，the custom clothing is dying in that_| A．it serves no useful purpose |
| B．it doesn’t meet people’s demand any more |
| C．it is too costly for most people to afford |
| D．it has long been lack of competition all along |
| A．It is a sign of disposable culture. |
| B．It indicates the direction of fashion. |
| C．It can’t help revive the traditional crafts. |
| D．It creates no commercial value in the long run. |
| A．Making them as affordable as possible for the foreigners. |
| B．Adopting modern marketing strategies used to sell other items. |
| C．Establishing a network of volunteers to sell them worldwide. |
| D．Drawing people’s attention to the videos of these crafts. |
| A．shows great interest in craft |
| B．doesn’t want craft to disappear |
| C．feels sad about the disappearance of craft |
| D．tries to explain the reason for craft’s disappearance |
【推荐2】In spring, chickens start laying again, bringing a welcome source of protein at winter’s end. So it’s no surprise that cultures around the world celebrate spring by honoring the egg.
Some traditions are simple, like the red eggs that get baked into Greek Easter breads. Others elevate the egg into a fancy art, like the heavily jewel-covered “eggs” that were favored by the Russians starting in the 19th century.
One ancient form of egg art comes to us from Ukraine. For centuries, Ukrainians have been drawing complicated patterns on eggs. Contemporary artists have followed this tradition to create eggs that speak to the anxieties of our age: Life is precious, and delicate. Eggs are, too.
“There’s something about their delicate nature that appeals to me,” says New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. Several years ago, she became interested in eggs and learned the traditional Ukrainian technique to draw her very modern characters. “I’ve broken eggs at every stage of the process — from the very beginning to the very, very end.”
But there’s an appeal in that vulnerability(易损性). “There’s part of this sickening horror of knowing you’re walking on the edge with this, that I kind of like, knowing that it could all fall apart at any second.” Chast’s designs, such as a worried man alone in a tiny rowboat, reflect that delicateness.
Traditional Ukrainian decorated eggs also spoke to those fears. The elaborate patterns were believed to offer protection against evil.
“There’s an ancient legend that as long as these eggs are made, evil will not exist in the world.” says Joan Brander, a Canadian egg-painter who has been painting eggs for over 60 years, having learned the art from her Ukrainian relatives.
1. People in many cultures honor the egg because _______________.| A．it is their major source of protein in winter |
| B．it is a welcome sign of the approach of spring |
| C．it can bring wealth and honor to them |
| D．it can easily be made into a work of art |
| A．carve | B．promote | C．place | D．lower |
| A．She is never sure what the final design will look like until the end. |
| B．She always achieves great pleasure from designing something new. |
| C．She never knows if the egg will break before the design is completed. |
| D．She believes there won’t be evil in the world once the egg is made. |
| A．the decorated “eggs” are favored as a form of fancy art in Russia |
| B．contemporary artists draw on eggs to reflect anxieties of people today |
| C．the delicate nature of eggs appeals to Roz Chast |
| D．eggs provide a hard and unique surface to paint on |
【推荐3】Before the age of the smartphone, photographers had to learn how to use high-tech cameras and photographic techniques. Today, with the huge range of camera apps on our smartphones, we’re all good amateur photographers, since the quality of smartphone images now nearly equals that of digital cameras.
The new ease of photography has given us a tremendous appetite for capturing the magical and the ordinary. We are obsessed with documenting everyday moments, whether it’s a shot of our breakfast, our cat or the cat’s breakfast. Even photo journalists are experimenting with mobile phones because their near invisibility makes it easier to capture unguarded moments.
In the past, magazines published unforgettable photos of important people and global events that captured our imaginations. These photos had the power to change public opinion and even the course of history. But if there are fewer memorable images today, it’s not because there are fewer good images. It’s because there are so many, and no one image gets to be special for long.
As people everywhere embrace photography and the media make use of citizen journalists, professional standards appear to be shifting. Before digital images, most people trusted photographs to accurately reflect reality. Today, images can be altered in ways the naked eye might never notice. Photojournalists are trained to accurately represent what they witness. Yet any image can be altered to create an “improved” picture of reality. The average viewer is left with no way to assess the accuracy of an image except through trust in a news organization or photographer.
The question of the accuracy of images gets even trickier when photojournalists start experimenting with camera apps-- like Hipstamatic or Instagram --- which encourage the use of filters （滤镜）. Images can be colored, brightened, faded, and scratched to make photographs more artistic, or to give them an antique look. Photographers using camera apps to cover wars and conflicts have created powerful images--- but also controversy. Critics worry that antique-looking photographs romanticize war, while distancing us from those who fight in them.
Yet photography has always been more subjective than we assume. Each picture is a result of a series of decisions-- where to stand, what lens to use, what to leave in and what to leave out of the frame. Does altering photographs with camera app filters make them less true? There’s something powerful and exciting about the experiment the digital age has forced upon us. These new tools make it easier to tell our own stories--- and they give others the power to do the same. Many members of the media get stuck on the same stories, focusing on elections, governments, wars, and disasters, and in the process, miss out on the less dramatic images of daily life that can be as revealing.
Who knows? Our obsession with documentation and constantly being connected could lead to a dramatic change in our way of being. Perhaps we are witnessing the development of a universal visual language, one that could change the way we relate to each other and the world. Of course, as with any language, there will be those who produce poetry and those who make shopping lists.
1. According to the author, there are fewer memorable photographs today because_________.| A．the quality of many images is still poor |
| B．there are so many good images these days |
| C．traditional media refuse to allow amateur photos |
| D．most images are not appealing to a global audience |
| A．indicate it’s a word cited from another source |
| B．stress that the picture of reality is greatly improved |
| C．draw audience attention to a word worth considering |
| D．show it’s arguable whether the picture is truly improved |
| A．The daily life pictures are very expressive themselves. |
| B．Photographs of the digital age are more subjective than before. |
| C．Photos altered by filters of camera apps are too subjective to be true. |
| D．Many members of the media value daily life images over major social events. |
| A．Camera Apps Bury Authenticity |
| B．Photography Redefined: A Visual Language |
| C．Smartphone: Killer of Professional Photography |
| D．The Shifting Standards of Professional Photography |
