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By ROBERT BAXTER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN
The Regional Business/Arts Summit showed the arts continue to be a prime player in New Jersey's economy.
Jeff Woodward, chairman of ArtPride New Jersey, revealed that a new economic activity study documents how artists and cultural institutions contributed more than $1 billion to New Jersey's economy in 2000.
The study, co-sponsored by ArtPride and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, shows 600 arts groups contributed $546.5 million to the economy. Arts patrons added another $475 million in ancillary spending - dining, shopping and other activities.
A previous study in 1994 suggested the arts' impact on the economy amounted to $643 million.
"That marks a 50 percent increase in only six years," said Woodward.
The study also reveals that New Jersey cultural institutions generated $27 million in taxes, $7 million more than the Legislature's appropriation to the arts council in 2000.
Ann Marie Miller, executive director of the Trenton-based arts advocacy group, noted, "The study makes a compelling case for supporting the arts." She said the complete study would be released by Gov. James E. McGreevey sometime this spring.
