Social Impact
AND Economic Impact

"While the arts are commerce, they revitalize cities not through their bottom-line but through their social role. The arts build ties that bind-neighbor-to-neighbor and community-to-community. It is these social networks that translate cultural vitality into economic dynamism."

Social Impact of the Arts,
Mark Stern and
Susan Seifert


Invest in the Arts for a Thriving Downtown

"The arts draw a very diverse audience and that is an important element of a thriving downtown. The arts truly offer something for everyone and help to sustain businesses, provide community identity and pride, and generate community involvement."

Kathleen Miller Prunty, President, Downtown NJ; Director, Cranford Downtown



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The Arts are Vital to Community Revitalization

The arts are change agents for communities facing economic, social and educational challenges. The US Conference of Mayors created a resolution that urges mayors across the country to invest in nonprofit arts organizations through their local arts agencies as a catalyst to do the following:

  • generate economic impact
  • stimulate business development
  • spur urban renewal
  • attract tourists and area residents to community activities
  • to improve the overall quality of life in America's cities


The Brass Company project is the first arts-related development in the Valley Arts District, Orange NJ. It now houses artists, nonprofit and commercial arts-related businesses.

The Brass Company project is the first arts-related development in the Valley Arts District, Orange NJ. It now houses artists, nonprofit and commercial arts-related businesses.

In 2001, HANDS, Inc., a community development corporation in Orange and East Orange, proposed the Valley Revitalization Initiative. The heart of their strategic plan included an arts district with arts-related housing, facilities and programs in the Valley neighborhood. Support from local leaders like the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs, through a grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts, has helped the Valley Arts District make great strides.

Today, a wide variety of artists live and work in the Valley Arts District in renovated spaces in old factory buildings. Music and poetry festivals, curated art shows, a graphic design business run by teenagers, and new restaurants and performance spaces provide opportunities for community, creativity and celebrations of all kinds. Visit the Valley Arts District website to learn about dynamic programs like Road Tattoo, a new public art project, and Hat City Kitchen, a unique new restaurant filled with art and music, that directs its profits to HANDS, Inc. for community revitalization.


Learn More with Quick Links:

Culture Shapes Community

Arts Build Communities

Social Impact of the Arts Project

Institute for Community Development and the Arts

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