New Aurora, Illinois data portal tracks economic impact of performing arts venues
The City of Aurora, Illinois, this week announced a new data portal to track the economic impact of its performing arts institutions.
The city's Data and Analytics Division launched the Downtown Revitalization Open Data Portal along with the Aurora Civic Center Authority, The Venue, and The Riverfront Playhouse.
The growth and evolution of downtown Aurora is in large part anchored by performing arts entertainment venues — including the Copley Theatre, the Paramount School of the Arts, the Paramount Theatre, the Stolp Island Theatre, the Riverfront Playhouse, The Venue, and RiverEdge Park.
As those institutions and supporting businesses such as restaurants expand, so do the number of visitors to downtown Aurora, the city said.
The new portal provides key data points on the city's performing arts spaces and overall economic growth, with the goal of discerning a pattern to measure the economic value and impact of the arts community in Aurora, the city said.
The information in the portal tracks attendance figures, subscription rates, and several events at specific Aurora entertainment venues.
These figures are compared to the city's annual food and beverage tax revenue, parking revenue, and general sales tax revenue.
"What has been achieved over the past 15 years in downtown Aurora exemplifies the best of what can happen when arts organizations partner with a municipality to mutually foster the regrowth of a historic downtown. Bringing arts patrons to not only see shows, but also to eat, shop, learn, and live downtown has brought about significant change," Tim Rater, President and CEO of the Aurora Civic Center Authority, said in a news release. "While we've always perceived that to be true, the City's revenue statistics validate those assumptions that live entertainment has been one of the major engines that are driving the rebirth of downtown Aurora."
Visitors to the data portal can also access an interactive timeline documenting the growth of downtown Aurora, the Aurora Civic Center Authority's economic impact, and detailed visual data sets, the city said. Also included is the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 Study of the economic and social impact of the nation's nonprofit arts and culture industry, commissioned by Americans for the Arts.
