“$50M for the Arts and that area has 12% unemployment.”
Sorry, that’s not high enough...
I would have thought it was closer to 120%. The whole idea behind a career is "arts" is that you don't have to work for a living.
Normally, 80% of all arts money goes to the institutions patronized by the wealthy and connected: museums, opera, dance theater, symphony. Very little goes to individual working artists and what does is tiny individual grants that the liberal artist is just thrilled to receive.
The institutions that get the money will sponsor juried exhibitions and independent performances. They will charge the artist a fee to jury and they will charge the public attend the show and/or to see the entertainers.
The above based on 3 terms of State Arts Board peer review committee service.
i’d suspect thats a norm for that area. i’d go so far as to say most that attempt to make a living in that field fail and move on. The 12% represents those too hard headed to find erstwhile employment.