Arts & Entertainment

Arts and Culture Injected $186.8M in San Diego Economy

Arts and culture injected $186.8 million into San Diego's economy during the past fiscal year, according to a report released today by the city's Commission on Arts and Culture.

The report said arts organizations earned $97 million in sales, collected $90 million in donations and also received government funding.

The commission said it distributed $6 million in city funding to 72 groups, which generated more than 1,900 full-time jobs. Another 6,500 jobs rely in some way on arts and culture in San Diego, according to the report.

Find out what's happening in La Jollawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The arts payroll was $108.8 million, the commission said.

Among the organizations supported by the commission are playhouses, museums and specialty groups like the Balboa Park Online Collaborative -- which creates online archives for museums.

Find out what's happening in La Jollawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The commission usually releases its impact report annually, but skipped last year, when the organization was between executive directors. Dana Springs is currently serving as the interim executive director.

The report said of the 33 million visitors to San Diego over the one- year period, about 1.6 million came for arts and culture, and those travelers stayed twice as long and spent twice as much money -- 3.8 days and $561, respectively.

—City News Service


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here