Summit County was recently ranked as the number two small community in the country when it comes to arts vibrancy.
The 2017 Arts Vibrancy Index or AVI reported by Southern Methodist University aims to gauge the demand, supply and public support for the arts in more than 900 communities across the U.S. — divided into three categories dictated by population.
Researchers ranked the communities by looking at various pieces of data showing the number of art providers, arts dollars and government grant activity in any designated location. They weighted arts dollars and arts providers the heaviest, with each accounting for 45 percent of the final score, while giving government grant activity the remaining 10 percent.
Summit County finished just behind Breckenridge Colorado this year for towns under 100,000 people. Side by side the two Summit Counties are nearly identical. Both received a score of 100 for Art Providers, with Summit County claiming more independent artists, but less arts and culture organizations. Breckenridge scored a 99 compared to Utah’s 98 for Arts dollars. Summit County arts organizations scored 100 for government support compared to Breckenridge’s 97.
As for why these two resort towns did better than towns with twice their populations can likely be linked to the strong tax base bolstered by the ski resorts and high volume of tourism traffic and demand for arts and culture.
Studies by the National Endowment for the Arts have shown that arts and culture are essential to creating more livable, safe, memorable, and connected communities.
http://www.smu.edu/~/media/Site/Meadows/NCAR/NCAR_ArtsVibrancy_04-17.pdf
