ahha Tulsa

PROJECT PURPOSE

Ahha Tulsa is the city?s leader in arts education, creative exploration, and arts and humanities advocacy. Ahha Tulsa addresses the need to support and grow arts, culture, and humanities programming, experiences, and education in the Tulsa area. Founded in 1961, ahha Tulsa brings arts organizations, artists, businesses, and government agencies together for this common purpose. Our organizational competencies are incubating artists and arts organizations; taking strategic and creative risks; engaging partners in impactful work; and innovating arts education programs. Core programs and services include Artists in the Schools, Any Given Child- Tulsa, the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, Tulsa Mayfest, and the ahha Hardesty Center. Ahha Tulsa lost over $1,000,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we continue to operate our programs at a loss during a slow recovery.

EVIDENCE

The arts and culture sector is a prime economic engine for the state of Oklahoma. According to a pre-COVID economic impact study, published at artsimpacttulsa.org, arts and culture generate $872M in economic impact and $84.5M in state revenue for Oklahoma. On a national level, Americans for the Arts reports that arts and culture production declined from $930 billion in 2019 to $877 billion in 2020. Support of ahha Tulsa's initiatives will shore up the sector in Tulsa, Oklahoma, increasing economic benefits for the city and state.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the arts and culture sector hard, resulting in a loss of $53 billion nationwide. In Tulsa, 95% of arts organizations were forced to cancel events, performances, and exhibitions, and 54% of organizations project the pandemic to have severe financial implications for their long-term viability. Individual artists are feeling the financial and economic brunt, maybe more so than organizations because artists provide the creative product that fuels events, exhibitions, and performances. 95% of individual artists experienced a loss of income due to COVID-19 and 72% experienced additional, unexpected costs due to the pandemic. To make matters worse, 81% of artists report having less than three months of savings to support themselves and their families during this economic disaster. 67% of artists report the inability to access supplies and resources to continue their artistic businesses and 78% report having no financial recovery plan. Ahha Tulsa serves over 250 artists through contracted programming and professional development. Investment of ARPA funds in ahha Tulsa's programs will provide additional economic relief to creative workers in the community, while increasing arts and culture programming to benefit residents' health, welfare, and quality of life. As Tulsa's Mayor Bynum said, ?the arts industry is vital to any city?s quality of life.?

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Ahha Tulsa uses research-based methods in measuring our impact on creativity, the arts and humanities, and educational attainment. We use a combination of participant surveys, observation, and technology tools to measure and report outcomes.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma