Item B: City Council Goal Update-Arts and Outdoors

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ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Work Session: City Council Goal Update - Arts and Outdoors Meeting Date: February 11, 2009 Agenda Item Number: B Department: Library, Recreation & Cultural Services Staff Contact: Renee Grube www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 682-6065 ISSUE STATEMENT Staff is providing an update on implementation of the Arts and Outdoors goal and the City Council is asked to provide feedback and guidance. BACKGROUND The City Council’s Arts and Outdoors goal has been in place since 2005. In 2007, the council slightly adjusted the language of the goal to “Strengthen our commitment to community arts and outdoors assets.” Following City Council approval of the action plan, the interdepartmental Arts and Outdoors Goal staff team began implementation. In September 2005, the City Council approved the slogan, “World’s Greatest City of the Arts and Outdoors,” to be used in promoting Eugene as a center for arts and outdoors activities. The purpose of this goal, as articulated in the original action plan approved by the City Council, is to strengthen and promote Eugene’s unique combination of arts and outdoors assets as a community-wide, sustainable economic development strategy. Strengthening the city’s arts and outdoors resources and presenting a cohesive “arts and outdoors” theme will produce a significant twofold benefit: 1) increased sustainable economic activity through enhanced tourism and commerce, and 2) improved community livability for area residents with expanded access to arts and outdoors amenities. Especially during the current recession, both benefits are extremely important to the community. Preserving and enhancing jobs, incomes and commercial activity is paramount. Cultural and recreational tourism are significant contributors to the local economy and provide fertile ground for further development. For example, when patrons attend a performing arts event, they often make additional expenditures such as for dinner at a restaurant beforehand, drinks or dessert afterward, baby- sitting, gas and parking. The cumulative effect is a positive and measurable impact on the economic vitality of the community. Based on an accepted estimating method called the “Arts and Economic Prosperity Calculator,” the Hult Center’s “industry impact” to the region is $12.3 million per year. Attachment A includes additional information about the economic benefits of the Hult Center and Cuthbert Amphitheatre as illustrations of the current and potential sustainable economic development impacts of arts and outdoors development and marketing. Z:\CMO\2009 Council Agendas\M090211\S090211B.doc