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Advocacy Day in Dover highlights arts' economic impact

Arts leaders from around the state held the inaugural Delaware Arts Advocacy Day at Legislative Hall in Dover on Thursday.

As people packed into the high ceilinged Senate Hearing Room, students from South Dover Elementary welcomed the crowd with a drum chorus.  

It’s part of the celebration for Arts Advocacy Day, which featured speakers throughout the artistic community and displayed student artwork from across the state.

Delaware Arts Alliance Executive Director Dr. GuillerminaGonzalez highlighted the economic role the arts play in Delaware.  

“Because the arts means business. It’s not just what we do over the weekend. It’s about economic impact. Without the arts, I doubt that the state is going to have the kind of workforce, the kind of environment that is needed for the state to thrive in this globalized economy,” Gonzalez said.

State Senator Brian Bushweller, who helped lead the event, agreed.

“We all often think of it just as perhaps as entertainment, but (it’s) also in our cultural life, in our social lives and actually in our economic lives, as well. The arts generate a lot of economic activity,” Bushweller said.

According to the Delaware Arts Alliance the arts generates $142 million in revenue each year, while supporting over 3,800 jobs.

This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

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