Report Claims Arts Scene Generates Over $300 Million for Brooklyn

Finally emerging from the formidable shadow of Manhattan’s cultural institutions, Brooklyn is now generating some impressive cultural statistics of its own. Recently released figures reported in the Wall Street Journal show that more than 4.5 million people made the trek to Brooklyn last year to visit museums, galleries, concert halls and other cultural venues, and spent over $300 million during their time in the New York City borough.

Complied by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the statistics were taken from a survey of 36 of Brooklyn’s 60 arts groups. which analyzed the financial impact that visitors had on the cultural institutions’ operating budgets, construction costs, local retail revenues and concessions. The study centers on the neighborhoods in and around the Brooklyn Cultural District, which is defined in the article as DeKalb Avenue and Hanson Place on the north and south, respectively, and Fort Greene Place and Flatbush Avenue on the east and west.

The Brooklyn Cultural District has seen the opening of a number of art spaces and theaters in recent months, including a new home for Theater for a New Audience, and BAM Fisher, the Brooklyn Academy of Art’s recently opened facility designed by Hugh Hardy, featuring a 250-seat theater for experimental works, plus rehearsal and performance spaces. Participants in the survey say that Brooklyn performers and production staff last year alone booked more than 8,000 hotel room nights in the area.