National Center for Arts Research
Full Screen Guided Mode Read the 2020 Arts Vibrancy Report
Arts Providers
Arts & Culture Employees Arts & Culture Organizations Arts, Culture & Entertainment Firms Independent Artists
Arts Dollars
Program Revenue Contributed Revenue Total Expenses Total Compensation
Government Support
State Arts Dollars State Arts Grants Federal Arts Dollars Federal Arts Grants
Socio-economic
% Employment % Bachelor's Degree % of Households > $150k Per capita income % Not in Poverty
Other Leisure
Hotel Rank Restaurant Rank Zoo & Botanical Rank Cinema Rank Professional Sports Bar Rank

Dive Into The Data

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Our Arts Vibrancy Map is an interactive tool that provides arts professionals, funders, government officials, and advocates the data to help them see the relative strength of their community’s Arts Providers, Arts Dollars, Government Support, Socioeconomic, and Other Leisure characteristics, each of which impacts arts organizations’ performance.

How to Read the Map

Each county has an overall arts vibrancy score indicated by the colors shown in the legend, made up of weighted scores on the measures found along the bottom of the map in boxes. Click on a measure to reveal scores on its underlying components. Each of these measures are scored akin to percentiles – i.e., if your county has a score of 56, it means it did better than 56% of communities on that measure. There are just over 3100 counties in the country, so scoring 90 means there are about 310 counties that ranked higher.

Top 10 Large Communities

New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Providers and Arts Dollars.

San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Providers and Arts Dollars.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA

Ranking 1st on Arts Providers overall and 1st on independent artists and arts, culture, and entertainment firms per capita.

Washington - Arlington - Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Ranking 1st in per capita contributed revenue and 2nd in total compensation for arts sector employees.

Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Providers overall, including arts and cultural employees and firms per capita.

Boston, MA Metro Division

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Dollars overall and ranking 5th in per capita total compensation for arts sector employees.

Newark,NJ - PA Metro Divions

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Providers overall and number of arts, cultural, and entertainment firms per capita.

Minneapolis - St. Paul - Bloomington, MN-WI

Scores within the top 1% on Government Support overall and ranks 2nd on state arts dollars per capita.

Frederick - Gaithersburg - Rockville,MD

Scores within the top 2% on Arts Dollars overall and in all of its sub-measures.

New Orleans - Metairie, LA Metro Area

Scores within the top 3% on Arts Dollars overall and in all of its sub-measures.

Other MSAs in the Top 20 Largest MSAs include Philadelphia, Cleveland, Portland and more!

Read the Full List

Top 5 Medium Communities

Santa Fe, NM

Ranks 1st in Arts Dollars overall and scores within the top 1% on all of it’s sub-measures.

San Rafael, CA

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Providers and Arts Dollars overall, and on nearly all of their sub-measures.

Pittsfield, MA

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Dollars and Government Support overall, and within the top 2% on their sub-measures.

Ithaca, NY

Scores within the top 1% on Government Support overall and ranks 1st in federal arts dollars per capita.

Boulder, CO

Scores within the top 2% on Arts Providers overall, including its sub-measures of arts, culture, and entertainment firms and independent artists per capita.

Other MSAs in the Top 10 Medium MSAs include Wilmington, Bozeman, Oxnard, Bremerton, and Traverse City!

Read the Full List

Top 5 Small Communities

Jackson, WY - ID

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Dollars overall and on all of its sub-measures.

Steamboat Springs, CO

Scores within the top 1% on Arts Providers overall and ranks 1st on arts and culture organizations per capita.

Heber, UT

Scores within the top 1% on both Arts Providers and Government Support overall.

Hailey, ID

Scores within the top 1% on independent artists per capita and ranks 9th on program revenue per capita.

Glenwood Springs, CO

Scores within the top 3% on Arts Dollars overall and within the top 4% on all per capita sub-measures.

Other MSAs in the Top 10 Small MSAs include Vineyard Haven, Oneonta, and Bennington!

Read the Full List

What Does Arts Vibrancy Mean?

All cities can learn from each other’s strengths, so we highlight and celebrate communities big and small, located in every region, that have cultivated higher levels of arts activity per person living in the community. We use the term “vibrancy” in keeping with Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word to mean “pulsating with life, vigor, or activity.”

Our Methodology

For the purposes of this interactive map, we examine communities at the county level because we want to be as inclusive as possible in the information we make available. Opportunities for participation in arts and culture exist for the 6.6% of Americans who live in the small towns and rural areas that fall outside of an MSA, and they deserve to be recognized. Numerous MSAs consist of several counties, so it could be that your county’s scores are higher (or lower) than your MSA’s scores depending on where the concentration of arts activity occurs in your community.

Arts vibrancy scores include data from the following sources: U.S. Census Bureau, SMU DataArts, IRS 990s, Theatre Communications Group, the National Endowment for the Arts, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and Institute of Museum and Library Services.