Thesis
The impact of Lackawanna County's arts, culture, and education tax
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Sep 2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000953
Abstract
This study examines how public funding for the arts through earmarked taxes is beneficial to communities, specifically in Lackawanna County, PA. With data from grant reports, surveys, and interviews, my goal for this research was to see the level of impact that the Lackawanna County Arts, Culture and Education Tax has had in Lackawanna County and if the tax is a viable funding method. For this research, both qualitative and quantitative data were used. The qualitative data was gathered through interviews with leaders from the community including Lackawanna County's Arts and Culture Department, the City of Scranton's Office of Economic and Community Development, and the Lackawanna County Convention & Visitors Bureau. In addition to interviews, I conducted an audience survey about arts and culture participation in Lackawanna County which gave insight into the community's perception of arts and culture in the county along with some of their audience habits. The quantitative data was collected from Lackawanna County's Arts and Culture grant reports and from SMU DataArts's Cultural Data Project. This data was compared to find trends with programs, audience attendance, and organizational budgets. Through this research, I found that elimination of the tax would do harm to the arts and culture sector. It was difficult to measure the full impact of the tax with the data that is available, mostly due to inconsistent data among the different reporting structure. Overall, the data showed that organizations are using the funds granted to them for programming and operations. The interviews and survey brought up many positive aspects of the relationship between arts and culture and the county, however without the support of the quantitative data it is challenging to draw a definitive conclusion on the full level of impact. By examining current processes and procedures in place and looking at examples of dedicated taxes in other communities, I was able to create some recommendations for the administration of the grants funding by Lackawanna County's Arts, Culture, and Education tax. I believe that these recommendations can help establish better ways to measure the tax's impact and success.
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Details
- Title
- The impact of Lackawanna County's arts, culture, and education tax
- Creators
- Melissa A. Carestia
- Contributors
- Amy Gibbs (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- viii, 76 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Arts Administration; Arts and Entertainment Enterprise; Drexel University; Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design
- Other Identifier
- 991014695144804721