Arts & Culture

With a professional symphony and opera, regionally recognized galleries and museums, multiple theatre companies, choral and instrumental groups, colleges and universities with visual, dramatic, literary, dance, and music programs or emphases, excellent venues, festivals, and a growing slate of individual artists, North Louisiana is establishing itself as a place where artists live, practice their craft, and make us all better because of it. 

Creative and cultural industries typically cover areas such as advertising, art crafts, audio-visual/film, cultural heritage, design, entertainment software such as video games, fashion, music, publishing, performing arts, and visual arts. A 2014 report from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis found that arts and culture contributed more than $698 billion to the economy in 2012. Currently this sector represents a small segment (2.8%) of the overall economy in the Shreveport-Bossier MSA in terms of total businesses, but it is a sector with significant potential for innovation and economic development in our region. 

Percent of Creative Industries Share of all Businesses for Statistical Areas, 2014

MSA	Creative Industries Share of all Businesses
Bastrop, La	1.30%
Lafayette, LA	6.30%
Monroe, LA	2.30%
Natchitoches, La	2.00%
Ruston, La	2.70%
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA	2.80%

To see more data on Arts & Culture, check out the Community Counts full report or executive summary.