a2ru in the Chronicle of Higher Education

March 17, 2014

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) was mentioned in the March 14, 2014 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education. The article titled “Who Knew? Arts Education Fuels the Economy,” is the result of a study that was conducted by The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA).

The study is a two-year project conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts. It is the first comprehensive and detailed measure of the arts and culture’s contribution to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Results from the first wave of the study were achieved in 2013. The second wave is planned for 2014.
Figures from the federal government point to the value of art beyond cultural enrichment. Co-authors Sunil Iyengar and Ayanna Hudson, who work for the National Endowment of the Arts, see change on the horizon. “We anticipate a time when arts education is universally valued, on its own terms, as integral to higher education.”