President Joe Biden has left one key cabinet post unfilled. It is a position that even conservative estimates suggest is responsible for almost 9 million jobs, 15% of monthly average earnings in the United States, and a higher percentage of U.S. Gross Domestic Product than the entire agriculture sector. It is a position that speaks for millions of Americans who are among the hardest hit by the current economic crisis — nearly 3 million jobs lost, according to a study late last year from the Brookings Institution. And it is a position that would serve a sector vital to our recovery, growth and competitiveness.
This vacant post is Secretary of Culture and Creative Industries. In Biden’s defense, the job does not exist, nor does the cabinet agency to support it. He should remedy this serious oversight in the way the U.S. government is structured.
Admittedly, I have a vested interest in the creation of a position like this — I have worked my entire career as an opera singer and arts advocate. But other governments have not made this mistake of omission. America has long been an outlier in this area.
Creative industries drive the economy
Last November, the G-20 convened its first ever meeting of its culture ministers. They recognized the growing importance of culture and creative industries to national competitiveness and cohesion. In country after country around the world, creative industries account for 2% to 7% of GDP, and few industries have been hit so hard by the COVID crisis. UNESCO estimates annual revenue from the cultural and creative sectors is $2.25 trillion, the exports related to the sector are $250 billion and the number of people employed in the sector is 30 million. Some estimates suggest this sector will soon be responsible for a tenth of all global output.
The U.S. federal “arts budget” is a pittance. The National Endowment for the Arts, despite efforts by the Trump administration to kill it, is roughly $170 million — less than one fully equipped F-22 aircraft. A new cabinet-level position for the arts and even a new agency need not be massively more expensive than that to begin with. More essential in the years ahead is leadership: working with states and localities that fund culture and the arts, and identifying the steps needed to undo the economic arts crisis.
Creative industries have typically been defined to include fine and performing arts, design and advertising, publishing, crafts, motion pictures, television, radio, creative technology, architecture, fashion and cultural heritage. Of these, for example, fine and performing arts have been devastated by COVID. Roughly half of all jobs in the sector have been lost in the past year — 1.4 million jobs representing $42.5 billion in sales.
COVID crisis: We need all hands on deck to save America’s arts and culture economy
But consider the…
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