2022 Fine Arts and Performing Arts

The Fine and Performing Arts sector went from one of the fastest growing sectors in the creative economy prior to the pandemic to the one most affected. Shuttered concert venues, exhibition spaces, and other cultural centers prompted a roughly 20% drop in employment in both Los Angeles County and California between 2019 and 2020, reversing what had been a tremendous rebound from the Great Recession. The increase in Fine and Performing Arts jobs from 2010 to 2019—at rates of 33.2% in California and 45.2% in Los Angeles County—far outpaced the growth rates among the other four creative industries

The Fine and Performing Arts sector includes four subsectors – Fine Arts Schools; Performing Arts Companies; Performing Arts and Live Event Promotion; and Museums, Galleries, and Historical Sites – and accounts for a larger share of the creative economy in Los Angeles County (6.9%) than in California (5.6%). Although the workers in the Museum, Galleries, and Historical Sites subsector make up about 19% of the workforce in both geographies, Los Angeles has a slightly higher concentration of workers than California in Performing Arts Companies (32.3% versus 29.5%) and Performing Arts and Live Event Promoters (24.4% versus 22.5%) and significantly lower concentration in Fine Art Schools, (4.3% versus 29.5%).

For more information on the Entertainment and Digital Media sector, please download the 2022 Otis College Report on the Creative Economy.