Officials from the Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center has reported to the city that it had an economic impact of over $7 million in 2018, marking a 960 percent return on investment of the funding it receives from both the city and the county.

The direct economic impact — which comprises the spending of those who see and use the arts center, visiting artists, full-time employees, and good and services purchased — was calculated at approximately $4.5 million, according to a presentation given to City Council earlier this week by Jim Richerson, CEO of the arts center.

The indirect economic impact and multiplier amounts — which consists of things like local tax revenue generated from visitors to the arts center who spend money in the community, plus donations — equaled about $2.7 million.

The total overall economic impact of the arts center to the community was calculated at $7.19 million. The study was conducted by Mike Wakefield, a business professor at Colorado State University-Pueblo, and some of his students.

Richerson said the total public funding the arts center received in 2018 was $678,152. It got $533,575 from the county and $144,577 from the city.

Richerson said the economic impact the arts center had in the community was 9.6 times the local government's investment.

He told The Chieftain on Wednesday that the arts center is always hoping to get more funding from the city and county every year —and this year is no different.

"It helps us do more marketing. It helps us get more people to come here," Richerson said. "If you look at our numbers, we're an attraction. More than 50 percent of the people that are coming here have ZIP codes outside of Pueblo County. This is a great investment in bringing people from out of town here."

In other details from the presentation, Richerson said 1,939 donors invested in arts education and programming. Of those donors, 262 are from outside the county.

Attendance at the arts center jumped 10 percent, from 2017 with 141,620 visits, according to the numbers Richerson presented. While the arts center has tracked the amount of visitors through the years and other economic indicators, 2018 was the first year in which it tallied a total overall economic impact thanks to the study that was completed.

"There appears to be a direct connection between attendance and impact," Richerson said. "With that said, I believe our economic impact from 2017 to 2018 increased 10 percent in line with the attendance increase."

Richerson said the arts center has had a pull with tourists.

In 2018, guests visited Pueblo's arts center from 150 cities in Colorado, 45 states and U.S. territories and eight different countries, including Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland and Ukraine.

Richerson said the arts center also invested in the Pueblo community in 2018 by spending almost $1 million on good and services in Southern Colorado.

rseverance@chieftain.com

Twitter: @RyanS_Chieftain