Before We Build a Duncanville Arts Economy, We Need to Know What Residents Buy

When a community wants to grow the arts, it is easy to start with things.

But every one of those choices comes after a more basic question:

That question matters because an arts economy is still an economy.

People make choices. They buy tickets. They purchase paintings. They pay for classes. They buy books. They go to movies. They hear live music over dinner. They travel to festivals. They subscribe to streaming services. They hire photographers. They collect handmade objects.

Those choices create a market.

Before we decide what Duncanville needs more of, we should understand that market.

We know the arts are an economy

There is no serious question about whether arts and culture have economic value.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that arts and cultural production added about $1.17 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023. That was 4.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Arts and cultural economic activity also grew faster than the overall U.S. economy that year.

In Texas, arts and cultural production added about $66 billion to the state economy in 2023, or about 3 percent of the state economy. The sector supported more than 360,000 workers in Texas.

So the question is not whether people spend money on arts and culture.

They clearly do.

The question for us is much more local:

What does that spending look like in Duncanville?

We know quite a bit about Duncanville

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Duncanville had 38,915 residents in 2025. Census data for 2020 through 2024 show about 13,215 households and a median household income of $76,457.

For comparison, the national median household income for the same period was $80,734.

We also know that businesses in Duncanville recorded about $766.8 million in retail sales in 2022 and about $125.2 million in accommodation and food service sales.

Those are important numbers.

But they do not tell us what Duncanville residents spend on the arts.

Retail sales tell us what was sold. They do not tell us enough about who bought it, what residents bought outside Duncanville, or how much local spending involved arts and cultural activity.

National averages can give us clues

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks household spending through its Consumer Expenditure Surveys.

In 2024, the average U.S. consumer unit spent $78,535 across all categories. Of that amount, an average of $3,609, or about 4.6 percent, went to the broad category BLS calls “entertainment.”

Duncanville’s median household income falls within the BLS income range of $70,000 to $99,999.

For consumer units in that national income range, BLS reported average 2024 spending of about $3,171 on entertainment. Within that total, about $660 went to fees and admissions.

That sounds useful.

It is. But we need to be very careful with it.

BLS “fees and admissions” do not mean arts spending alone. The category includes movies, concerts, and plays, but it also includes participant sports, sporting events, club memberships, recreational lessons, and some recreation expenses while traveling.

So we cannot simply call that $660 “arts spending.”

And we certainly should not assume every household in Duncanville spends that amount.

It would be easy to take Duncanville’s 13,215 households and multiply them by the national BLS average of $660 for fees and admissions among consumer units earning $70,000 to $99,999.

Duncanville’s median income does not mean every household earns between $70,000 and $99,999. A BLS consumer unit is not the same measurement as every household in Duncanville. The $660 figure is a national average. The category includes activities beyond the arts. Local tastes may be different. Local prices may be different. Some spending may happen in Duncanville, and much of it may happen elsewhere.

Calling $8.7 million “the Duncanville arts market” would give us a very precise number built on assumptions we cannot defend.

This is exactly why local research matters.

Attendance does not answer the question either

We also have good research about whether people participate in the arts.

The National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Census Bureau conduct the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The 2022 survey found that 38 percent of U.S. adults attended a live performing arts event during the prior year. Texas was above the national rate on the report’s broader Arts Participation Index.

The same research also asks about support for the arts. About 12 percent of U.S. adults reported acquiring a piece of visual art during the prior year. The survey also tracks donations to arts organizations.

This is valuable information.

But again, it is not Duncanville.

And there is another important difference:

Participation is not the same as purchasing.

All of these people participate in the cultural economy in different ways.

If our goal is to understand an arts economy, attendance alone cannot tell us enough.

So what should we measure?

This is the work behind the Duncanville Arts Foundation’s Cultural Investment Strategy.

We want to move from broad assumptions to local evidence.

That means asking questions such as:

That is why temporary exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops, artist markets, and other small-scale projects can be useful research tools. They allow us to test different art forms, locations, prices, audiences, and buying patterns before making large commitments.

The goal is not simply to hold more events.

The goal is to learn.

Demand should help shape supply

The National Endowment for the Arts makes a similar point in its research on state arts participation. In discussing why communities should study participation, the report notes that, in the aggregate, consumer preferences help guide markets for artists and artworks. It also warns that arts participation data have limits and should not be used to make claims the data cannot support.

That is a useful standard.

We should not begin with the answer and then search for numbers that support it.

We should ask the question first.

Any of those answers would be useful.

Because good cultural investment does not require us to prove that every idea will work.

It requires us to find out what will.

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