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.

A theater.
A gallery.
A festival.
A cultural district.
A grant program.
A new building.

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

What are people willing to spend money on?

An arts economy is still an economy. People 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 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.

The economic value of arts and culture is well established.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, arts and cultural production contributed about $1.17 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023. In Texas, the sector contributed about $66 billion and supported more than 360,000 workers.

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

They clearly do.

The question is what that spending looks like here.

That is the purpose of the Duncanville Arts Foundation’s Cultural Interest Study: to develop reliable local evidence about what Duncanville residents buy, what they are willing to pay for, and where that spending occurs.

Duncanville by the numbers

We know quite a bit about Duncanville.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the city 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.

We also know businesses in Duncanville recorded about $766.8 million in retail sales in 2022.

But none of those numbers tells us how much Duncanville residents spend on the arts.

National data cannot answer the question either.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer units earning between $70,000 and $99,999 spent an average of about $660 on “fees and admissions” in 2024.

Duncanville’s median household income falls within that range.

So we could multiply Duncanville’s 13,215 households by $660.

The result would be about:

$8.7 million a year.

The math is correct.

The conclusion would not be.

The BLS category includes movies, concerts, and plays, but it also includes sporting events, club memberships, recreational lessons, and other activities. Duncanville’s median income does not mean every household falls within the same income range. A national average does not tell us how Duncanville residents behave. And it tells us nothing about whether that spending happens here or somewhere else.

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

That is exactly why local research matters.

Participation is not purchasing

Attendance data have similar limits.

National research can tell us how many people attend concerts, theater, museums, festivals, and other cultural activities. That is useful.

But participation and purchasing are not the same thing.

Someone might attend six free concerts and spend nothing.

Another person might rarely attend public events but spend $2,000 a year buying art online.

Both participate in the cultural economy, but in very different ways.

If we want to understand Duncanville’s arts economy, we need to know more than whether residents like the arts.

We need to understand their choices as consumers.

What do folks actually buy?

The Cultural Interest Study starts with a small set of questions:

What do Duncanville residents buy?

How much do they spend?

What prices work?

Where does that spending happen?

Some of those answers can come from surveys. But what people say they might buy and what they actually purchase are different kinds of evidence.

A survey can tell us what people say they like. A real transaction tells us what they chose.

That is why the Foundation can also use small exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops, artist markets, and other cultural experiences as research tools.

We can test different art forms, prices, locations, and audiences.

A $10 ticket tells us something.

So does a painting that sells for $300.

So does a workshop that sells out.

So does an event nobody buys a ticket to.

The goal is not simply to produce more events.

The goal is to learn.

Demand should help shape what comes next.

We should not begin with an answer and then search for numbers that justify it.

We should ask the question first.

Maybe Duncanville residents will support more live music.

Maybe there is a market for affordable original art.

Maybe classes and workshops are stronger.

Maybe food and cultural experiences work particularly well together.

Maybe there is enough demand for a permanent gallery.

Maybe there is not.

Any of those findings would be useful.

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

It requires us to find out what will.

Before we build an arts economy, we need to understand the one that already exists.

And that begins with a simple question:

What do people buy?