Bringing talent from across the world to share a stage, featuring venues that host sell-out performances, it’s time to put London’s arts & culture industry on center stage
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Lights, camera, action!
Three simple words, but when said together, it creates the epitome of talent, creativity, and art. That’s what London’s arts, entertainment, and culture industry is all about. Featuring venues that host sell-out music performances, films, plays, and art shows, and bringing talent from across the world to share a stage, London is home to world-class arts and culture centers. Budweiser Gardens, Aeolian Hall, Western Fair District, the Grand Theatre, Museum London, and many more are places are known as go-to destinations to be delighted, learn, and share unique experiences with colleagues and loved ones.
Their economic impact on London is so much more than just selling tickets. That’s why The London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) is putting London’s arts, entertainment, and culture industry on center stage to take a deeper look into its growth and impact within the city.
Every year, these industries have a significant impact on London’s economy. Their efforts help to attract global acts, offer new training programming, and of course, bring new visitors to come and experience all London’s cultural scene has to offer. From a City of London 2013 Culture Profile Report, the estimated annual economic impact of the arts and culture industry was $540 million, generated by nearly 1,300 cultural enterprises and over 7,700 workers in the industry. Often, these events, productions, shows, and various initiatives also create lasting pride in the community.
Spotlight on: The Grand Theatre
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The Grand Theatre is bringing the world to London with diverse, relevant, and original stories from around the globe, while developing and premiering new homegrown stories through their COMPASS new play development program, such as Grow (2020). Under the leadership of Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum and Executive Director Deb Harvey, the Grand Theatre is building a bold future with daring new projects, inspiring new programs, and a captivating new direction.
It’s also bringing theatre to local schools with The High School Project, the only program of its kind in North America to provide mentorship and training from professional artists and coaches to high school students. The Grand’s 100 Schools program tours professional theatre to elementary school gymnasiums and auditoriums across the region at no cost to the schools.
A not-for-profit regional theatre, the Grand Theatre has been a leading cultural hub in London since 1901. With a rich history, the theatre was originally owned and operated by Ambrose J. Small and started as a touring house for everything from roadshows to vaudeville to films. Over its lifetime the theatre has had 11 artistic directors and has hosted renowned artists such as William Hutt, Brent Carver, Carole Shelley, Louise Pitre, Hume Cronyn, and Jessica Tandy.
Attracting more than 100,000 guests every season across their two stages – The Spriet Stage (839 seats) and the McManus Stage (144 seats), the Grand Theatre has hosted productions of all sizes, topics, and interests, including Titanic, Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol, Vigilante, A Thousand Splendid Suns and many more. Upcoming productions for their 2019-20 season include Room, the North American premiere based on London’s own Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel.
Economic Impact on Centre Stage
The Grand Theatre’s impact on London’s economy has been, well, grand! Take a look below at just some of the impact the theatre had on London in 2018-19:
- 241 performances and 104,156 attendees
- Employed 323 people at a cost of $4.9 million in salaries and benefits
- Of the goods and services purchased, 69% or $1.9 million was spent locally, making a significant contribution to the local economy
- Regional economic impact of over $13 million
- Ticket sales contributed $4.3 million to their budget, while their 910 individual donors and supporters generated $1.7 million
- Donated over 500 tickets to 234 local charitable organizations ($48,000 value)
- Raised over $70,000 for the Humbug to Hunger campaign, donated to the London Food Bank
Recently, the theatre received funding from the Federal Government ($4.1 million), the City of London ($2 million), and private donations to support an $8 million renovation project.
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“As the Grand Theatre remains focussed on its mission of being World Curious and London Proud, audience attendance continues to increase. Our current lobby is over 40 years old and it is time that we build on the magnificent work being done on our stages with an audience experience that is equally exciting. We want our audiences to be surprised and inspired from the moment they walk through the doors,” noted Deb Harvey, Executive Director of the Grand Theatre.
The Grand Scale
Beyond London, the arts and culture industries play an important role in our provincial and federal economy. Take a look at these statistics from Hill Strategies (2017):
Ontario
- $26.7 billion in direct contribution of culture industries to GDP, or 2.8% of the country’s GDP
- 300,400 jobs directly related to culture industries (4.1% of the provinces employment)
- GDP of culture products grew by 19% in Ontario between 2010-2017
Canada
- $58.9 billion in direct contribution of culture industries to GDP, or 3.5% of the province’s GDP
- 715,400 jobs directly related to culture industries (3.8% of all employment)
- Key contributors to the GDP of culture products include audio-visual and interactive, visual and applied arts, written and published works, live performances, heritage and libraries, and sound recording
- Education and training in the culture sector had an impact of $3.7 billion
- Live performance sector saw an increase in value added of 26% between 2010-2017
- Direct economic impact of culture industries is eight times larger than the sports industry and GDP generated is larger than the value added of agriculture, forestry and fishing, accommodation and food service, and utilities industries
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