Cultural Building Boom Left Some Institutions Broke, Says University of Chicago Study

• Cities in the South had the greatest increase in cultural buildings. The region had lagged behind the rest of the country prior to the building boom—the Northeast and West had twice the number of cultural facilities per capita in 1990 than did the South.

• Increases in building were most common in communities with increases in personal income and in education among their residents; this was another reason why the South led in building expansions.

• Spending was also strong across the rest of the country from 1994 to 2008. The New York area led the country in cultural building ($1.6 billion), while the Los Angeles area saw an expansion of $950 million and the Chicago area saw spending of $870 million on arts-related projects.

• Smaller cities with fewer than 500,000 people were building as well, and many of these cities were building for the first time. On a per capita basis, nine of the top ten spenders on cultural projects were in smaller cities. Pittsfield, Mass., for example, with a population of 44,700, led the list with a per capita expenditure of $605 for six projects at a total cost of more than $81 million.

• More than 80 percent of the projects we studied ran over budget, some by as much as 200 percent.

• More performing arts centers were built than any other kind of arts facility.