Best States for the Arts

The arts benefit communities in the U.S. in many ways besides employing over 4.9 million people. Engagement with the arts is shown to benefit mental health, improve the likelihood of young people being recognized for academic achievement, and communicate messages between groups with cultural and political differences. Creating an environment where the arts thrive requires access to artistic opportunities, charitable giving to support artists, policies and businesses to sustain the art economy, and an emphasis on the arts in education.

In order to highlight the states that provide the best environment for the arts and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 16 key metrics. The data set ranges from the share of residents who attend art events to the average salary of fine artists to the quality of graduate art programs.

If you want to support the arts but don’t know where to donate, check out our picks for the Best Charities for the Arts in 2024.

• Main Findings
• Methodology

Main Findings

Most Art-Friendly States

Overall Rank*	State	Total Score	Access to Art Rank	Artists Economy and Personal Finances Rank	Arts Education Rank
1	New York	73.00	3	1	1
2	Washington	62.15	1	2	29
3	Oregon	61.63	4	5	7
4	California	61.61	6	4	5
5	Montana	58.43	5	3	22
6	Vermont	56.67	8	6	10
7	Colorado	55.38	2	12	14
8	Massachusetts	54.38	11	10	4
9	New Mexico	50.01	7	11	30
10	Illinois	48.84	9	16	16
11	Utah	47.80	19	7	27
12	Alaska	47.75	12	8	43
13	Minnesota	46.66	10	20	17
14	Rhode Island	44.36	21	29	3
15	Maine	43.84	17	15	23
16	Connecticut	43.20	24	13	15
17	New Hampshire	42.39	27	9	18
18	Ohio	42.09	16	26	11
19	Maryland	41.78	15	21	25
20	Wyoming	41.47	13	18	47
21	Florida	40.82	14	33	26
22	Arizona	40.75	26	41	2
23	Hawaii	38.67	20	17	42
24	Nebraska	37.49	22	34	13
25	Pennsylvania	37.19	23	32	19
26	Georgia	36.85	34	14	21
27	Wisconsin	36.52	28	30	6
28	Texas	35.12	18	35	41
29	North Carolina	35.02	31	28	12
30	Michigan	34.70	30	31	9
31	Virginia	33.75	25	39	28
32	Missouri	32.33	33	22	34
33	New Jersey	30.42	35	24	38
34	North Dakota	30.38	29	23	48
35	Tennessee	30.37	36	36	24
36	Iowa	29.80	40	38	8
37	Louisiana	28.87	32	37	36
38	Delaware	28.27	39	27	40
39	South Dakota	26.53	37	25	50
40	Oklahoma	25.02	38	40	44
41	South Carolina	24.32	41	42	37
42	Kansas	24.11	43	43	33
43	Idaho	23.33	42	44	39
44	Indiana	23.24	44	49	20
45	Nevada	22.90	47	19	46
46	Kentucky	21.04	45	45	32
47	West Virginia	19.06	49	46	31
48	Arkansas	18.12	46	47	35
49	Alabama	14.50	48	48	45
50	Mississippi	12.00	50	50	49

Notes: *1 = Best

With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

Methodology

In order to determine the best states for the arts, SmileHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Access to Art, 2) Artists Economy & Personal Finances and 3) Arts Education.

We evaluated those dimensions using 16 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of arts-friendliness. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), the square root of the population was used to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for population differences across states.

We then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Access to Art - Total Points: 40

• Fine Art Museums & Galleries per Capita*: Triple Weight (~12.00 points)
• Arts Charities per Capita*: Triple Weight (~12.00 points)
• Federal Arts Funding per Capita: Full Weight (~4.00 points)
  Note: This metric counts the total funding given to a state from 2019-2023.
• Share of Residents Who Attend Art Events: Full Weight (~4.00 points)
• Share of Adults Creating Art: Full Weight (~4.00 points)
• Presence of State Percent for Art Programs and Policies: Full Weight (~4.00 points)
  Note: State percent for art policies are regulations that recommend or require a designated portion of the state budget for capital investment in state facilities to be set aside for the creation and upkeep of public art, which has a wide definition and is not limited to installations like statues.
  1 - State has an Active Program with Mandatory Allocation
  0.5 - State has an Active Program with Optional Allocation
  0 - State doesn’t have an Active Program

Artists, Economy & Personal Finances - Total Points: 40

• Average Salary for Fine Artists: Full Weight (~4.44 points)
  Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living. Fine artists create original works of art by predominantly using paint, drawing, sculpture, but also photograph printmaking. Fine art refers to any type of visual art that is not intended for commercial purposes. This is opposed to applied art which has a practical use such as a decoration or fabric design.
• Arts-Related Economic Contributions: Double Weight (~8.89 points)
  Note: This composed metric includes the share of arts and cultural value added to a state’s economy and the share of arts and cultural employment.
• Share of Museums and Art Dealers out of Total Establishments: Full Weight (~4.44 points)
  Note: For this metric, museums are establishments primarily engaged in the preservation and exhibition of objects of historical, cultural, and/or educational value, and art dealers are comprised of commercial art galleries primarily engaged in selling art objects.
• Number of Creative Economy Studies per Capita*: Full Weight (~4.44 points)
  Note: This metric records the number of studies created to study the creative economy from 2001 to 2023. The creative economy is an economic ecosystem of for-profit and nonprofit creative industries, artists and artist workforce, educators, entrepreneurs, vendors, policy makers and funders that produce and distribute creativity- and artistic-based goods and services.
• Artists per Capita: Double Weight (~8.89 points)
• Sales Tax Rate: Full Weight (~4.44 points)
  Note: This metric is based only on the taxes that apply to the sale of physical art.
• Grants and Fellowships in the Arts: Full Weight (~4.44 points)
  Note: This composed metric includes the number of grants and fellowships in the arts per capita and the total dollar amount of grants and fellowships in the arts per capita.

Arts Education - Total Points: 20

• Share of Population with a Degree in Visual Arts: Double Weight (~8.00 points)
• Artist Residency Programs per Capita*: Full Weight (~4.00 points)
• Quality of Graduate Art Programs: Double Weight (~8.00 points)
  Note: This metric is based on the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Art Schools” ranking.

 
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Internal Revenue Service, National Endowment for the Arts, Art-Collecting.com, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Zippia.com, Council for Community and Economic Research, Tax Foundation, Data USA, Artist Community Alliance and U.S. News & World Report.