Alexandra Kennedy, Executive Director of the Eric Carle Museum, co-wrote an op-ed piece with MASSCreative's Matt Wilson about the need for state investment in the arts, focusing on the impact of funding in the Hampshire county. Kennedy highlights the museum's impressive reach in the area, welcoming 500,000 visitors, including 30,000 school children since its opening, as well as status as an economic driver:

In addition to their educational value, arts and culture are economic drivers. The National Endowment for the Arts, working with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, has repeatedly demonstrated the economic benefits of investing in the arts. In Hampshire County, for instance, arts and cultural organizations generated nearly $21 million in economic activity in fiscal year 2011, according to the Massachusetts Cultural Data Project, a nonprofit that tracks the financial and programmatic impact of cultural organizations.

Hampshire County arts and cultural organizations provide important full- and part-time jobs. Close to 345,000 people attended arts and cultural events in the region in 2011.

Read the entire piece at the Daily Hampshire Gazette.