Economist examines benefits of art at event in Moncton, N.B.

Economist Matthew Bell talks about the economic value of art.

An event examining the economic impact of the arts welcomed home a Canadian economist after he published a landmark study in 2024 for the British government.

Voices of Impact – Music and the Arts: Saving Society Billions, took place Friday at the Delta Beausejour Hotel, in Moncton, N.B.

Matthew Bell, Director at Frontier Economics in London, was the keynote speaker for the event as part of his work with Heritage Canada. He was joined by the Moncton Youth Orchestra, whose performance complemented the discussion about the value of art and music to the economy.

“What we wanted to look at was a different way of thinking about the arts as an asset to society,” Bell said. “From that asset we get a lot of benefits.”

Bell’s study attempts to assign a dollar figure to artistic value by measuring less traditional metrics than things like job creation. He said those benefits include health, quality of life and productivity.

“As an economist I do always have to step back and acknowledge and underline the intrinsic value of the arts and what everybody gets out of listening to a beautiful piece of music or seeing a great theatrical performance,” Bell said.

To find the economic value, he said he measures the benefits that come from participation in the arts as both creators and as audiences.

“We know that it improves how people’s brains function,” Bell said. “It improves their social abilities, their ability to concentrate, and how people think about the world.

That translates into societal benefits that include healthcare and employment, he said.

“We view health care systems more as sickness systems and less as a way of treating health in its broadest sense,” he said.

Investing and participating in the arts can prevent health problems and future demands on the healthcare system before they begin, and should be viewed like investing in community athletics and recreation, said Bell.

“What we want to do is position the arts in a similar space,” he said. “Because the truth is that the arts deliver similar types of outcomes.”

Bell has been working with Canadian Heritage to understand the impact of the arts on health, well-being, and productivity in Canada, even though funding is under pressure. He said he knows that governments around the world are making difficult spending decisions, but he hopes his work will give them the tools to understand the benefits and costs so they make better trade offs.

“Where there are often hard figures sitting in front of ministries of finance about the benefits of investing in roads or investing in health services or investing in industrial plants, we want the same hard figures… about the benefits of investing in the arts.”

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