Artists seen as aiding economies like tech

NEW YORK, March 6 (UPI) -- Artists stimulate local economies in many ways and are often a sign of neighborhood gentrification, U.S. economists and researchers say in a published report.

Artists "are just as important as science and technology companies," said University of Minnesota economist and Professor Anne Markusen, a leading researcher on the effects of the arts on regional economics.

Artists are also "the advance guard of what's hip and cool," said Sperling's Best Places President Bert Sperling, who compiled BusinessWeek.com's list of the Best Places for Artists in America.

Besides artists' creativity, which can also benefit non-arts businesses, such as in improving product design and in marketing, a thriving arts community in a city also attracts employees who want to be able to regularly go to the ballet or the theater, hear authors read from their latest books or attend art gallery openings, BusinessWeek said.

BusinessWeek's list of the Top 10 U.S. cities for artists, in order, includes Los Angeles; Santa Fe, N.M.; Carson City, Nev.; New York; Kingston, N.Y.; Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.; Nashville; Boulder, Colo.; San Francisco; and Nassau-Suffolk County, N.Y.