California's nonprofit arts revenues = California's convenience store revenues

"Last week, I was in California, and I learned that nonprofit arts organizations there have annual revenues of $2.4 billion, which is roughly equivalent to the revenues of California's convenience stores. That is significant," said a smiling Landesman. "But arts workers make more than Slurpees, they make places." The arts, Landesman said, help "change the ethos of a town or community. They enliven it, they activate the public life."

--Rocco Landesman, Chair, National Endowment for the Arts

(March 27, 2010, The Washington Post)