by Beth Hester
My early musical experiences were informed by the sounds coming from my parents’ eclectic record collection which they played on one of those giant Zenith console stereos—essential pieces of furniture in the Mad Men era. Their assemblage included: Handel’s Messiah, Tony Bennett, Sergio Mendes, Big Band leaders Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, Herb Alpert, the soundtrack to the musical Oklahoma, Simon & Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, and Rosemary Clooney.
Then there was the music introduced by our much hipper relatives: The Mamas & the Papas, Steppenwolf, The Monkees, The 5th Dimension, The Rolling Stones, Iron Butterfly, and The Supremes. This was the soundtrack of my childhood, and it ignited my lifelong love of music.
But it wasn’t until 1978, when the Virginia Opera Association (VOA) was barely three years old, that I completely understood the mesmerizing power of a public, collective response to the performing arts. It was spring, and it was the premiere of Thea Musgrave’s opera Mary Queen of Scots, a work that writer Annalyn Swan, in her Time magazine review, described as “audacious,” with a libretto that “crackles with emotional tension.” Peter Mark was artistic director and conductor, and American soprano Ashley Putnam portrayed Mary, the defiant and unfortunate queen.
Because of a VOA school outreach program, Putnam visited our high school choir class. She sang excerpts from the opera and shared with us its backstory. And, due to this initiative, students were able to attend the dress rehearsal at a reduced price. It was magical. From the time the orchestra began tuning up, to the time the curtain dropped, every person sitting inside that house was feeling that emotional tension. It was moving and enchanting. And we experienced it together. That educational outreach program created opera fans for life. A taste for opera often turns into an appreciation for lighting and set design, for graphic design, costume creation, for period music, and for dance—both classical and contemporary.
Now, as adults, we attend myriad artistic performances. We buy tickets, we dine at local restaurants, we meet with friends for a post-performance beverage at a local watering hole, and we put gas in our tanks to drive to regional venues, We support the arts community in ways both large and small. We understand how the arts enrich our lives, and we try to bring others into the fold.
I was thinking about the social impact of these collective arts experiences when I attended the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony at the Ferguson Center for the Arts. It was part of the Virginia Arts Festival’s 2025 schedule. During the entire performance, which included a very sustained, barely perceptible closing passage, you could have heard a pin drop—literally. Not a rustling candy wrapper or cellphone chirp in the house. After the performance, audience members exited the hall speaking in hushed tones. We had all been a part of something that moved us—together. These collective, creative experiences help bind people and regions through community cohesion and civic engagement.
These magical experiences brought to us by the creative community also have valuable, measurable economic impact:
- Direct economic output—revenue, employment, wages
- Visitor and tourist spending
- Indirect, multiplier effects
- Labor market and workforce impacts
- Tax receipts
- Intellectual property and licensing
- Supply chain activity that generates economic impact—income to printers, graphic designers, movers, warehouse storage, etc.
- Artistic output that serves as the foundation for new products and services
The infographic on page 9 offers the most recent data on the nonprofit and cultural sector as an economic engine and community builder in Hampton Roads.
Alas, these experiences don’t come cheap. A healthy arts ecosystem that includes museums, dance companies, maker spaces, orchestras, chamber music groups, educational outreach, and mentoring programs requires financial support from major donors and from national, state, and regional organizations.
Given the current environment, I was wondering about the health of the creative economy in our region: What’s working well? Where do challenges lie? What does the future hold?
At a serendipitous lunch with ODU stalwarts Bob McNab and Vinod Agarwal, I learned more about the economic benefits of the creative economy. They directed me to a new report by Elizabeth Janik and James Koch that was sponsored by Arts Alliance, (formerly Business Consortium for Arts Support). The report covers the future of the arts in our region, but also more specifically covers the demographic, economic, and charitable trends that Arts Alliance was interested in as it moves into a new era.
The report, Arts And Culture In Hampton Roads: Exploring A Challenging Future, answered many of the questions I had, and I’ve been given permission to quote from it. It’s based on data-driven economic analysis and by interviews with our region’s arts leaders, participants, and attendees. The majority of the report with footnotes will appear as a chapter in the 2026 State of the Region Report when it comes out in early October. Here are some highlights:
The Good
- Overall, Hampton Roads hosts a remarkably vibrant and dynamic arts and culture ecosystem.
- The Virginia Arts Festival is wildly popular. Total attendance at the Festival’s events “routinely exceeds 100,000 annually. In 2025, 32% of Festival audiences came from outside the region.
- In October 2025, the Virginia MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) Boardwalk Art Show hosted an estimated 200,000 individuals, and they spent more than $45 million.
- Youth programs such as The Governor’s School for the Arts, and outreach initiatives designed by the Virginia Arts Festival and Teens With a Purpose, empower young people and provide a basis from which artistic talent can be cultivated and encouraged.
- Most of our nonprofit cultural and artistic organizations strive to be accessible to a broad audience and compared to other regions are relatively affordable.
- Our regional arts organizations are thrifty and well-managed, and are not profligate with expenditures
- By and large, the Hampton Roads business community has been generous in support of arts and culture.
Current Challenges and Potential Challenges
- Lagging philanthropy due to the changing demographic of major donors. The average age of a donor nationally has increased by about 10 years since the turn of the century. The report asks: “Are younger donors waiting in the wings?”
- DOGE-related budget cuts and federal government policy-driven reduced funding to arts organizations.
- It may be challenging for Hampton Roads to maintain current levels of giving once one accounts for price inflation.
- No major arts organization identifies with the moniker “Hampton Roads.” The report’s authors recognize that the “identity crisis that has long perplexed our region” poses problems in terms of the branding and marketing of our region.
- There needs to be more partnering and cooperation between art endeavors on the Peninsula and Southside in terms of fundraising, scheduling, and publicity.
- The Hampton Roads region is growing slowly and is experiencing net outward migration which “has major implications for the arts.”
As for what the future holds, the report closes with a statement from a local business executive and avid arts supporter who summed things up this way:
“We have superb products for a region of our size, but right now we are operating in a declining market. But I think this is reversable. If we have the right leaders, get into the schools, and get more buy-in from our city governments for a regional approach, then I think we can succeed.”
Our region seeks to double-down on, and capitalize on a number of our strengths: defense, energy, aerospace, and logistics. These regional assets are poised to fuel long-term growth, and that’s a good thing. But what might our region look like if similar attention was paid to growing our cultural assets which have a distinct role to play in Hampton Roads’ diversified economic portfolio?
