Closer to home, arts and cultural production in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts totals nearly $30 billion annually, representing more than 4 percent of the state's economic output, according to the Mass Cultural Council. All told, more than 130,000 jobs are spread across the commonwealth creating a vibrant and thriving artistic community for us all to enjoy. 

Despite the obvious impact, these figures are under threat. A recent survey by MassCreative compiled recent federal cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services and identified 63 grants canceled and $4.2 million in grant funding rescinded across New England so far this year. 

The dollars, of course, are important. But they also only scratch the surface on what they bring to the community. Today, we risk losing part of the culture and identity many now take for granted. 

While others choose to look past these less tangible, but just as vital benefits, we're doing the opposite. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is all in to ensure the next generation retains their access to works of art, while also being empowered to create themselves. 

Last fall, MCLA officially broke ground on the new Campagna Kleefeld Center for Creativity in the Arts, which will serve as a new hub for the campus and the local community for arts programming. When complete in fall of 2027, our students will benefit, but so will all of Berkshire County and artists in the surrounding area. 

This exciting new facility is just one of the many forthcomings our region can enjoy in the coming years. Just a few miles away, anticipation builds for the Fall 2027 anticipated opening for the Williams College Museum of Art. Years in the making, the museum likewise grows from an enduring commitment to the arts, both in curriculum and in practice. Exciting times are also underway for the Clark Art Institute with the construction of a new facility to house a collection of 331 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and other works. Their wing is scheduled for completion in 2028. And listeners will no doubt enjoy the sounds and melodies from Mass MoCA Records, the latest endeavor to foster creativity and artistic pursuits through music launched in October as well. Of course, many are also awaiting the reopening of the Berkshire Museum anticipated this summer, after a tremendous renovation process to rejuvenate the experience for visitors. 

So much time, energy, and yes, dollars, have already been invested in taking these facilities from ideas and sketches and making them reality. But they represent much more than new buildings. They represent new opportunities to cultivate and accelerate the thriving arts community in Massachusetts and the northern Berkshires. 

Art, regardless of the medium, is a reflection of who we are, where we've been, and what we aspire to be. It can be inspired by hopes or fears and chronicle collective triumphs as well as tribulations. The goal of art is not only to document history, but to inspire those positioned to change it and to feel something new or even to provoke us to revisit our own assumptions or misconceptions. 

As unfathomable of a number as $30 billion can seem, boiling down the impact to any number inherently discounts the unknowable downstream effects our graduates will bring to the community and the broader world after they leave our institutions. Likewise, rescinding $4.2 million now removes a huge chunk of that growth potential.  

Justification for making these investments today when simply boiled down to dollars and cents still places us on solid ground strictly from a financial perspective that forgoes all of the intangible, but no less valuable, benefits as well.  

The arts are still worth our support. And our community will be richer for it. 

James Birge, PhD, is president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.