“[A] test has been done by Mel Gray, who teaches economics at the University of St. Thomas, and the results cast doubt on the idea that a flourishing artistic environment will cause economic growth….
“Gray told me, ‘I spent a sabbatical in North Carolina, and both Raleigh and Durham have established these Offices of Creativity, and they’re all doing this without a huge amount [of], if any, evidence that it makes that big a difference.’ ”
— From “The Fall of the Creative Class” by Frank Bures in Thirty Two Magazine