AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas’ arts and culture industry helped generate $7.3 billion for the state’s economy over the past 10 years, according to findings in the 2025 State of the Arts Report released Wednesday.
Nonprofit organization The Texas Cultural Trust produced the report as part of its efforts to bolster “access and awareness for the arts across the state,” the reported noted.
From its findings, the Texas arts and culture industry grew more than 60% in the same timespan, producing almost $459.1 million in state sales tax revenue. Statewide, almost one million Texans work in the creative sectors, comprising almost one out of every 14 jobs in Texas.
When broken out by metro, Dallas generated the largest sales tax collections as part of the arts and culture industry, with $1.27 billion in taxable sales made in 2023. The Houston metro ranked second, with $1.06 billion secured, and the Austin metro came in third with $607 million generated.
As the state’s art industry has grown, so, too has its tourism earnings. Tourism spending reached $94.8 billion in 2023, up from $68.7 billion nearly a decade prior in 2015. From an employment standpoint, Texas’ tourism industry amounted to 719,000 employees in 2023 — rebounding back to the same pre-COVID levels found in 2019.
Within the film sector, the report found the Texas Moving Image Incentive Program helped draw in $2.52 billion of in-state spending over the past 17 years. The report highlighted two specific projects: “1883” from Paramount+ and HBO Max’s “Love & Death.”
Filming within Fort Worth, Guthrie, Weatherford and Palestine, “1883” hired more than 1,100 Texas crew members and more than 800 Texas cast members, with the production spending more than $44 million in the state. For “Love & Death,” more than $45 million was spent in state while filming in the Austin area, and the project hired more than 7,200 cast and crew members and worked with more than 900 Texas businesses.
Those filming pursuits in Central Texas aren’t one-offs, either; production studios are in development in San Marcos and Bastrop, joining the likes of existing facilities like ATX Film Studios, which served as the production base for the Golden Globe-nominated series “1923” last year.
The full report is available online.
