How much money is spent every year on Art for HealthCare ?
I asked a leading expert and she replied: "I have no idea what annual spending on healthcare art is...your guess is as good as mine!"
I could not find the numbers, but I did get estimates on the money spent on construction.
"HealthCare construction spending in the United States is estimated to be $16.7 billion in 2005, rising to about $18.8 billion in 2009 (McGraw Hill Construction 2005) and to $33 billion by 2010 (Babwin 2002)."*
Let me make a rough guess on the percentage of the budget that is devoted to Art. In Norway it is supposed to be 1%. I would guess that an a quarter or an eighth of that is probably closer to the truth in the United States.
Understand that this is all a rough estimate, but I am trying to get a sense of the overall yearly budget.
If we assume HealthCare construction is $20 billion per year.
And, if we assume 1/8th of 1% (0.0125%) of that money will be devoted to art then the math works like this: $20,000,000,000 X 0.0125% = $250,000,000
So perhaps $250 to $500 million dollars are spent each year on art for healthcare in the US. If anyone can give me more precise numbers I would appreciate it.
How this money spent?
The bulk of it seems to go to many independent art consultants, Interior Design/Architectural firms, Mom-and-Pop gallery shops and a few national art consulting firms. A smaller percentage of the sales is from hospitals buying directly from artists.
* the quote is from page 2 of "Improving HealthCare with Better Building Design"
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