TheUtah Cultural Alliance survey was created to inform voters on the candidate’s stance on art and culture, as well as giving them a rating on how well they supported the arts.
“What we really found [was] that support for or [against] culture is not a partisan issue," said Chrystal Young-Otterstrom, executive director of the Utah Cultural Alliance. "It was not uniform that one party was better than the other.”
She said there are other things that politicians can do to support the arts in Utah.
“Things like creating cultural districts or promoting tourism to a community," Young-Otterstrom said. "Making a historic district or a cultural district. Creating office space for cultural businesses. Performance space and invigorating downtown.”
She said these kind of projects are important - not only to improve business and attract tourists, but also to improve the quality of life.
“They teach empathy. Arts taught to children, music taught to children— helps them improve their scores," Young-Otterstrom said. "It teaches them how to be better human beings. It teaches them a lot about the diversity of our wonderful earth and all of our history.”