The Dallas Arts District was named one of the best in the country by a USA Today competition last year

DALLAS (TIP): Dallas is one of the top 10 cities for creatives. That’s according to a new study by Compare the Market, an online comparison platform. The study looked at the number of museums, galleries, theaters, architectural landmarks and average salaries for creative fields.

Dallas landed as No. 10 on the list, followed by Austin and Philadelphia.

The study shows Dallas has on average 10 museums for every 100,000 residents. Just last year, the Dallas Arts District was named one of the best in the country by a USA Today competition. Plus, the study showed Dallas scored higher than both Denver and Los Angeles on the list when it comes to salary. Dallas provides a competitive average monthly salary of about $5,000 for creative professionals.

Will Heron is the artist liaison at Meow Wolf, an interactive art venue in Grapevine, and has been an artist in Dallas full time since 2012. Heron is not surprised Dallas ranked high. He said the city’s affordability and community support make it easy to sustain a career.

“With the Internet and with the right connections of people, you can make it here in Dallas just as well as any of these major art city hubs, and it’s just a little bit cheaper to live, which is wonderful,” he said.

Heron also finds the city to have a supportive arts community and believes his life is less stressful than his artistic peers who live in Los Angeles or New York.

“Everyone’s almost like competing for the same jobs,” he said. “I think Dallas has this really special creative community that we’re all supporting each other and working together trying to uplift each other rather than tear each other down, or have this really competitive only-one-person-can-succeed mentality.”
Here’s the full list of best cities for creatives:

1 – San Francisco

2 – New York City

3 – Seattle

4 – Chicago

5 – Denver

6 – San Diego

7 – Los Angeles

8 – Philadelphia

9 – Austin

10 – Dallas
(Source: Dallas Morning News)