Periodically, the National Endowment for the Arts has looked at arts participation in the United States in partnership with the U. S. Census Bureau. It has just published its latest survey, Arts Participation 2008: Highlights from a National Survey—a statistical snapshot of engagement in the U.S. with the arts by frequency and activity type.
The survey is not designed to determine why arts participation increases or decreases from survey to survey—but rather to look at how arts participation is affected by social, cultural, or economic patterns or by policies and programs in the arts arena. The 2008 survey results present an especially challenging question: how did the economic downturn affect participation in the arts?
When the survey was conducted in May 2008, the recession, although not officially declared, had already made travel and other costs a problem for many Americans. Although the survey cannot prove that weak consumer spending had a direct impact on participation in the arts, the survey results do show that adult attendance at arts events declined for almost every art form in 2008 as compared to the last survey in 2002.
The report presents charts and tables representing the results of the survey and reports some key findings, including:
1 in 3 adults attended an arts museum or an arts performance in the 12-month survey period.
Smaller percentages of adults attended performing arts events than in previous years.
Long-term trends suggest fundamental shifts in the relationship between age and arts attendance.
For more information about these and other key findings of the survey, read the report.
Does your experience with arts participation reflect these findings? Let us know.
Kayron Bearden, Reference Librarian, Foundation Center-Atlanta
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