A visitor photographing a painting at the Metropolitan Museum (photo by Phil Roeder/Flickr)

A visitor photographing a painting at the Metropolitan Museum (photo by Phil Roeder/Flickr)

New studies released today by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and based on surveys carried out in 2012 claim that arts attendance in the US has connected to drop over the past 2 decades, simply both struggle to incorporate digital activities into their findings. The studies, "A Decade of Arts Engagement: Findings From the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2002–2012" and "When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance," break downwards arts attendance, participation, and production figures demographically and attempt to account for the reasons certain groups exercise and don't attend cultural events.

The attendance numbers are worrisome. The number of visitors to cadre arts events — opera, jazz, classical music, ballet, musical theater, plays, art museum and gallery visits — connected to decline, with but 33.4% of United states adults attending one of those between July 2011 and July 2012. A decade before the figure was 39.4%, and in 2008 information technology was 34.6%.

(courtesy the National Endowment for the Arts) (click to enlarge)

(courtesy the National Endowment for the Arts) (click to overstate)

Withal, "A Decade of Arts Engagement" also turns up more encouraging, if somewhat nebulous, figures with regards to cultural production and arts engagement through the cyberspace. For instance, though only a 3rd of United states of america adults attended a cultural event in person, a whopping 71% reported using the internet to watch, heed to, or download civilisation in 1 form or another. That'due south an impressive figure, but it does include streaming pop music, so anyone who listened to "Somebody That I Used To Know" on Spotify could exist counted toward that statistic.

In terms of makers of civilization, 23.2% of US adults said they created or performed art between July 2011 and July 2012. "Artistic photographs" were the type almost oft produced by responders — 12.4% of them, or 29.1 1000000, snapped at to the lowest degree one artsy picture that year. Overall, 5.7% of adults in the US, or 13.four million, said they made visual art. Of them, 60.7% were women and 62.six% had either some college didactics or had graduated from college.

(courtesy the National Endowment for the Arts) (click to enlarge)

(courtesy the National Endowment for the Arts) (click to enlarge)

"When Going Gets Tough" offers insights to contextualize the numbers in its sis report, helping to explain why certain types of culture are struggling to find an audience. The study's most instructive finding may be that "life stages" — whether respondents are in college, raising children, or retired — are more consistently predictive of people'due south artistic consumption patterns than many other metrics.

The report is also notable for beingness the first of its kind to approach people who wanted to attend a cultural event but didn't. These "interested non-attendees" made upwardly 13.iii% of U.s. adults in 2012, or 31 meg people. The reason most oft cited for not actually making it to a performance or exhibition, accounting for 47.3% of interested non-attendees, was not having enough time. Another 38.3% said the price of admission was prohibitively high. And 21.half dozen% said they didn't take anyone to go with, suggesting that there'southward a great need for events targeting singles like the Art Institute of Chicago'south "Evening Associates" soirées.

Other noteworthy statistics from the NEA studies released today:

  • "Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to take attended the arts within the past twelvemonth."
  • "Full-time students anile 18 to 34 are more likely to nourish the arts than young adults not in schoolhouse."
  • "Arts attendees placed greater value than not-attendees on listening to others' opinions and understanding diverse perspectives."
  • "Nineteen percentage of American adults in 2012 used electronic media to share art that they themselves had created, edited, or remixed."
  • "Babyhood experience in the arts is significantly associated with educational level obtained in adulthood. Over 70 percent of higher graduates said they visited an art museum or gallery every bit a child, compared with 42 percent of adults who have only a high school diploma."
  • "New England had the highest share of adults subscribing or donating to an arts or cultural organization (nine percent). They also played sports and participated in community meetings at college levels than the national charge per unit."
  • "Women are more likely than men to dance."

Benjamin Sutton is an art critic, journalist, and curator who lives in Park Gradient, Brooklyn. His articles on public art, creative person documentaries, the tedium of art fairs, James Franco'south obsession with Cindy... More than by Benjamin Sutton