Storytelling is the main approach we use, no matter who we are or where we come from, to justify choices as individuals or members of society. When it comes to decisions involving the arts—whether we’re talking about resource allocation for a school or community, how to curate a playlist or personal library, which furniture pieces to buy, or which show to attend—emotion-fueled narratives play an outsized part. This is to be expected. As we all know (increasingly through neuroscience), the arts routinely activate our deepest personal responses.
3 comments:
I was hoping this article would provide more of a summary or some highlights from the statistics themselves but sadly it did not. I wasn’t aware that this kind of research was done on, what in my opinion appears to be a comprehensive attempt at gathering information which is very useful and interesting. The thought of tackling such a task is an overwhelming one. Like the article originally stated the arts are largely an emotional endeavor, which in itself makes it seem like it’d be difficult if not impossible to predict what trends or interests of the general population would be. Then of course there is the generalness of researching people’s interaction with the “arts” which has so many categories and avenues to be explored. Not to mention all the different levels of arts programs, from professional to educational, to community base it is a lot to trace. I imagine even there best efforts could only be a good approximation of trying to make these very emotional subjects into some sort of statistic.
When clicking on this article I thought that I was going to get the results of the studies. Nevertheless, reading about the importance of these statistics was extremely interesting. The numbers that the NEA discovers can lead to policy changes, especially regarding the budget and money give to artists. I wonder what the cost to do these studies are versus the amount of money gained is. Either way, the data is valuable, but I would be interested in the comparison. I’m not sure if it's good that we are in a place where we are able to produce these numbers or if it was bad that have to produce these numbers to increase arts funding. Regardless, I’m excited to see what other changes these results will bring. I hope storytellers are willing to embrace the changes and recommendations that the the NEA brings, especially along the aspect of diversity. Using science to enhance the arts is a wonderful way to bring them together. I look forward to this research. Also, I wonder how these studies are influenced by that fact that they are done by voluntary public surveys. Since the people who participate in the these surveys chose to, I could see the numbers being altered.
Oof, reading the title of the article made me feel sad for the arts community. Getting people to participate in anything is tough, and I think arts participation is sometimes harder and easier at the same time. Harder because I think the public is usually more apathetic when an art event is announced I think a lot of people throw the flyer from the mail right into the recycling bin. Easier because most arts events are free to attend. That in itself will pull the public, if nothing out of sheer curiosity. Often times these free events have vendors of arts and crafts, and live music playing to draw people in. I'm thinking specifically of the Three Rivers Arts Fest that gets a good amount of people each year. I like that this article mentioned that there is a system formulating that will be able to measure the amount of participation.
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