NEA: The National Endowment for the Arts today released the full results from the nation’s largest, most representative survey of adult participation in the arts. The new Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) records the different ways that American adults (age 18 and older) engage in the arts, where that engagement takes place, and why adults participate in these activities.
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I found this article very informative because of the light that it sheds on active adult engagement in visual and performing arts. For one, I was genuinely and happily surprised that the engagement is as high as the article deems to be because that is so indicative of the emergence of the arts and entertainment industry as a passion and career for a lot of people.
The statistic that stood out to me the most was the one about the number of people who read books, novels and other such print media for purposes other than school and offices because it just helps reinstate the importance of reading print media, particularly books and novels. And because reading has been such an integral part of my childhood and upbringing, this statistic speaks to me at another level. It feels good to realize that the habit of reading books and novels is not necessarily dying in an age of social media and extended work load.
I find this article almost familiar, as I used the 2018 report from last year for research in a paper that I wrote. Both reports discuss similar findings about how engaging in the arts links to positive social and civic activity, and emotional well-being. What I found very interesting about the findings of this report, was that Colorado, Illinois, North Dakota, and D.C, all have higher rates of attendance at music and theater performances than the national average. I think its funny and weird that North Dakota made that list. It does make sense, as North Dakota's population is lower than most states, and therefore, their average of attendance will be higher purely because they have a smaller pool. Or it could just be that North Dakota has great live music and theater. It makes sense that D.C. is in the list, as there are so many small regional theaters in the city's limits, and of course the Kennedy Center is there as well. These yearly reports and the NEA's grants are such an important part to the arts and I am glad that both are still in existence.
Theater is nothing without its audience members. To me, the public and whoever comes to see shows is the most important part of any production. It is how theater stays alive and thrives. Seeing information like this is very relevant, I would say, to my future career. If there is low public engagement with the arts there will be no arts. This data is very interesting in that about half of people overall participate in these art engagements even if it was just reading a book, or attending some sort of event. What I am most surprised by is the low number of 17% of adults learning art informally and 9% who took formal classes. I feel like this is very low but I am curious how this compares if this information was to gather info about children. A statistic that I like is that 62% of performers spent their time creating or performing with their family. The arts is such an engaging format of expression, it is wonderful to hear people are experiencing it with groups of people and family members.
I recently read another article about how children’s academic achievement is closely related to how often they are exposed to the arts. According to the article, an educational institution conducted a survey of families with high educational standard. They asked the parents what do they do to help your children educated. More parents answered that they take their children to museums and theatres, and the less answered that they tell their children to do their homework, study for exams, and get good grades. I think the former article is relevant to this article, since how much children can be exposed to the arts depends on how much their parents participate in the arts. Of course, this is a chicken-and-egg problem, however, it is certain that we must consider a way to make many people from children to adults to get involved in the field of arts in order to increase the total participation.
This was such a refreshing article to read because it was full of so many surprising statistics. I feel like there are so many adults who start their lives with developing passions for the arts, and then end up steering away from them because of the lack of respect that society has for the arts. I am not saying that society does not respect the arts, but compared to other occupations, it is not the most revered thing one can do with their life. I am sure I do not need to come on this blog and tell all of you this, though. We all have ~those~ extended family members who remind us, and we have ~those~ same family members who were not alluded to in this article. Anyway, I totally expected to see New York and California mentioned on the list of states with high participation in the arts, but I was surprised to see places such as North Dakota and Colorado. However, there is a reason why people always go on creative retreats in the middle of nowhere. People who come from states such as those, where the land to people ratio is totally inadequate, have little distractions from allowing them to listen to their own creativity. Also, whenever I would go to those theater festivals in high school, it was always the schools from that part of the country that would excel.
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