smARTstart

Chicago Area Audience Development/Engagement
1996 to present

• NATIONAL STUDIES
• WALLACE FOUNDATION STUDIES
• OTHER RESOURCES

NATIONAL STUDIES

National Endowment for the Arts Research
The National Endowment for the Arts Office of Research and Analysis conducts ongoing research in the field. Below are listed research studies, research notes and research brochures published by the NEA related to audience engagement and participation.

Volunteering and Performing Arts Attendance: More Evidence from the SPPA (#94)
Published March 2007
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/Notes/94.pdf
This research note discusses the correlation between performing arts attendance and the probability of volunteering as extracted from the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.

Arts and Leisure Activities: Evidence from the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (#89)
Published June 2005
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/Notes/89.pdf
Analysis of the 2002 SPPA shows that arts participants, adults who read literature, listened to classical or jazz radio, or attended a performing arts event, were more likely than non-arts participants to engage in other leisure activities such as attending sporting events and doing volunteer or charity work.

Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (#45)
Published March 2004
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/NEASurvey2004.pdf.
This report describes U.S. adult arts participation and attendance in 2002. The survey also investigates arts participation through broadcast and recorded media, the Internet, and personal participation such as singing in choirs or making photographs. In addition, the report discusses demographic and geographic differences in arts participation, and compares 2002 rates to those found in 1982 and 1992.

Demographic Characteristics of Arts Attendance, 2002 (#82)
Published July 2003
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/Notes/82.pdf
Reports on the attendance rates of various demographic groups at arts events/activities based on the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) and makes comparisons to similar data from the 1992 SPPA.

2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (#81)
Published July 2003
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/Notes/81.pdf
Presents highlights from a national survey of over 17,000 adults that measures participation in arts activities through 1) attendance at live events; 2) watching or listening through broadcast and recorded media; and 3) personal performance or creation of art.

The Geography of Participation in the Arts and Culture (#41)
Published March 2000
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/GeographyParticipation.pdf
This report uses data from the 1997 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts to investigate geographic variations in participation rates in arts and culture. The report presents analyses for nine regional divisions and 10 highly populated states and covers topics such as arts participation through attendance at live events, participation through media (such as radio broadcasts), and personal involvement through media (such as radio broadcasts) and personal involvement through artistic creation.

1997 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (#39)
Published February 1999
Available http://www.nea.gov/research/Survey/SurveyPDF.html
This report describes the results of the 1997 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). In addition to attendance at arts activities and participation through broadcast and recorded media, the report covers geographic and demographic differences in participation, arts socialization, music preferences and other leisure activities as well as background information on the history of the SPPA and changes introduced in 1997.

Effects of Arts Education on Participation in the Arts (#36)
Published 1996
Executive summary available http://www.nea.gov/research/Researcharts/Summary36.html
This study examines the effects of arts education in determining subsequent arts participation. The report provides evidence that arts education is an even greater predictor of arts participation than general education.

Age and Arts Participation with a Focus on the Baby Boomers (#34)
Published 1996
Executive summary available http://www.nea.gov/research/Researcharts/Summary34.html
This study examines arts participation or attendance rates for a variety of age groupings or cohorts, to determine trends over the 1982 to 1992 decade. A specific focus of the report is baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1965.

WALLACE FOUNDATION STUDIES
The Wallace Foundation has been a leader in conducting ongoing research in arts and cultural participation and engagement. The Knowledge Center on the Foundation website includes a number of studies which provides a broad perspective on arts participation. The most relevant studies are listed below.

The Diversity of Cultural Participation: Findings from National Survey
Published November 2005
Available here: The Diversity of Cultural Participation.pdf
This full-length report, based on a national survey, explores the widely varying motivations and expectations people have when they attend different types of artistic events. The Urban Institute investigated people’s year-long arts involvement as well as their perceptions about the most recent event they attended, providing valuable information about what people want out of each artistic discipline. The report can help arts providers and researchers better understand participation in each arts area and tailor their audience-building strategies accordingly.

Motivations Matter: Findings and Practical Implications of a National Survey of Cultural Participation
Published November 2005
Available  here: Motivations Matter.pdf
In building arts participation, one size does not fit all, concludes this groundbreaking national survey from the Urban Institute. It offers new insights about the widely differing motivations and expectations people have when they attend various kinds of artistic events. By providing separate audience data for different disciplines, this report gives practitioners and researchers a more precise way to understand and address the challenge of increasing participation.

Partnerships between Large and Small Cultural Organizations: A Strategy for Building Arts Participation
Published August 2004
Available here: Large and Small Partnerships.pdf
Arts partnerships to build participation can be challenging when one organization is much bigger than the other. Though potentially valuable to both small and large groups as a way to share each other’s strengths, these partnerships must overcome challenges of coordination, mutual respect and influence, and strains on resources. This Urban Institute brief provides illuminating examples of how several such pairs of organizations successfully united to expand capacity and reach new audiences.

Arts and Non-Arts Partnerships: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies
Published August 2004
Available here: Arts and Non Arts Partnerships.pdf
Arts organizations trying to build participation sometimes find that working with non-arts organizations, from religious groups to youth and community agencies, opens doors for both sides. Arts groups gain public value through increased awareness and participation; non-arts groups get high-quality programming for their constituents. This Urban Institute brief explores the potential benefits and pitfalls of arts and non-arts partnerships, offering practical lessons and real-world examples to help organizations find the right match and work effectively together.

Participation in Arts & Culture: The Importance of Community Venues
Published October 2003
Available here: Participation in Arts and Culture.pdf
Arts organizations are discovering that venues for cultural events can be crucial to reaching new audiences. Staging the arts in open-air spaces, schools, community centers and places of worship can bring in people who would be less likely to go to concert halls, theaters or museums. This Urban Institute brief explores the motivations, backgrounds and characteristics of people who attend nontraditional venues and advises arts providers how to attract them with strategic programming and site choices.

Arts Participation: Steps to Stronger Cultural and Community Life
Published August 2003
Available here: Steps to Stronger Cultural and Community Life.pdf
The more often people attend cultural events, the more ready they will be to climb a “ladder of increasing commitment” to the arts — as donors, as creators, and as parents who involve their children in the arts. This Urban Institute brief offers arts providers recommendations on how to tap the potential of these people, further deepen their involvement, and thereby benefit their own organizations and the communities they serve.

Cultural Collaborations: Building Partnerships for Arts Participation
Published January 2003
Available here: Cultural Collaborations.pdf
When it comes to increasing participation, arts organizations have a lot to offer one another: links to new audiences, dedicated volunteers, fundraising power, administrative resources, event space and more. Partnerships allow groups to share these strengths. But what do these joint ventures look like in practice, and how can organizations increase the odds for their success? This Urban Institute study paints the “big picture” of how organizations can work together, surveying the types of partnerships, the advantages to each group and the chances for sustainable results.

Arts & Culture: Community Connections
Published March 2002
Available here: Arts Culture Community Connections.pdf
Not everyone attends an arts event only because of what’s on the program. Many are instead drawn to the arts by “community connections” — because they want to socialize, support family and friends, or participate with fellow members of a non-arts group. This Urban Institute brief offers arts providers, policymakers and funders practical ideas on making their offerings more approachable to new audiences by using community links as means to increase arts engagement.

Reggae to Rachmaninoff: How and Why People Participate in Arts and Culture
Published November 2002
Available here: Reggae to Rachmaninoff.pdf
By offering a broader, less conventional definition of what constitutes arts participation, this Urban Institute report shows that people participate in arts and culture at much higher levels than researchers previously thought, yielding a whole new perspective on strategies for increasing arts involvement. It offers new information about who participates, how often, where, and what motivates them; it illuminates the complexity of cultural participation and suggests varied, targeted methods of reaching new audiences.

Increasing Cultural Participation: An Audience Development Planning Handbook for Presenters, Producers and Their Collaborators
Published June 2001
Available here: Increasing Cultural Participation.pdf
This step-by-step handbook, a product of Wallace’s Audiences for Literature Network initiatives, helps arts presenters find new audiences and develop relationships with them. Charting the process from goal-setting through evaluation, this guide sheds light on the nuts and bolts of research, scheduling, budgeting, organization, marketing and documentation. It includes checklists, surveys and worksheets that can be used by a wide range of arts providers and others interested in building participation.

A New Framework for Building Participation in the Arts
Published March 2001
Available here: Building Participation.pdf
This landmark RAND study offers arts providers a methodical way to avoid hit-and-miss audience-building efforts that waste scarce resources and arrive instead at more clear-headed, effective strategies. It presents a behavioral model that can guide leaders of arts organizations in pinpointing their participation-building goals, identifying the obstacles that inhibit target audiences from attending, and developing the most appropriate means to overcome those barriers to increased participation.

OTHER RESOURCES

Invitation to the Party: Building Bridges to the Arts, Culture and Community
By Donna Walker-Kuhne, 2005
(Summary and purchase information here.)

Arts Marketing Insights: The Dynamics of Building and Retaining Performing Arts Audiences
By Joanne Scheff Bernstein, 2006 (www.artsmarketinginsights.com)