Author: The National Endowment for the Arts

Publication Year: 2006

Media Type: Sample document

Summary:

The Arts and Civic Engagement demonstrates with statistically reliable data that arts participation overwhelmingly correlates with positive individual and civic behaviors. Put simply, Americans who read books, visit museums, attend theater, and engage in other arts are more active in community life than those who do not.

Abstract:

The analysis is based on data from the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The figures demonstrate that arts participants are active people who volunteer, exercise, and go out to movies, concerts, and sporting events at higher rates than nonparticipants. This analysis does not attempt to show cause and effect between arts participation and volunteering, or between arts participation and the other leisure activities captured by the survey.

This brief describes arts participation, volunteering, and other leisure activities reported by the National Endowment for the Art's Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). Conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2002 survey supplemented the Current Population Survey, and interviewed 17,135 adults, ages 18 and older. The SPPA s response rate was 70%

Performing arts attendance pertains to classical or jazz concerts, operas, plays, musicals, or ballets. 'Literary reading' refers to reading one or more short stories, novels, plays, or poetry; non-readers reported not reading in any of those genres. All attendance and participation covered by the 2002 SPPA refers to the 12-month period ending August 2002. Approximately 31% of survey respondents attended performing arts events, 46% read literature and 68% listened to classical or jazz radio. There were 4,732 young adults (ages 18-34) in the sample population.

Arts & Intersections: Civic Dialogue, Lifelong Learning, Political Activation

Categories: Accessibility, Arts Education, Civic Dialogue and Social Change, Cultural Diversity, Funding