Arts Attendance is In Decline

I'm not sure I'd equate most movies with art, but for the sake of this article we must:

A new study from the National Endowment for the Arts finds a notable decline in theater, museum and concert attendance and other “benchmark” cultural activities between 2002 and 2008 for adults 18 and older, and a sharper fall from 25 years ago. The drop was for virtually all art forms and for virtually all age groups and levels of education.

The NEA’s senior deputy chair, Joan Shigekawa, listed a few possible reasons: The rise of the Internet; less free time; and cuts in arts classes.

“These numbers definitely represent a challenge,” Shigekawa said.

Released Thursday, the NEA’s 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is the sixth such report to come out since 1982, when 39 percent of adults attended a “benchmark arts activity” at least once in the previous year. The percentage peaked at 41 percent in 1992, just as the Internet was taking off, and dropped to 34.6 percent in 2008.

Between 2002 and 2008, percentages fell for moviegoing from 60 to 53.3, for jazz from 10.8 to 7.8, for museums/galleries from 26.5 to 22.7. Other categories with lower attendance include ballet, opera, musical and nonmusical theater, and art/crafts fairs and festivals.

I think the movie number is the easiest to understand. Most theaters are now charging anywhere from $11 to $15 for the crap that Hollywood is putting out these days. High prices and poor quality do not a successful industry make.

The presence of an internet that can take you just about anywhere and show you anything could certainly contribute to the decline of interest in some museums and galleries, though again, quality and price are bigger factors.

Jazz - I don't know why anyone would attend a jazz concert...ever. It's five guys playing different songs all at the same time.

I do think that as we cut music eduction in elementary schools we make it much less likely that those kids will grow up to appreciate good music, and will therefore be less likely to attend concert events as adults. It's also stripping the junior highs, high schools, and colleges of playing talent, thus hurting their programs.

However, most of the problems in the arts community these days come down to price and quality. With Americans having less money to spend thanks to a tanking economy and higher taxes, they're not going to spend their money on things that don't promise a good value.