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Americans taking in even less culture
Source: Agencies |
December 11, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
A NEW American arts agency study finds a notable decline in theater, museum and concert attendance and other "benchmark" cultural activities between 2002 and 2008 for American 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 National Endowment for the Arts' 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.
The National Endowment for the Arts' 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, released yesterday, 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 proportion 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.
The reading of "literature," defined as "plays/poetry/novels/short stories," was an exception, rising from 46.7 percent to 50.2 percent. But reading that was not required by school or work dropped from 56 percent to 54 percent.
The drop was for virtually all art forms and for virtually all age groups and levels of education.
The National Endowment for the Arts' 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.
The National Endowment for the Arts' 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, released yesterday, 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 proportion 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.
The reading of "literature," defined as "plays/poetry/novels/short stories," was an exception, rising from 46.7 percent to 50.2 percent. But reading that was not required by school or work dropped from 56 percent to 54 percent.
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