The latest survey explores five areas of arts engagement
WASHINGTON, DC?How
do Americans participate in the arts in the course of a year? What kinds
of art forms and activities do they engage with, and in what numbers?
The NEA investigates these questions and more in
the 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), the
nation?s largest population survey of arts participation trends. Today
the NEA released an initial report of the survey's findings. A more
comprehensive report will be available in 2014.
?One of the most
important things we can do as the National Endowment for the Arts is to
understand how our nation engages with the arts,? said NEA Senior Deputy
Chairman Joan Shigekawa. ?This iteration of the
Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is our most comprehensive
look yet at the myriad ways art works for Americans.?
A Yardstick for Arts Engagement
The NEA has
partnered with the United States Census Bureau six times since 1982 to
conduct the SPPA. The 2012 survey asked a nationally representative
sample of adults ages 18 and older if they had participated
in five broad categories of arts activity in the past year: attending,
reading, learning, making/sharing art, and consuming art via electronic
media.
Within the arts
attendance category, the survey collected data on performing arts
events; art museums, galleries, and visual arts events; destinations
with historic or design value; and movies. In the reading category,
the survey measured reading rates for literature (novels or short
stories, poetry, and plays), as well as reading rates for any book
(fiction or nonfiction) outside of school or work. The art-making or
art-sharing category gathered data on dance; photography;
various types of music; film/video; the fiber arts; leatherwork,
metalwork, and woodwork; scrapbooking; creative writing and books in
general; the visual arts; pottery, ceramics, and jewelry-making;
theater; and opera. The survey also asked about electronic
consumption of books and literature, the visual arts, dance, theater,
opera, and various types of music. In addition, the survey asked people
if they had taken an arts class or lesson in or out of school, or had
learned arts subjects through some other means.
For the 2012 survey,
the NEA doubled the sample size in order ask more questions and
discover new patterns of arts engagement. The NEA developed the new
questions through dialogues with researchers, policymakers,
and practitioners in the arts. Since the survey captures more art
forms, it also captures more people who are participating in the arts.
Key Findings
This initial
analysis of the 2012 SPPA shows that large segments of the U.S. adult
population reported taking part in at least one kind of arts activity. A
closer look at the data reveals subtle shifts in demographic
and behavioral patterns that occurred since 2008, the previous survey
year.
Art and Electronic Media
- More than two-thirds of American adults (71 percent or 167 million) accessed art via electronic media, including TV, radio, handheld or mobile devices, the Internet, and DVDs, CDs, tapes, or records.
- Music viewing and/or listening is the most popular form of media arts participation?whether on TV, radio, or the Internet. Fifty percent of adults used TV or radio to watch or listen to music, and 29 percent used the Internet to watch, listen to, or download music.
- Mobile devices appear to narrow racial/ethnic gaps in arts engagement. Whether listening to music, looking at a photo, or watching a dance or theater performance, all racial/ethnic groups show roughly the same rates of engagement via mobile devices.
Attending Arts Events and Activities
- Nearly half of the nation's adults (49 percent or 115 million) attended at least one type of visual or performing arts activity. Fifty-nine percent of adults attended at least one movie, an activity that increased substantially among most demographic subgroups.
- Musical play attendance saw the first significant drop since the 1985 SPPA: a 9 percent rate of decline from 2008 to 2012. Non-musical play attendance fell at a 12 percent rate over the same period. Museum-going also saw a decline: 21 percent of adults (or 47 million) visited an art museum or gallery in 2012, down from 23 percent in 2008.
- Non-white and Hispanic Americans saw no declines in their arts attendance rates from 2008 to 2012; on the contrary, they even saw increases in some categories. In 2012, African Americans outpaced whites' attendance rates at jazz events.
- Festivals show promise as entry points to the arts. One in four younger adults (ages 18-24) attended an outdoor performing arts festival in 2012, up from 22 percent in 2008.
Art-Making and Art-Sharing
- About half of the nation's adults created, performed, or shared art of various types. Social dancing is the most popular form of art-making or art-sharing; nearly one in three adults (32 percent) danced at weddings, clubs, or other social settings. Young adults and Hispanic Americans are the most avid dancers; 40 percent of 18-34 year olds and 36 percent of Hispanics reported social dancing.
- One in four adults (26 percent) e-mailed, posted, or shared photography in 2012. One in five adults (21 percent) e-mailed, posted, or shared music. Fifteen percent shared their own photos, and 13 percent shared film or videos. Thirteen percent did photo editing, and 12 percent did photography for artistic purposes.
- In this category, the fiber arts were among the most popular. Thirteen percent of adults reported participating in weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlepoint, knitting, or sewing in 2012. Twelve percent of adults played a musical instrument. Nine percent reported singing, either alone or with others, and 8 percent created leatherwork, metalwork, or woodwork.
Reading Books and Literature
- More than half of American adults read a work of literature or a book (fiction or nonfiction) not required for work or school. However, adults' rates of literary reading (novels or short stories, poetry, and plays) dropped back to 2002 levels (from 50 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2012).
- Older Americans (65 and older) now have higher rates of literary reading than any other adult age group.
Arts Education
As of 2012, roughly
half of all adults had experienced some arts learning at some point in
their lives, whether through classes or lessons, in or out of school, or
outside of formal instruction. But disparities
persist by gender, race/ethnicity, and level of general education. For
example, a college graduate is nearly twice as likely to have taken an
art class or lesson in childhood than a high school graduate (59 percent
compared to 32 percent). Meanwhile, adults
of all racial and ethnic backgrounds reported similar rates of taking
arts classes or lessons in the last year.
- The most popular classes adults reported taking in childhood (in or out of school) were voice training or playing an instrument (36 percent), visual arts (19 percent), and art appreciation or art history (18 percent).
- A new, more inclusive question about arts education reveals more arts participants than before. Fifty-six percent of adults reported that they received arts education at some point in their lives?whether through classes, lessons, or through informal instruction (from friends, family tradition, or teaching oneself). This compares to the 49 percent who reported having taken formal instruction (a class or lesson, in or out of school) at some point in their lives. The most popular informal learning experiences were voice training or playing an instrument (18 percent), dance (16 percent), photography or filmmaking (13 percent), and music appreciation (11 percent).
Next year, the NEA
will release a full report with in-depth findings including more
geographic and demographic details for arts engagement among U.S.
adults. Beyond today's highlights report, the entire survey
questionnaire, raw data, and user's guide are available to researchers
and the public at arts.gov.
The SPPA Challenge: Presenting Arts Data Artfully
Big data presents
big challenges, and the SPPA is no exception. Consequently, the NEA is
issuing a challenge to create interactive visualization tools to make
the 2012 SPPA more accessible to the public. This challenge
seeks to help researchers, academics, and the media explore and explain
the reach of the arts in American life. More than $20,000 will be
awarded to select contestants; learn more when the SPPA Challenge goes
live on September 30 at Challenge.gov.
NEA Art Works: Research Grants
The SPPA and its
host survey instrument, the Current Population Survey, include a wealth
of demographic information that can be mined for detailed
characteristics of arts participants. Researchers are encouraged
to analyze the SPPA through the
NEA Research: Art Works grant program; the next deadline is November 5.
About NEA Research
The NEA is the only
federal agency to conduct long-term and detailed analyses of arts
participation. For more than 30 years, the NEA Office of Research &
Analysis has produced periodic research reports, brochures,
and notes on significant topics affecting artists and arts
organizations, often in partnership with other federal agencies such as
the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The NEA is
committed to extending the conversation about arts participation
by making data available to both the research community and the public
at large.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
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