A report focusing on the inequalities that persist in the training and careers of arts school graduates from diverse backgrounds. In particular, the report explores gaps in school experience; career opportunities and barriers; and income based on gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES).
Civic Engagement/Community Development
Arts, Culture, and the Social Health of the Nation
Arts, Culture, and the Social Health of the Nation is designed to monitor the artistic and cultural experiences of Americans. Based on the Institute’s National Social Survey, it probes new issues and looks at changes in arts participation since the Institute’s previous report in 2002. The current report shows that Americans deeply value the arts, both in their own lives and in the lives of their children. Yet participation levels have declined slightly since the last survey, both for adults and for children. Differences in participation by income level remain a serious problem.
Local Arts Agency Statistics
Local arts agencies are a growing presence in communities across the country. They provide vital services to sustain their local arts industry, and endeavor to make the arts accessible to each member of the community. Included with other statistical data is the estimated growth in number of local arts agencies from 1965-2012.
Public Rates of Attendance at Live Arts Events
A study of public attendance of the arts from 1982 to 2002.
Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts
Faced with intense competition for audiences and financial support, as well as adverse political fallout from the “culture wars” of the early 1990s, arts advocates have increasingly sought to make a case for the arts in terms of their instrumental benefits to individuals and communities. In this report documenting the most comprehensive study of its kind, the authors evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these instrumental arguments and make the case that a new approach to understanding the benefits of the arts is needed.
Critical of what they view as an overemphasis on instrumental benefits, the authors call for a greater recognition of the intrinsic benefits of the arts experience, provide a more comprehensive framework for assessing the private and public value of both intrinsic and instrumental benefits, and link the realization of those benefits to the nature of arts involvement. In particular, they underscore the importance of sustained involvement in the arts to the achievement of both instrumental and intrinsic benefits. This study has important policy implications for access to the arts, childhood exposure to the arts, arts advocacy, and future research on the arts.
