Author(s): John W. O’Hagan

Publisher: Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Year: 1996

URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00149232

Topics: Equal access to the arts, unequal arts audiences for arts events by educational grouping, constraints/rationale for more equal attendance/audiences, public funding

Methods: Equal access is defined as equality of rights to participate in cultural life, or absence of discrimination against participation in the arts. Does not mean equal participation, more like equality of opportunity.

Ways to measure equality of right to participate in the arts is primarily participation rates (equality of outcome). Data sets:

• Surveys of public participation in the arts for the US and the UK
• 1994 survey of people in Ireland
• Survey of disadvantaged people, including data from a qualitative study of people working with disadvantaged groups

Methodology is primarily analyzing summary statistics from four above-mentioned data sets.

What it says: Examines findings from each of the four data sets. Findings from the first data set include the attendance mean scores for arts participation in four categories: “hiart,” “pop,” “exper,” and “trad” as they correlate with participants’ education level (where maximum participation score is 9). Findings are that people tend to have high participation in “pop,” and that participation in “hiart” and “exper” varies significantly by education level, with low participation among people in the lower two education level categories.

For the survey of those living in deprived areas, those with lower incomes tend to have high participation in film in particular. Low participation rates for those with lower incomes at classical music events and at museums.

For the NEA 1992 arts survey, there is huge variation for different high arts participation across education levels, with those at the highest education level the most likely to have participated in a “high arts” performance. Survey also assesses whether respondents would like to participate in any type of arts engagement at a higher level, and finds that those with a high education level are more likely to indicate that they would prefer to be more frequent engagers than they are now.

Possible barriers for participation:

• Monetary (admissions cost), which doesn’t totally explain low participation rates in at-home arts events
• Physical or psychic barriers: arts orgs. might tend to market to centralized areas in larger cities/events may not be geared toward minority taste
• Physical surroundings: location/type of production may be a hindrance
• Preference structure among those with different education levels

Regarding whether the money is well-spent: benefits from arts participation may extend to those who do not participate directly in the arts, arts spending may impact arts producers more than consumers, high proportion of arts funding in the US goes to public broadcasting, wealthier people pay higher income taxes.

What I think about it: The evidence from this article seems sound for the time period in which it was written, but I wonder if the same funding patterns/issues are the most relevant for the policy debate today regarding arts funding. The conclusion presents some frameworks that may still be useful for thinking about arts funding and funding solutions in general. Analysis of the data sets might be a bit superficial, and it makes me wonder there is some useful, established framework for thinking about equitable arts funding.

What it all means: There is some debate on whether or not public funding for the arts is money well spent, particularly since participation in the arts is not evenly distributed across income and education levels. The idea of who benefits the most from arts funding is an interesting way to think about arts funding, and the data from the four data sets indicates that there is indeed a difference in how people participate in the arts across education and income levels.

Brooklyn Museum – by Flickr user Wally Gobetz, Creative Commons license

Following in the footsteps of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New Haven, in 2015, New York City will begin issuing municipal identification cards to undocumented immigrants, with an arts-oriented twist. Much like those seen in other cities, New York’s program will allow access to critical services, such as opening a bank account, visiting a medical clinic, and renting an apartment. Based in the idea that the cultural treasures of the Big Apple ought to be available to all, the ID card will also provide free or discounted memberships at 33 of New York’s leading institutions, including the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Museum, and MoMA PS1. The cards will be available to any city resident over the age of 14, and thus offer a way for anyone who feels they cannot afford arts and culture — not simply undocumented residents — to participate.

Grantmakers in the Arts Claims a Major Lobbying Success: At the end of August, the Obama Administration announced a $250 million “preschool development” grant competition, part of its efforts to improve preschool access for children below the poverty line. Grantmakers in the Arts’s Arts Education Funders Coalition (AEFC) helped ensure that program participants will receive the same arts exposure as students in the Head Start program. With the arts included as a key “approach to learning,” arts agencies have an opportunity to help design their states’ proposals, work with preschools to select curricula, and augment program offerings at preschools looking to meet the grant’s requirements.

Symphonies and Labor: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Locked Out: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians have been locked out for over a month in a labor dispute, with healthcare benefits and the size of the orchestra itself at stake. An earlier, three-week lockout in 2012, fundraising difficulties, and low government support compared to other cities compound the problems, with the current season canceled through at least November 8. Four weeks into the lockout, CEO and President Stanley Romanstein resigned. Terry Neal, board member and former executive at Coca-Cola, will take the helm until a permanent replacement is found.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Merges with National Gallery and George Washington University: A D.C. judge recently approved the merger of the Corcoran Gallery of Art with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University (GWU), which will effectively dissolve the Corcoran in a $2 billion deal. Once the oldest privately-supported art museum in the United States, the Corcoran has long struggled against mounting debts, tens of millions in renovations, and a shrinking endowment, and most recently, a lawsuit against the merger. As a result of the merger, approximately 150 staff will likely face layoffs, the National Gallery will absorb most of the Corcoran’s collections, and GWU will take over its College of Arts and Design, offering jobs to all of its full-time faculty.

New Research on Wellbeing & the Arts: The U.K’s All-Party Parlimentary Group for Wellbeing Economics has come out with a major new report on the intersection of arts funding and the wellbeing of the general public. The result of a year-long inquiry and titled “Wellbeing in Four Policy Areas,” the report contains two major findings: first, active participation in the arts has a much greater impact on overall wellbeing than serving as a passive audience member; and second, arts participation has a much larger effect on disadvantaged communities than wealthier, resource-rich areas. The effect on policymaking in the U.K. could be quite notable, as the the report asks arts funders to evaluate the wellbeing impacts of grants to organizations and employ this data to justify government spending.

MUSICAL CHAIRS/COOL JOBS

• The James Irvine Foundation announced Don Howard as the new president and CEO.
• Jim McDonald was named the deputy director and director of programs at Grantmakers in the Arts.
• San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley has announced that he will retire after a 44-year career in opera in 2016.
• Artist Trust has hired Shannon Roach Halberstadt as its new executive director.
• Mayor Martin J. Walsh has named Julie Burros as the new chief of arts and culture for the city of Boston. Burros was formerly head of cultural planning for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
• The National Endowment for the Arts is looking for a program analyst. Salary: $89-138K, posted September 23, closes October 7.
• The Cleveland Metropolitan School District seeks an arts policy-focused plan manager and partnership manager. Posted August 28, no closing date.
• The Center for Effective Philanthropy is in the market for a research manager in its Cambridge, MA office. Posted August 27, no closing date.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE

• The NEA has launched its “Exploring Our Town” site, a set of online case studies highlighting its signature creative placemaking program.
• More evidence for the power of young brains on art: a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience provides the first direct evidence that long-term engagement in community music programs enhance the neural processing of speech in at-risk children.
• The Nonprofit Finance Fund released its 2014 State of the Arts & Culture Sector brochure: even as organizations continue to expand and innovate with programs, many remain financially unstable.
• The James Irvine Foundation continues its interest in improving arts participation with a Helicon Collaborative report on the characteristics of organizations that successfully engage diverse audiences.
• Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture Council proves that engaging diverse audiences isn’t just a California thing with its own report.
• In a progress report, Grantmakers in the Arts investigates how funders are using capitalization principles to strengthen cultural organizations’ fiscal health.