Audience Demographic Research Review
A new study on the impact of demographic trends
Also see:
NEA Regional note
Mid-Winter 2010 Plenary
Audience Participation Webinars
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In early 2009, the League asked McKinsey & Company to collect and analyze existing orchestra audience participation data in order to understand the impact of demographic trends on orchestras now and in the future. The League’s new Audience Demographic Research Review contains their report.
Made publicly available on December 10, 2009, the Audience Demographic Research Review confirms the findings of the National Endowment for the Arts 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, while providing new details about behavior within and across generations.
To read the League’s Audience Demographic Research Review, please click 
here.
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To read the NEA’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, please
click here
- To read the League’s comprehensive memo highlighting the
findings of both studies, please click here
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NEA Report - Regional Research Note
- The National Endowment for the Arts has recently released a “Research Note” highlighting some geographic differences in arts participation based on the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). While the full SPPA offers statistics for the U.S. as a whole and a few large regions, this report goes into more depth, including arts participation rates for 32 states. For example, Oregon ranks highest among classical music attendance, with nearly 17% of its adults attending a classical concert in 2008, as compared to 9.3% of the population of the U.S. Massachusetts also ranks highly, with 14.3% attendance. To quickly find the percentage of people who report attending classical performances in your state, look at the sixth column in the data tables which start on page 20 of the report.
The paper also shows a relationship between the number of arts organizations per capita in a state and arts attendance. Not surprisingly, as there are more organizations per person, attendance rates tend to go up. New York leads the number of arts organizations per capita, with 7.3 organizations per 100,000 people. This is more than twice the average in the U.S. (3.1). To read this report, click here.
Another way to understand arts participation is by asking where it takes place. Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is the NEA’s first research publication in several years to examine the “informal arts”—such as playing a musical instrument, attending an art event at a place of worship, or visiting a craft fair. To read this publication, click here (pdf).
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Mid-Winter Managers Meeting Plenary (2010)
Climate Change
Sunday, January 31, 2010
@ InterContinental The Barclay New York
Two new national studies, the National Endowment for the Arts 2008 Survey of
Public Participation in the Arts and the League’s Audience
Demographic Research Review, now offer statistically reliable
national demographic information about audience participation. The
findings raise both serious concerns and new opportunities for
orchestras. This year’s Mid-Winter plenary focused on the critical
nature of these findings and offer insight into how it affects your
orchestra.
Presentations of by Sunil Iyengar (NEA) and Atul Kanagat (League), were
followed by a discussion with Jesse Rosen, League president and CEO, and
Paul DiMaggio, A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Sociology and Public
Affairs, Princeton University, reflecting on the key findings.
Peer-to-peer roundtable discussions closed out the plenary.
Part 1: Introduction by Jesse Rosen, Sunil Iyengar and Atul Kanagat
presentations
Part 2: Jesse Rosen and Paul Dimaggio, roundtable discussions
The League’s Audience Demographic Research Review was made possible in
part by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.