By Charles Phaneuf
In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, when most of the story lines about star players and genius coaches were exhausted, we started to hear about fascinating avocations. Running back Rashard Mendenhall was in the news for taking dance lessons, which he said made a big difference on the field. Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a regular at open mic nights, where he plays guitar and sings, and several of the Green Bay Packers take piano lessons together.
While it’s encouraging to hear about these examples of adults participating in the arts, it also highlights how we don’t hear these types of stories often enough. The 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts by the NEA tells us that 10% of adult respondents had participated in creating art by performing or making work. The trend is positive, growing by 2% over the previous survey in 2002, but this group is disproportionately white, female and educated, which means that it roughly represents what we already know about arts audiences.
Why is this lack of diversity and participation not a larger part of the conversation about the health of the field? Rocco Landesman recently made a statement about the oversupply of live theatre, which seemed to initially espouse the idea that the arts audience is static. Isn’t there clearly a connection between people participating in the arts, as both children and adults, and arts audiences? When he issued a response to the ensuing controversy on the Arts Works blog, Mr. Landesman mentioned arts education first in his response to the question about how best to develop future audiences. But he talked about it only in terms of as getting exposure to the arts at a young age. This is a limited way of thinking about arts participation.
If football players—young men in their 20s and 30s—can find their way to piano lessons and become part of this crucial but growing 10% of adults that participate, there is no reason to look at arts audiences as a static or shrinking part of the population. Rather, increasing the arts participation rate could be the greatest challenge and opportunity that currently faces the field.
In my experience, there are benefits beyond simply “butts in seats.” I play saxophone every Monday night with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, and it’s one of the best parts of my week. Even when the workday is at its most challenging and frustrating, I know that I can enter this venerable institution, take my horn out of its case, see some friends and play great music for three hours. I only wish that more people participated in activities like this. We’d be a happier, healthier and more compassionate community.
Who will join Woody Allen the clarinetist, Grant Hill the art collector, and Bill Clinton the saxophonist as successful public figures that exemplify arts participation? Here’s hoping we hear more stories about the likes of Rodgers, Mendenhall and the Green Bay Packers in the coming year.
Charles Phaneuf
Managing Director
Joe’s Movement Emporium
Links
Mendenhall story: http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/August-2010/Rashard-Mendenhall-Thinks-He-Can-Dance/
Rodgers story: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2010/columns/story?id=6076694
Packers piano lessons: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/04/133474167/can-music-predict-the-super-bowl-winner
NEA study: http://www.nea.gov/research/2008-SPPA.pdf
Landesman: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/landesman-comments-on-theater/
Arts Works blog post: http://www.arts.gov/artworks/?p=5402
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