Electronic Bulletin, September 2008, No. 7

Electronic Bulletin
Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, Hong Kong
September 2008, No. 7

(The Electronic Bulletin is an information service published by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General and provided to subscribers by e-mail and fax. Except for the U.S. Government sites, the opinions expressed on the Internet sites listed here do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Government.)

Cultivating Demand for the Arts - Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy
By: Laura Zakaras, Julia F. Lowell
Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation
RAND Education, a unit of RAND Corporation
September 8, 2008

The study is available online. (PDF file)*

*(To view and print PDF files, please download the FREE Adobe Reader.)

Policymakers have underestimated the critical role of arts learning in supporting a vibrant nonprofit cultural sector, according to the RAND Corporation study. Despite decades of effort to make high-quality works of art available to Americans, demand for the arts has failed to keep pace with supply. Audiences for classical music, jazz, opera, theater and the visual arts have declined as a percentage of the population, and the percentage of these audiences age 30 and younger has fallen even more. Calling upon evidence that experiencing and studying the arts in childhood increase the likelihood of arts participation later in life, the study recommends policymakers in both the arts and education to devote greater attention to cultivating demand for the arts by supporting more and better arts education.

(Source: RAND News Release on the Study)

Subject: Art & Culture