While perhaps not at a crisis stage – eight out of 10 Americans say they participate in the arts in some form – rates of participation in nearly all art forms tracked by the National Endowment for the Arts have eroded according to a new RAND analysis commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement and State Arts Policy. Most troubling is that the declines are most apparent among those aged 30 and under – the audiences of the future.

So while it remains important for arts providers to workat building new audiences through better marketing campaigns, or more attractive program offerings, or by making attendance more convenient or affordable...increasing the quality and
access of arts learning opportunities deserves much more attention as a way of lifting arts demand in the long run:

“Investment in demand, by which we mean developing the capacity of individuals to engage in aesthetic experiences, has been neglected in both arts and education policy over several decades,” the report says. “It is our view that without this investment, audiences for the arts will continue to diminish despite heavy investments in supply and access.”

In particular, RAND identifies a number of conditions that can impede coordinated approaches to improved arts learning:
• Changing policy contexts – for example, a decline in funding or a shift toward site-based school management that can make citywide coordination more challenging;
• Conflict among providers and ideas – such as disagreements about the merits of different approaches to arts instruction. Conflicts tend to be most pronounced in sites where coordination efforts are least advanced and are further exacerbated
when resources are tight;
• Leadership turnover – that can disrupt delicate shared understandings or disrupt the momentum of initiatives.

In summary: reversing the decline in arts learning and making high-quality opportunities accessible to many more children through a coordinated approach is a promising but highly challenging ambition for any city.

Read the source article at wallacefoundation.org