they'd pay for services that are clearly a good thing and currently free. There's another problem. Almost all the documented social benefits of the arts have been achieved not by people attending plays and concerts but by those who participate in them. And while many publicly funded arts organisations have participatory programmes, most public money still goes to subsidise people sitting or standing silently looking at other people do things (or, in the case of books and pictures, things they've done). Unless the current balance of arts funding between -- say -- the London Symphony Orchestra and Burnley Youth Theatre is to be reversed, most public funding will continue to go to activities whose value is hardest to measure. Hence a move within the arts to try to make spectatorship as involving and transforming as participation. Already, much thought has been devoted to democratising the processes by which professional art is produced. This is not just a matter of audiences responding to what they see through surveys, blogs and the like, though this can and should have a real effect on how work is curated. The Young Vic and the Almeida are examples of theatre companies whose outreach programmes are designed to involve young people both as participants and audience members. Graham Vick's Birmingham Opera Company integrates professional singers and musicians with community performers who reflect the city's diversity and who bring an equally diverse audience with them. There is increasing public involvement in the commissioning of public art. Research