SOCIALIZATION
 

AND
 

P A R~T I C.I~P~AT I O N
 

IN THE, ARTS
 

Ric.hard J. Orend
 
SOCIALIZATION 

AND 

PARTICIPATION 

IN THE .ARTS 
SOCIALIZATION
 

A N DPARTICIPATION
 

IN THE ARTS
 

Richard J. Orend
 
 

Socialization and Participation in the Arts is Research Division 

Report #21 in a series on matters of interest to the arts community 

commissioned by the Research Division of the National Endowment 

for the Arts. 

Published by the National Endowment for the Arts, Research 

Division, under Grant NEA C86-!79 

Edited by Patricia H. Marks 

Designed by Judith Martin Waterman 

Typeset and printed on acid-free paper by Princeton University 

Press, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, USA 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

Orend, Richard J. 

Socialization and participation in the arts° 

(Research Division report ; #2I) 

I. Arts audiences--United States. 2. Arts surveys--United States 

3- Arts and society--United States. 

I. Title. II. Series: Research Division report (National Endowment 

for the Arts. Research Division) ; 2t. 

NX22o.o74 r988 7oo’.I’O3 88-I7973 

First edition, March I989 
APPENDIX
 

Readers of this report may wish to obtain more information 

about the details of the study conducted by Dr. RichardJ. Orend 

and about related research projects conducted for the Research 

Division of the National Endowment for the Arts. The following reports ale available through the Education Research Information Center (ERIC) system: 

 ̄ ~" RichardJ. Orend, "Socialization in the Arts." April 

22, I987. ERIC Identification Number: ED 283 768. 

 ̄ :" John Robinson, et al., "Public Participation in the 

Arts: Final Report on the I982 Survey., Survey Research 

Center, University of Maryland, January I986. ERIC Identification Number: ED 264 I68. 

 ̄ :" Alan R. Andreason and Russell W. Belk, "Consumer Response to Arts Offerings: A Study of Theater and 

Symphony in Four Southern Cities." University of Illinois, 

September I978. ERIC Identification Number: ED 230 450. 

 ̄ :. Richard J. Orend, "Leisure Participation in the 

South, I98o." Volume I: Results; Volume II: Appendices; 

Volume III: Summary. Human Resources Research Organization, July I980. ERIC Identification Numbers: ED 206 

52~, ED 206 522, and ED 206 523. 

 ̄ :" John S. Reed and Peter V. Marsden, "Leisure Time 

Use in the South: A Secondary Analysis, I98o." University 

of North Carolina, I980. ERIC Identification Number: ED 

221 435­

These documents are the original research reports as prepared by 

the investigators. They contain extensive information about 

methods, and numerous tables and figures. The ERIC collection 

is available at hundreds of libraries in the U.S.A. and abroad, as 
54 Appendix 

well as "on-line" from computerized information services. Requests for information about the purchase of microfiche or xerox 

copies of these reports should be sent to: ERIC Document Reproduction Services (EDRS), Consumer Service, P.O. Box ~9o, 

Arlington, Virginia. 222IO. 
CONTENTS
 

CHAPTER ONE 

CHAPTER TWO
 

CHAPTER THREE
 

CHAPTER FOUR
 

CHAPTER FIVE
 

CHAPTER SIX
 

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix 

Why Do People Participate in the Arts? 

Socialization in the Arts 

Participation in the Arts 

The Relationship between Socialization and 

Participation in the Arts 29 

Contrary Cases 45 

Art, Artists, and the Public 49 

APPENDIX 53 
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
 

TABLE 

TABLE 

TABLE 3 

TABLE 4 

TABLE 5 

TABLE 6 

TABLE 7 

TABLE 8 

TABLE 9 

TABLE IO 

TABLE I I 

TABLE 12 

FIGURE I 

FIGURE 2 

FIGURE 3 

FIGURE 4­

FIGURE 

Basic Socialization Experiences: Lessons 7 

Basic Socialization Experiences: Appreciation 

Classes 8 

Basic Socializaton Experiences: Home Exposure 

and Attendance 9 

Illustrating the Point System for Indexing 

Socialization Experiences I2 

Socialization Index: Lessons 

Socialization Index: Appreciation Classes I3 

Childhood Attendance at Concerts, Plays, and 

Other Arts-Related Events 

Combined Index of Socialization I4 

Socialization Experiences by Age Group at Time 

ofsvPA Interview I6 

Participation during the Previous Year 2o 

Direct Participation in the Arts during the 

Previous Year 

Indices of Participation in the Arts During the 

Previous Year 24-25 

Indices of Participation by Age Groups 26 

Relationship of Music Lessons to Listening to 

Music on TV, Radio, or Records 3o 

Relationship of Music Lessons to Attendance at 

Performances 3 I 

Relationship of Music Lessons to Performing 

Music 32 

Relationship of Music Lessons to the Index of 

Current Musical Participation 35 
CHAPTER ONE 

Why Do People Participate in the Arts? 

ABOUT A CENTURY AGO Sir John Lubbock, 

Lord Avebury, declared that "art is unquestionably 

one of the purest and highest elements in human 

happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and 

the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.’’I 

Do 2oth-century Americans share this romantic view of art? 

Why do people participate in arts-related activities? For those of 

us already involved, one answer seems obvious: With Sir John, 

we believe that the artsmmusic, painting, sculpture, drama, and 

dance--add excitement and joy to our lives. Most of us, especially arts educators and administrators, would like to share those 

experiences with as many of our fellow-citizens as possible. 

There is a second answer, however, perhaps even more important: Modern society requires competence in acquiring information both visually and aurally. One need only think of the multitudes of diagrams we confront when we attempt to assemble 

holiday toys for our children, or recall the quantities of information we acquire by word of mouth, to know that without the 

kinds of literacy provided by training in the arts we cannot function properly. 

Others do not share our perspective° For many people, the arts 

play little or no conscious role in life; sometimes they are seen as 

minor diversions in a crowded schedule of work and leisure activities. Why do these differences in attitude and behavior exist? 

And, given the belief that the arts can provide all that Sir John 

suggests and more, what can be done to increase the level of 

awareness and involvement among all members of our society? 

~ Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury, The Pleasures of Life. 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, ~889), Vol. 2, p. 8o. 
2, Why People Participate 

We cannot begin to answer these questions unless we first have 

a basic understanding of current patterns of participation in the 

arts. Why do we choose a certain level of participation in one or 

more of the arts? Is there demand for increased opportunities to 

take part in arts-related activities, and if so, what are the barriers 

to such participation? 

While the capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty may be 

inborn in all of us, participation in the arts as audience or artists 

usually involves a learning process. What is the relationship between childhood and early adult experiences with the arts and 

later participation? 

In I982, with funding from the National Endowment for the 

Arts, the Census Bureau conducted a "Survey of Public Participation in the Arts" (s~,~,~i) to gather information on which preliminary answers to all of these questions can be based. The November and December interviews produced :2,678 valid responses to 

the complete sl, l,,~ questionnaire. In the present study, data from 

these two months of the survey have been used to examine 

whether early exposure to the arts is related to participation later 

in life. 2 

But what do we mean by "exposure," and is it an adequate 

term to describe the process by which people come to love and 

enjoy the arts? Those who study the workings of society think 

not; they prefer to ’use the word "socialization" to describe the 

relationship between early arts-related experiences and later participation in the arts. Socialization has been defined as the process 

by which individuals--usually children and teenagers--acquire 

various orientations, attitudes, and patterns of behavior that will 

persist when they become adults.3 

The si, I,a data collected from a national sample permits analysis 

of three basic subjects: the patterns of socialization in the arts, the 

relationship of those patterns to adult participation in arts-related 

activities, and the relations.hip of socialization patterns to demand for increased participation. But before trying to under­

~ For information about obtaining the full results of the original study, please 

refer to the Appendix. 

3 David Easton and Jack Dennis, Children and the Political System (New York: 
s~ancl now earJy experiences reJare to ~ater oenavaor, at as necessary to define and describe the behavior being analyzed. 

What exactly do we mean by "arts-related activities?"For practical reasons, we defined participation as attendance at live performances (jazz, classical music, ballet, operas, musicals, and 

plays), visits to art museums and galleries, watching or listening 

to these arts-related programs on television, radio, or records, 

and participating directly in similar activities as performers or 

artists. The broad definition was used because Americans generally recognize these terms, and such recognition allowed us to 

communicate easily with our respondents in the context of a survey interview. It also allowed us to make a systematic examination of the relationship between adult participation and those earlier experiences in the arts which we have called "socialization." 

Analysis of the data gleaned from the SPPA allowed us to test 

two hypotheses: 

°:° There is a relationship between earlier arts-related 

experiences and later participation, either as consumer or 

producer, in the arts. 

°:° Those individuals with a greater number of youthful experiences are likely to have higher rates of participation 

in arts-related activities as adults. 

These hypotheses are said to express "relationships" because the 

sP~,,~ data cannot establish the fact that early experience with artsrelated activities causes higher levels of participation later in life. 

We can, however, identify those experiences and, to some extent, 

measure their relative intensity.. We can also analyze the existence 

and level of participation across activities as diverse as attending 

the opera and creating a painting. When we compare information 

about childhood activities with the information collected about 

adult activities, we can answer some questions about the links 

between socialization and adult participation in arts-related activities. The pattern which emerges can suggest policies and strategies likely to increase public participation in the arts. 

But what about those individuals whose behavior differs from 

the prevailing pattern? We all know people who had little or no 

exposure to the arts as children or young adults, and who never­
4 Why People Participate 

theless participate in arts-related activities. We also know people 

with the opposite characteristics: high levels of early socialization 

who no longer have anything to do with the arts. Again, using 

the sm, t~ data, we can learn something about them which may be 

useful in our efforts to increase participation° 

Finally, data gleaned from the s~,~’A can tell us something about 

how those earlier socialization experiences are related to current 

demand for broader opportunities to participate in the arts, and 

about the obstacles encountered. This analysis extends the study 

of socialization to include the possibility for changing the behavior of those who express a desire to color their lives with art. 
CHAPTER TWO 

Socialization in the Arts 

THOSE OF US WHO ARE COMMITTED to 

the arts" find it difficult to understand how anyone 

who has seen a great painting, experienced the excitement of drama or dance, or listened to a splendid symphony could resist enchantment. Art engages our emotions as well as our senses, and we assume that 

others must be similarly moved. We also assumenperhaps too 

readilynthat anyone who has been exposed to art must surely 

want to participate in the arts ever thereafter. 

As Sir John Lubbock so aptly observed, art is one of the great 

pleasures of life, as well as a practical necessity. Others have made 

more extravagant claims. Charles Fairbanks, for example, believed that "Art is the surest and safest civilizer .... Open your 

galleries of art to the people, and you confer on them a greater 

benefit than mere book education; you give them a refinement to 

which they would otherwise be strangerso’’~ Like those of us who 

are committed to the arts, Fairbanks was convinced that mere 

exposure to art would have lifelong effects. In other words, he 

used a certain type of"socialization model" to explain at least one 

aspect of human behavior. 

The socialization model as we have defined it here suggests 

that our current behavior is, in part, a function of youthful learning experiences. In particular, arts-related experiences are said to 

create an understanding of and appreciation for the arts that will 

lead us to participate more as adults. But what precisely are those 

experiences that "socialize" us? Are some more effective socializers than others? Does it make a difference when during our 

xCharles B. Fairbanks, My Unknown Chum (New York: The Devin-Adair Co., 
6 Socialization 

youth those experiences take place? And how about the quality 

and intensity of experience? 

The first step in the analysis of socialization is to use the data 

available in the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SVPA) 

to find out how people are socialized, and to what extent. The 

SPPA asked t ~ questions about arts-related experiences occurring 

prior to age ~.4- The questions covered three basic kinds of experiences: 

°~° Lessons, including those in music, visual arts, acting, ballet, creative writing, and crafts; 

o:° Appreciation classes in both music and art; and 

°:° Attendance at arts-related events, including plays, 

classical concerts or dance performances, exhibitions in art 

galleries or museums, and hearing classical music or opera 

played in the home. 

The three questions on the SvvA about attendance asked only how 

often such arts-related experiences had taken place during the respondent’s entire youth. The eight questions on lessons and 

appreciation classes attempted to elicit more information, asking 

the age at which those experiences had taken place: when the respondents were younger than I2, between I2 and I7, or from ~8 

to 24 years old. The age categories thus correspond roughly to 

three stages of schooling: elementary, high .school, and college. 

No attempt was made to find out how often young people in 

each age group were given lessons or appreciation classes, nor 

was there any way to assess the quality of the experience. 

Table I evokes images of little girls in tutus and teenagers in 

high-school plays, of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts earning merit 

badges in crafts. Clearly, many people take certain kinds of lessons-and not others--during each period of youth. More than 

half of all those who took ballet lessons, for example, did so before age ~2, while acting lessons are more common between ages 

I2 and ~7. After age I8, music lessons are rare indeed. Most surprising, perhaps, is the fact that so few had lessons of any kind 

during more than one of the three periods of their youth. 

Table 2 tells us that art and music appreciation classes are also 

,-1,-,~,~1,~ ,-oloroct r,a a~e" While fewer than 20% of the resr~ondents 
Table 1. Basic Socialization Experiences: Lessons 

Lessons Lessons Lessons Lessolls Lessons Lessolls 

From From Before Before From 1)uring Lessons Ages Ages Age 12 Age 12 12-17 & All 

Type of Before 12-17 18-24 & From & From 18-24 Three 

Lessons None Age 12 Only Only 12-17 18-24 yrs. old Periods 

Music 54.0% 11.8% 17.9% 2.2% 8.2% .5% 1.9% 3.6% 

Visual 

Arts 80.9 .9 9.2 5.7 .8 .1 1.6 1.0 

Acting 90.3 .4 4.9 2.2 .3 .0 .6 .3 

Ballet 93.1 4.1 .8 .9 .8 .04 .1 .3 

Creative 

Writing 84.5 .2 5.4 7.8 .04 .1 1.6 .4 

Crafts 78.0 1.5 12.9 4.6 .9 .1 1.5 .5 
Table 2. Basic Socialization Experiehces: Appreciation Classes 

Classes Classes Classes Classes Classes Classes 

From From Before Before From During 

Type of

Classes None 

Classes 

Before 

Age 12 

Ages 

12-17 

Only 

Ages 

18-24 

Only 

Age 12 

& From 

12-17 

Age 12 

& From 

18-24 

12-17& 

18-24 

yrs. old 

All 

Three 

Periods 

Art Appreciation/ . 

Art History 82.5% .3% 4.9% 10.2% .3% .0% 1.2% .2% 

Music 

Appreciation 80.7 1.2 7.6 8.6 .5 .1 .9 .5 
Socialization 9 

took such classes, they tended to do so between the ages of ~8 

and 24. The response pattern suggests that this type of arts-related activity takes place in college, and is likely to have been 

voluntary. We have no way of knowing, however, why people in 

that age group elected to take such classes° 

Art lessons and appreciation classes are, of course, the most 

formal means of socialization in the arts. Less formal, but perhaps equally important, are those experiences which teach young 

people to be "consumers" of art. Table 3 describes socialization 

experiences in the form of attendance at arts events and exposure 

to classical music in the home. Here, s~’P,~ results do not tell us at 

what age those experiences took place; they do indicate, however, that roughly 7o% of the respondents had no such exposure 

to the arts while they were growing up. They also tell us that, 

for the overwhelming majority of the remaining 3o%, such experiences were only occasional. 

So far, analysis of the st, l~A data has provided some interesting 

insights about individuals and their socialization in the arts. 

These individual indicators provide a three-dimensional perspective on socialization experiences. The first dimension tells .us 

whether or not the individual had a certain experience. The second dimension focuses on whenmat what period of the person’s 

youthwtwo types of experience occurred° The third dimension 

is somewhat more complicated. By looking at multiple experiences within each of the three types (lessons, appreciation classes, 

Table 3.	 Basic Socialization Experiences: Home Exposure and 

Attendance 

Never Occasionally Often 

Parents or other adults 

listened to classical 

music or opera 71.2% 20.5% 8.3% 

Taken to art museums 

or galleries 67.9 27.6 4.6 

Taken to plays, dance 

or classical music 

performances 69.5 25.7 4.8 
Socialization 

and exposure to the arts), and finding out whether the experiences took place during one or more of the age periods, the third 

dimension provides an indicator--albeit crude--of the depth of 

socialization in the arts. 

But "depth" is a qualitative word, and the sPPA did not ask 

questions about the quality of arts-related experiences. _How, 

then, did we construct that indicator, of the depth of socialization? 

To begin with, we created indices by assigning a score or value 

to each experience, whether lesson, appreciation class, or attendance at an art event. For example, an individual who had both 

music and acting lessons before the age of ~2 would be given a 

score of 2, one "point" for each experience in a single time period. Another person may have had art lessons between the ages 

of ,8 and 24, and music lessons during all three periods of his 

youth. That person would receive a total of ,o points, 3 for the 

art lessons and 7 for the music lessons. The more types of lessons 

a person has had, and the more those lessons occurred in all three 

periods of youth, the higher the score on the index. Thus, in this 

category of experience, an individual could earn a score ranging 

from zero (no lessons) to 42 (every kind of lesson during all three 

periods of youth). Similarly, an individual who took art appreciation classes could score as many as ~4 points, while the range 

of scores for the home exposure and early attendance index is o 

to 6. 

At this point, three indices of the depth of arts-related experiences have been created: 

°;° An index of the number and timeframe of lessons; 

°~° An index of appreciation lessons taken during the 

same three timeframes; and 

°:° An index of childhood attendance at concerts, 

plays, and other arts-related events. 

The fourth and final index combines all three of the above indices to create a single index indicating the degree of socialization 

each individual has experienced. The range of this index is from 

o (no socialization experiences) to 62 (the maximum number of 

experiences possible in all three of the time periods of youth). 
Socialization I I 

Did any individual who answered the questionnaire actually 

score 62? How many scored zero? How were the scores of all 

2,678 valid responses: distributed between o and 62? And what is 

the meaning of these masses of statistics? How are we to interpret 

differences of a single point? 

Analysis is made much easier once each index is divided into 

categories based on the distribution of individual scores.-~ Categories for the indices can be constructed by referring to the pointsystem set forth in Table 4. 

Tables 5 and 6 explain in more detail how those "socialization 

points" were awarded in each of the first two indices of arts-related experience, lessons and appreciation classes. 

The third component of the combined socialization index-­

attendance at concerts, plays, and other arts-related events and 

exposure to classical music and opera while growing up--is differently constructed, as indicated in Tables 4 and 7. Table 4 indicates the number of points assigned to these experiences for the 

purpose of creating the combined socialization index (the fourth 

index), and Table 7 divides the two attendance experiences into 

eight categories in ascending order of intensity. 

Finally, by combining the data from the first, second, and third 

indices, we arrive at an index of "total socialization," one which 

measures--again crudely--a fourth dimension to the description 

of socialization experiences (Table 8). This fourth dimension, 

which groups experiences across different areas, may be labelled 

"breadth." 

Tables 5 to 8 give us a general indication of the distribution of 

socialization experiences in the population. The results are somewhat dismaying: 43 % of all respondents admit to having had no 

lessons of any sort. About 75% had no appreciation courses, and 

: The number of valid responses used for each specific analysis may vary 

slightly because of missing data. 

3 The difference between categories represents a hierarchical relationship. A 

higher score means greater breadth and/or depth of arts-related experiences, but 

there is no fixed ratio of category values: 4 is not twice as much as 2, nor does it 

represent a fixed level of increase. Given the diversity of dimensions being measured and the imprecision of their measurement, a hierarchical indicator was the 

best that could be achieved. 
Socialization 

Table 4. Illustrating the Point System for Indexing Socialization 

Experiences 

Index 

Lessons 

Appreciation classes 

Category 

0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

Home exposure and early attendance~ 

Combined index 0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

No. of Points 

None 

1-2 

3-5 

6-10 

11-42 

None 

1-2 

3-4 

5-7 

8-14 

0-6 

None 

1-3 

4-6 

7-11 

12-62 

a Points were allocated for each of three types of early exposure (Table 3) based on frequency, 

and added to the combined socialization index. Two points were scored for "often," one for 

"occasionally," and zero for "never," yielding a maximum score of 6. 

Table 5. Socialization Index: Lessons 

Category 

0 lessons before age 25. 

1 One or 2 different lesson 

experiences before age 12 or 1 

lesson experience at age 12-17. (Score 1-2) 

2 Up to 5 different types of 

lessons before age 12, or other 

combination of lessons totaling 

5 points. Not including lessons 

in one area at ages 12-17 and 18-24. 

3 Six to 10lesson socialization 

points. Must include lessons 

in at least 2 different areas. 

Could include lessons in 1 area for 

all 3 age groups. 

4 More than 10 lesson socialization 

points. Lessons in at least 2 areas 

for more than one age group. 

43.0% 

18.5% 

15.4% 

15.1% 

8.0% 
Socialization ~ 3
 

Table 6. Socialization Index: Appreciation Classes
 

Category 

0	 No appreciation classes. 

1 Two class experiences before 

age 12 or 1 class experience 

between ages 12 and 17. (Score 1r3) 

Two class experiences before 

age 18, or 2 experiences in same 

area before age 18 or 2 experiences 

with 1 between age 18 and 24. 

(Score 4-6) 

3	 As many as 3 experiences 

in 1 area or 1 experience at 

any age in each area. (Score 7-11) 

4	 Experiences in both areas 

with the majority occurring late 

in youth. (Score 8-14) 

74.9% 

6.9% 

8.6% 

8.0% 

1.7% 

Table 7. Childhood Attendance at Concerts, Plays, and Other ArtsRelated Events 

CateFory~ 

None 57.4% 

Went to art museums or galleries occasionally 11.4% 

Attended performances occasionally 9.2% 

Went to art museums or galleries often .8% 

Attended performances often 1.3% 

Both activities occasionally 14.4% 

Went to art museums often
 

and attended performances occasionally 2.1%
 

Attended performances often
 

and went to art museums occasionally 1.8%
 

Both activities often	 1.8% 

 ̄ These categories were neither given scores nor used in the computation of the combined 

index of socialization (Table 8) because they are constructed by using only two (i.e., attendance at art museums and performances) of the three exposure experiences. See footnote on 

Table 4. 
14 Socialization 

Table 8. Combined Index of Socialization 

0 Experienced none of the 

11 socialization activities. 29.5%

Experienced at least 1 and 

as many as 3 different activities 

or 1 experience at age 18-24. (Score 1-3) 24.5% 

2 Experienced at least 1 and 

as many as 6 different activities 

(at youngest age) or 1 experience 

in both 12-17 and 18-24 age groups. 

(Score 4-6) 15.5% 

Experienced as many as 

8 different activities or several at 

different age levels. (Score 7-11) 14.0% 

4 Experienced as many as 

8 different activities and/or several 

different activities at later ages or 

in successive age groups. (Score 12 or more) 16.5% 

less than lO% had the equivalent of more than two appreciation 

classes during different periods. Almost 6o% say they had never 

been to a concert, play, or art museum during their youth. Only 

about 2o% both attended performances and went to art galleries, 

even occasionally. Very few (about I6%) had what we would call 

reasonably deep and broad participation in arts-related activities 

At the happier end of the spectrum, the distribution of all socialization activities (Table 8) shows that about 7o% of all respondents had some kind of socialization experience, and 23% 

indicate that they have had experiences equivalent to taking artrelated lessons during all three time-periods covered (Table 5). 

These results suggest that we are a nation that has grown up 

with only marginal involvement in formal or informal training 

and experience in the arts--a discouraging conclusion, especially 

in view of the major efforts of recent years to increase exposure 

to the arts. Is there any comfort to be had from the sm, A statistics? 

Indeed there is, for the socialization describedas having occurred 

during youth (prior to age 24) was experienced by adults whose 
Socialization 15 

ages varied from 25 to over 62. Data presented in Table 9 shows 

a definite relationship between age and socialization. The older a 

respondent is at the time of the survey, the less likely it is that he/ 

she will have had one of the formal arts-related socialization experiences. This pattern seems to have evolved continuously over 

the last four decades, as each succeeding age category has apparently had more arts-related socialization during youth. The one 

exception to this rule is in the area of hearing classical music or 

opera in the home, where there is little difference across age 

groups. 

Care must be taken, however, not to over-interpret these resuits. Some of the differences may be attributable to poor memory, since each succeeding age group must go farther back to 

recall relevant experiences. A small number of"Oh yes, I’d forgotten" cases could change the results significantly, because 

many individuals had only one or very few experiences. 

There is still another way to group those 2,678 valid responses. 

We would like to know whether those little girls in tutus went on 

to participate in high-school plays, or if the Boy Scouts also took 

music lessons. To examine this aspect of socialization in the arts, 

we use a multivariate statistical technique called factor analysis. 

Factor analysis is not as daunting as it sounds. It merely asks a 

certain kind of question: Have the people who did activity A also 

done activity B? It repeats the question for all possible pairs, and 

uses the results to indicate the strength of an association among 

groups of activities; in other words, is someone who took ballet 

lessons likely to have visited art museums? Or would that person 

prefer attending concerts? The results of this kind of analysis tell 

us which experiences tend to occur together. 

Seven groups or "factors" were created from that mass of respondents; five of the factors take both age and subject matter 

into account, demonstrating that both are important. For example, one group of individuals (Factor I) seems to achieve most of 

its arts-related socialization across a broad spectrum of activities, 

but during only one period (age 18 to 24) of youth. A second 

group (Factor 3) has roughly the same kind of activity pattern as 

Factor I, but during the high-school years. Two groups are more 

focused, Factor 5 on appreciation classes before the age of 18, and 
Table 9. 

Never attended 

a play, dance, 

Age

Group 

classical concert, or 

art museum in youth 

18-24 

yrs. old 44.2% 

25-31 

yrs. old 48.9 

32-42 

yrs. old 56.8 

43-61 

yrs. old 60.7 

Socialization Experiences by Age Group at Time of SPPA Interview 

Never had a music 

or art appreciation 

class prior to Age 25 

*73.0% 

62.4 

68.8 

78.4 

62 + 

yrs. old 71.7 87.7 

Average for all 

age groups 57.4 74.9 

Never had music, Never had an artsacting, writing, ballet, related socialization 

art, or craft lessons 

prior to Age 25 

*22.5% 

25.2 

40.3 

52.2 

64.7 

43.0 

experience prior to 

Age 25 

*12.5% 

14.8 

26.5 

37.1 

48.2 

29.5 

Never heard classical 

music or opera played 

in the home during

youth  ̄ 

70.1% 

6%3 

70.5 

70.4 

75.7 

71.2 

* Many respondents still in school as well as not having reached age at which many people have appreciation classes. 
Socialization ~ 7 

Factor 6 on lessons during grade school. Finally, two groups are 

very focused on subject matter: Factor 4 people take ballet lessons 

at all ages, while those of Factor 7 concentrate on art lessons 

(training) between the ages of ~ 8 and 24. The last group, Factor 

2, consists of people who had significant exposure to the arts 

during all three periods of youth, through visits to art museums 

and attendance at performances, and. through hearing classical 

music at home. 

The groups, or "factors," account for less than half of the variance in socialization activities, which means that most people 

with some experience do not exhibit a regular pattern of artsrelated socialization. This suggests that much socialization in the 

arts is haphazard. For those individuals whose experience is characterized by a close relationship with a particular factor, there is 

more of a pattern, but it may also reflect a narrow perspective 

either in terms of content or time. Later we shall see that both 

content and time play important roles in predicting adult artsrelated behavior. 

Which of these approaches--factor analysis or the indices Of 

socialization--would be the most satisfactory basis for subsequent analyses? The choice is obvious: Because many people 

who experienced arts-related socialization cannot be linked to 

any of the seven groups or "factors," the socialization indices are 

more useful. They permit us to take into account all the socialization experiences described by the s~,~,t~. Factor scores would 

not. Nevertheless, factor analysis can help to explain some of the 

variations in group behavior, as we will see in Chapter 4. 
CHAPTER THREE 

Participation in the Arts 

THE NOTION of"participation in the arts" has a 

democratic ring to it that is especially appropriate 

to our part of the Americas. As the Smithsonian 

Institution proudly declared on one of its posters, 

we are a "nation of nations." The United States has 

been built by peoples who brought with them a rich mdlange of 

cultural traditions, creating in their homes and local communities forms of art not always recognized by the academy. The vast 

numbers of quilt-makers and potters, of folk-singers and squaredancers, the itinerant painters, the po~ts and attic scribblers were 

both creators and consumers of art. In urbanized 2oth-century 

America, however, neither the process of acquiring the necessities of life nor the need to provide our own entertainment requires us to engage in arts-related activities. How, then, will the 

arts be supported? 

We as a nation have long believed that, without widespread 

public participation, the arts in America will languish. In ~833 

the American philosopher Margaret Fuller pointed out that there 

has always been a great difference between America and the Old 

World in this matter of patronage of the arts. "When an immortal 

poet was secure of only a few copyists to circulate his works," 

she wrote, "there were princes and nobles to patronize literature 

and the arts. Here is only the public.’’~ Today more than ever,~ 

public participation in arts-related activities is essential, and we 

need to know more about how people come to devote part of 

their leisure time to the arts. 

In order to find out whether there is a relationship between
 

early socialization and that indispensable public patronage, we
 

must analyze the s~’P,~ data for information about the levels and
 

From an essay by Margaret Fuller in the New York Tribune, ~833. 
2o Participation 

patterns of adult participation. As always, however, measurement is not easy. We must begin by defining exactly what it is 

that we are measuring. 

In our society, there are three basic types of adult arts-related 

participation: 

°;° Audience participation, where people attend concerts or other live performances, or go to museums and galleries; 

o:i Media-related participation, where people partake 

of arts activities through television, radio, or recordings; 

of° Direct participation, where people are the artists, 

instrumentalists, dancers, or actors. 

The svva asked people whether they had participated in any of 

those three kinds of activities during the previous year, and if so, 

how often. Analysis of the answers to even such apparently simple questions, however, is full of pitfalls. For example, Tables xo 

and I I reveal a surprisingly high level of all three types of participation. There is evidence that some of those numbers may. be 

too high. The design of the questions can lead to confusion because they are asked with no qualifiers as to the extent of particTable 10.. Pirticipatjon during the Previous Year~ 

Live Audience Media 

Type of Participation Participation Participation 

Jazz Performance 9.6% 29.2% 

Classical Music 10.8 34.8 

Opera 1.8 17.1 

Musical Play or Operetta 18.2 25.0 

Non-Musical Play 10.9 26.1 

Ballet 3.4 15.5 

Visited Art Gallery/Art Museum 21.5 22.7 

Read Novels, Short 

Stories, Poetry or Plays -- 56.7 

Attended Art or Craft Fair 41.1 -­

~ The participation rates in this Table are based on the November-December 1982 interviews 

and may differ from the typical results of the full survey sample. 
Table ~11. Direct Participation in the Arts during
 

the Previous Year 

Type of participation 

Lessons ira literature, 

creative writing, art, 

photography, crafts, 

ballet, music, etc. 10.2% 

Pottery, ceramics jewelry 

or similar crafts 12.4 

Weaving, crocheting, quilting, 

needlepoint, sewing or 

similar crafts 34.6 

Musical or non-musical 

play, opera or ballet 

production (not performer) 

Musical Performance 

(not performer) 

2.6 

.8 

Creative x~riting 

(not course work) 6.7 

Art Photographs, 

movies or video tapes 10.5 

Painting, .drawing, 

sculpture or printmaking 10.3 

ipation or its quality. For example, jazz concerts are not defined, 

and the musical may have been a community theatre production 

of"Annie Get Your Gun." Classical music could include a Bach 

prelude for organ in church, and opera on television might have 

been an aria lasting less than I5 minutes and sung by Luciano 

Pavarotti as part of a variety show. The possibilities are endless: 

Taking art photographs could be interpreted as producing any 

reasonably decent snapshot of flowers in the park. 

Yet another problem can lead to overestimates of participation: 

Some people may have wanted to gain the approval of the interviewer or enhance their status by answering in the affirmative. 

Even among Margaret Fuller’s democratic American public, it is 

good to be seen as a patron of the arts. 

All of these problems bring into question the accuracy of participation estimates and the usefulness of the data for compari­
22 Participation 

son. Nevertheless, when responses to participation questions are 

compared to other responses, there may be a conservative bias to 

the results; exaggeration of participation should tend to dilute 

relationships between participation and other characteristics such 

as socialization. Thus any positive findings may have been reduced by the extent of exaggeration. 

One technique for overcoming data problems such as these is 

to develop less precise indicators of the behavior being measured, 

that is, to accommodate error in the estimates ofparticipationby 

broadening the categories with which it is measured. The indices 

of participation created in this study are examples of that approach. Because it was not possible to measure reliably the level 

of participation within specific activities, the aggregation took 

place across activity categories. For example, attending live performances was used as the aggregate measure for attending jazz 

concerts, classical concerts, opera, musicals, plays, and/or ballets. As in the case of the socializatioh indices, each category was 

assigned a value: Non-attendance equals o; attendance at ~ or 2 

events of any type equals I; attendance at more than 2 events 

equals 2. Paradoxically, this hierarchical measure of participation 

is both more crude than an accurate count of actual attendance at 

performances, and more accurate because it absorbs some measure of exaggeration. 

Ten indices of adult arts-related participation were developed, 

and the distribution of responses is reported in Table I2. Each 

index has slightly different values, which explains the varying 

number and location of blank spaces on the table. For some activities such as ballet, even aggregating several related activities 

did not create a large group of high-level participants, so there 

are two blank spaces. For others, particularly those activities that 

include television, the rate of participation includes ~vell over half 

the respondents. But because the questions asked only whether 

people had attended performances once or more than once during the past year, these indices are only approximate measures, 

and respondents in the same category may have very different 

rates of participation. Nevertheless, the indices are sufficiently 

accurate to support an analysis of the relationship between socialization and current adult participation, without fear of misleading results. 
Participation 23 

As we have seen, the pattern of socialization in the arts tends 

to be related to the age of the people who answered the SPPA questionnaire, with younger respondents reporting more lessons, appreciation classes, and attendance at arts-related activities than 

those who were older when the questions were asked. Do adults 

have similarly different patterns of participation in arts-related 

activities, depending on age? SPPA data provides some answers to 

the question, interesting because they probably correspond to 

conventional wisdom on the subject. It comes as no surprise, for 

example, that younger people are more likely to participate in 

.jazz-related activities than are older people. Gallery and museum 

attendance is more popular in the middle groups (not to be confused with middle age). Older people are evidently more interested in the performing arts, except for the oldest group, where 

participation declines; age in excess of 62 years seems to curtail 

activities away from home. Media-related participation follows 

the same general pattern, although the relationship is weaker. 

Figure I graphically presents the relationship of age to each of 

the participation indices. The lines show a general downward 

slope with increasing age, with some exceptions in intermediate 

age groups. The steady decline is most noticeable in those activities involving direct participation in the arts as artist or performer. The other kindsof activities show a characteristic hump, 

indicating increased participation in the middle age groups and a 

renewed downward sl6pe for the upper age group. 

Unfortunately, the SPPA data cannot explain the differences in 

participation at various ages. Can the "hump" in the intermediate 

age groups be attributed to factors such as more disposable income? Are the oldest people simply less interested in participating, or are they physically less able to do so? Does the decline in 

participation by those in the oldest age group reflect their lower 

levels of socialization in the arts? How can we explain the fact 

that, in each of the ten participation indices, younger people are 

not more likely to participate in the arts? 

For most adults, participation in the arts is a leisure-time activ- . 

ity, and it is possible that people from differing generations have 

differing patterns of leisure behavior, depending on socialization 

or other factors. 

Although we cannot come to any conclusions about genera­
Table 12. Indices of Participation in tile Arts during the Previous Year 

Activity 

ATTENDANCE 

Attending live 

performances of jazz, 

classical music, opera, 

plays, musicals &/or 

ballets 

(2)	 VISUAL AP, T 

Visiting galleries or 

craft shows, watching 

TV programs on art 

(3)	 Doing art: crafts, 

making movies, 

photogaphs, painting, 

drawing, sculpture, 

etc. 

(4)	 MUSIC 

Attending any musical 

performance or 

watching or listening 

on TV, radio or 

records 

(5)	 Playing music 

Once or More tlian 

Never Once Twice twice twice 

.% % % % % 

69.2 -­ 23.6 7.2 

41.4 -­ -­ 38.4 20.2 

71.4 17.6 7.6 3.4 

45.4 -­ -­ 27.1 27.5 

43.8 -­ -­ 28.5 27.7 
(6) THEATRE 

Watching plays, 

acting, writing, 

working behind scenes 53.7 24.2 11.9 10.2 

(7) Off-stage help: 

providing support for 

stage or musical 

performance 97.0 **2.5 **.5 

(8) LITERATURE 

Attending plays, 

reading fiction, 

watching plays on TV, 

writing 33.9 47.3 18.9 

(9) Reading, listening to, 

taking lessons, or 

doing creative writing 72.3 19.6 *8.1 

(lO) BALLET 

Attending ballet, 

dancing in ballet, 

watching ballet, on 

TV, stage support role 78.9 20.0 1.1 

* More than once 

** Support for one, support for both 
30-­

2O -­

I0
 

Literature audience (8) 

Playing music (5) 

Music audience (4) 

Visual arts audience (2) 

Theatre audience (6) 

Attendance (1) 

Ballet (10) 

Writing (9) 

Doing art (3) 

Off-stage (7) 

9-~_’~1 vr~ 32-42 vrs. 43-61 yrs. 62 +vrs. 
Participation -",7 

tional patterns, we can learn something by applying the factor 

analysis techniques used in the study of socialization. In addition 

to arts-re!ated activities, general leisure activities like going to 

the movies, sports, exercise, etc., were included on the sPp,~ 

questionnaire. This permits us to examine arts-related activities 

in the context of all leisure-time pursuits, and to iden{ify the extent of crossover between the arts and other types of activities. 

Again, the results are somewhat discouraging for those of us 

who are dedicated to the arts. By far the largest group of people 

surveyed--those who are part of a general standard leisure-activities group--do not participate in any arts-related activities in 

their spare time.-" In fact, about half the sample (and the general 

population) does not have a highly-structured patt.ern of leisure 

activity. People relax in many different ways, but most do noth­

-ing beyond watching television with enough regularity to be 

considered part of a group. 

There are, however, small groups of people who have fairly 

regular leisure habits, and some of these groups are heavily ori: 

ented towards the arts. It is interesting that only two of the factors are mixed, revealing crossover patterns where people spend 

concentrated leisure time on activities as diverse as going to museums and gardening. 

Analysis of patterns of adult participation in the arts and of the 

use of leisure time in general thus reveals that, apart from the 

large group that has no particular pattern of leisure activity at 

all,3 there is little mixing of the arts with other leisure behaviors 

in a patterned or regular way. 

The results also reveal an unhappy fact: The arts have a small 

group of devotees, but in general they are hard-pressed to compete with other leisure activities for the attention of the public. 

-" This result parallels an earlier study that identified a general popular leisure 

factor. Using slightly different techniques, the earlier study also found a large 

portion of the sample (about half) to have no specific leisure pattern. See the 

Appendix for references to more details on this study. 

~ Diversity of leisure activity does not exclude the possibility of some occasional arts-related activity, but simply indigates such irregularity that no clear 

pattern can be said to exist. 
CHAPTER FOUR 

The Relationship Between Socialization and 

Participation in the Arts 

THE BASIC SOCIALIZATION MODEL predicts that people with positive socialization experiences in a given kind of activity will be more 

likely to participate in that same kind of activity as 

adults. The idea is notnew; indeed, many of us are 

familiar with the quotation from a poem by Alexander Pope, 

who wrote: " ’Tis education forms the common mind: Just as 

the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.’’* Pope and the modern-day 

sociologist are expressing, each in his own way, a tenet of com-. 

mon wisdom. But does that tenet hold true in the case of the 

relationship between socialization and participation in the arts? 

Analysis of the svvA data can answer that question in broad, general terms; it can also refine considerably our understanding of 

the efficiency of various types of socialization in promoting later 

participation. 

Six categories of socialization are explored in order to assess 

their relationship to adult participation in the arts. They include 

four kinds of lessons (music, visual arts, other arts such as ballet, 

drama, writing, and crafts, and appreciation classes) and two 

kinds of audience-related activities (home exposure to the arts, 

and attendance at performances or visits to galleries and museums). In each case, the results of the svva data provide strong 

evidence supporting the hypothesis of Pope, the sociologists, 

and common wisdom across a broad range of activities. 

Understanding the information presented in Figures 2, 3, and 

’ Alexander Pope’s Moral Essays: In Four Epistles to Several Persons was first 

published in London in ~78~. For a modern edition, see the same work under the 

title Epistles to Several Persons, Introduction and notes by James E. Wellington 

(Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press, [~963]). 
% 

75 -­

70 -­

60 -­

5O -­

40 -­ /

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/ 

2O -­

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

!

! 

I

I

I 

I

I

I
 

GROUP I 2 .3 4 5 6 7
 

Classical music 

Jazz 

Opera 

KEY TO GROUPS 

1 No music lessons 

2 Music lessons 

before age 12 

3 Music lessons ages 

12-17 

4 Music lessons ages 

18-24 

5 Music lessons 

before age 12, and 

ages 12-17 

6 Music lessons 

before age 12, and 

ages 1 ,%-24 

7 Music lessons ages 

12-17, and 18-24 

8 Music lessons in 

all three age groups 

8 
 

 

65 KEY TO GROUPS 

1 No music Icssons 

6{) Music lessons 

bctorc age 12 

3 Musiclcsson~ages 

12-17 ~ 

40 

30 

5 Music lessons 

before age 12, and 

ages 12-17 

6 Music lessons 

before age 12, and 

ages 18-24 

7 Music lessons ages 

12-17, and 18-_4 

8 Musiclcssons in 

all three age groups 

! 

| 

-~| 

.~ 

I 

| 

| 

| --~ Musicals ~ ~ // Classical music 

~ / / " 

I , 

V / 

20 

/ 

/ 

10 

5 

~ 

Opera 
 

32 The Relationship 

4 is perhaps more complicated than it looks, and it is important 

to specify exactly who we are talking about when we read the 

figure horizontally and vertically. The horizontal dimension has 

grouped respondents into eight groups. The groups are the same 

in all the figures° Anyone who belongs to one group (those who 

only took music lessons prior to age 12, for example) is automatically excluded from all the other groups. When we read the 

figure vertically, however, we are focusing on the percentage of 

people in one category of socialization who participate in each 

% 

4O	 KEY TO GROUPS 

1 No music lessons 

2 Music lessons
 

before age 12
 

3 Music lessons ages
 

12-17
 30 

4 Music lessons ages
 

18-24
 

5 Music lessons
 

before age 12, and
 

ages 12-17
 

, Perform 

I 2O	 6 Music lessons , music 

bcfore age 12, and 

ages 18-24 ’ / Play ./~ classical 7 Music lessons ages 

12-17, and 18-24 ~ music , /

, / 8 Music lessons in , / 10	 all three age groups I 

I	 ’ /

I	 ~ /

I

I

I	 ° /  ̄ 

I / I

I	  ̄

 ̄ / 

I	  ̄

 ̄ 

I	 /

I	  ̄ 

I	 / 

GROUP	 3 4 5 6
 

Figure 4 The Relationship of Music Lessons to Performing Music
 
34 The Relationship 

slightly different pattern emerges. Figure 3 shows that attending 

classical concerts increases with the experience of lessons, but 

differs little based on the age at which lessons occurred--until we 

reach lessons in multiple time-periods that include people 18 to 

24 years old (the last three groups). 

The uneven or varying patterns for different types of participation indicate that the effects of socialization are uneven, and 

suggest the influence of other factors such as the quality of the 

socialization experience or the interaction of quality with age. 

Furthermore, opera and other activities that are attended by a 

small proportion of the population present a problem in statistical reliability because of the small number of respondents. For 

those activities, it is probably best to look at trends across several 

socialization characteristics to determine if they exhibit acommon pattern. 

A second perspective on the relationship between socialization 

and current participation is provided by Figure 5. Adult musicrelated participation has been aggregated into a single index. The 

music participation level is then compared to each music-lesson 

socialization category and shown on four bars. The results reflect 

those of Figures 2 to 4. As one moves from left to right, the total 

length of all four bars gets longer, indicating generally higher 

levels of participation. This is the expected result, because the 

index of musical activity is a condensed aggregate of all types of 

music participation activities, as shown on Figures 2 to 4­

But there is something different about the bar graph. It shows 

clearly that increased socialization (represented by movement 

from left to right across the graph) leads to a second type of increased participation. Notice how the three bars on the right in 

each group get progressively bigger. This shows that people who 

had music lessons when they were ~8 to 24 years old are more 

likely to participate in multiple activities as adults; the difference 

in participation shows up most vividly in Groups 4, 5, 6, and 7, 

where these people are concentrated. Those with lessons in all 

three periods of youth are much more likely to be frequent participants as adults. This pattern is repeated many times for each 

tv~e of socialization and t~articit3ation. 
The Relationship 3 3 

activity as adults. We learn from Figure 9. that among those who 

only took music lessons prior to age ~9., (Group 9.), more than 

40% said that they listened to classical music on television, radio, 

and recordings. About 37% said they listened to .jazz, 9.2% said 

they attended musicals, etc. But when we add. up the percentages 

on the vertical columns of the figures, the total is more than 

~oo%. Clearly, there is some overlap here. Some of those people 

who only took music lessons prior to age ~2 are participating in 

more than one music-related activity as adults. Nevertheless, the 

4o% who listen to classical music may not be the same people 

who attend musicals. 

Childhood music lessons are good predictors of adult participation in music activities. Indeed, the more music lessons people 

had prior to age 24, the more likely they are to spend some of 

their leisure time on music. For example, the participation rate 

for those with music lessons during all three periods of youth is 

at least three times greater than for those with no music lessons, 

and can be more than too times greater. Having had lessons only 

before turning ~9. means an increased adult participation rate 

varying from Io% to more than ~oo%. If lessons were the only 

predictor of the rate of participation, their impact could be considered very strong; however, conclusions about causal relationships must be tempered by the fact that little is known about 

other variables that act in combination with, or outside the effect 

of lessons. 

Specific patterns of adult participation may differ according to 

activity, represented by the percentage scale. The differences in 

percentage show that, for one adult activity--listening to classical music on television, radio, or recordings--the increase from 

Group ~ (no music lessons) across the following seven groups of 

socialization experiences is almost unbroken. The relationship 

between these two activities (socialization and adult participation) is stronger as the age at which lessons occurred increases, 

and as the number of time-periods in which lessons were taken 

increases. In other words, long-term experience with music lessons during childhood and youth predicts an adult participation 

rate almost three times that for people who had no music lessons. 

If a second activity line is tracked across lesson categories, a 
Ol 

L~ 
3 6 The Relationship 

The pattern inferred from these results consists of two parts: 

°=° Having some socialization in an art-related activity 

will be associated with a higher probability of adult participation in a similar activity; 

°;° The greater the level of socialization (as measured 

by the index), the higher the level of adult participation will 

be. 

Analysis of the svvA data reveals that music lessons dui:ing 

childhood and youth markedly increase adult participation in activities focused on music. Is there a similarly strong relationship 

between socialization in the other arts and later participation? 

In general, the relationship between art lessons and adult participation in visual arts looks very much like the pattern for music: Adult participation in most activities increases as levels of 

socialization increase. For example,, as the level of art lessons increases within age groups and across several time periods of 

childhood and youth, the level of adult activity in which the. individual actually produces a work of art also increases. The absence of art lessons while growing up markedly reduces later artrelated activities; almost half of the people with no lessons spent 

their leisure time on something other than art. By contrast, only 

8% of those who had art lessons when they were 18 to 24 years 

old failed to participate in visual arts activities, and everyone who 

had lessons in all three periods of youth participated. Moreover, 

there is a steady increase across lesson groups for the proportion 

with the highest visual arts activity. The one exception is that 

those who had lessons when they were 18 to 24 years old have a 

higher rate of participation than those who had lessons from I2 

to 17 and before they were I2 years old. 

There is another, new dimension to the results: Where the visual arts are concerned, the age at which the socialization experiences occurred is very important. For three of the six art-related 

activities, taking art lessons between the ages of I8 and 24 is a 

stronger indicator of adult participation than having lessons before age I2 or between ages I2 and ~7. And for five of six adult 

activities, having lessons during adolescence is a stronger indicator of later participation than lessons prior to age ~2. Knowing 
The Relationship 37 

when art lessons occurred provides additional information about 

the likely effect on adult behavior. 

When we analyze the data for lessons in the other arts--acting, 

ballet, writing, and crafts--the basic relationship remains the 

same: If you had lessons while growing up, you are more likely 

to participate in that activity as an adult. But the effect of lessons 

at an older age varies somewhat in these categories of adult participation. For example, for ballet dancers the age at which lessons occurred is less important than taking those lessons in more 

than one time period prior to age 24. For those who took creative 

writing lessons, age is more important for later activities such as 

reading and attending performance, but less important for actually writing literature, drama, or poetry. On the other hand, the 

age at which lessons were taken is extremely important for predicting adult participation in crafts. 

Lessons teach students how to participate in the arts as artists 

or performers, but not as patrons. Another strategy exists to socialize young people who might become adult patrons or consumers of the arts created or performed by others. In the absence 

of princes and noblemen to support the arts, those who appreciate them are very important people. Can arts appreciation 

classes, like art lessons, effectively train the consumers of art? 

Again, there is no data in the SPPA that permits us to draw causeand-effect conclusions about the relationship-between arts appreciation classes and later participation. We can evaluate a widelyheld assumptmn, however, one that declares that individuals 

who had appreciation classes are more likely to participate in related activities than are those who had no such classes. 

Not suFprisingly, the S~’~’A data supports that assumption; by 

now, the general pattern is clear. Nevertheless, there are some 

differences between the effects of lessons and of appreciation 

classes on adult participation in the arts. The strongest relationship exists between appreciation classes in the visual arts and later 

attendance at events such as museum exhibitions; again, increased socialization increases adult participation.’- For those who 

-" The reader is reminded that classes taken when older, or taken more frequently, increase the level of socialization. 
3 8 The Relationship 

become artists or performers, however, taking appreciation 

classes between the ages of ~ 8 and z4 appears to be less important 

than it was in the case of lessons. Adult participation rates for 

crafts people, painters, and sculptors, for example, actually decline for those who took appreciation classes during that period. 

The effect of arts appreciation classes on all adult participation 

in visual arts activities repeats the earlier pattern. Although more 

modest, there is an increased level of participation associated 

with socialization experiences occurring later or more frequently; in other words, more classes, or classes when older, 

mean a higher level of adult participation. 3 

There is also a positive relationship between music appreciation classes and adult participation, but it may be somewhat 

weaker than in the case of the visual arts. The effect of appreciation classes taken before the age of I)., for example, is negligible 

for most activities.~ Participation rates increase significantly for 

those who took such classes during their high-school years, but 

the increase for college-age classes is not as strong. Furthermore, 

those who had classes during more than one period apparently 

do not participate at a higher rate than those with classes in a 

single period. 

Does the same pattern persist when we look at the s~,~,A data on 

youthful participation as consumers of the arts? Respondents 

were asked about exposure tO three types of arts events: visiting 

art galleries and museums, attending performances (classical 

concerts, ballet, and drama), and hearing classical music or opera 

in the home. 

In the case of music, general results again confirm the expectation that this type of socialization has a positive relationship to 

adult participation. Apparently, early exposure "rubs off," or is 

associated with other socialization activities that have a combined 

effect on later participation, but the effects are not uniform. For 

example, those who indicated that they heard classical music or 

opera "often" were not more likely to attend concerts as adults; 

3 In this instance, level of participation means a greater.variety of visual arts 

activities, or more activity in one or t~vo areas. 

~ Note that, because of the small number of people involved, the sample of this 

group could not be tested separately. 
The Relationship 39 

but they were likely to enjoy media versions (television, radio, or 

recordings) of their favorite musical activities more often than 

people who had only occasional exposure when they were 

young. 

Visiting art galleries or attending performances is another type 

of audience socialization, and the question asked by the SPPA focused on how often the experience occurred. Once again, the 

data demonstrates that adult participation increases with higher 

levels of early socialization. The strength of the relationship varies with different types of activities. It is strongest when the individual participated in identical behavior (such as visiting art 

galleries or watching television shows about the visual arts) both 

in youth and adulthood. It is much weaker when the adult is actually creating art; in this case, the behavior required is very different from the socialization experience as consumer of art. 

What effect does the frequency of socialization experience as audience have on adult participation in the arts? To begin with, the 

frequency of visits to art galleries before age 24 has little or no 

bearing on whether an individual will later create works of art. 

Nor does it affect the index of adult visual-arts activities. Similarly, frequency of socialization experience in music has only a 

slight relationship to levels of adult activity. When early attendance is compared to the index of adult attendance at live performances (a comparison of relatively similar activities), it becomes 

clear that, although it helps to have had these socialization experiences, it makes little difference if people had them frequently 

or infrequently. 

When youthful experiences as audience for art are combined 

into a single index, there is no change in the strength or shape of 

the relationship to later participation in the arts. Once again, 

while adult attendance increases if children had socialization experiences, the frequency of those experiences makes little difference to the level of adult participation. In other words, more is 

not better. 

So far, the sPP,~ data allowsus to come to four conclusions: 

°~° Any socialization in the arts is likely to be reflected
 

in higher rates of adult participation in related activities;
 
40 The Relationship
 

°;° For many activities, the age of socialization is an 

important predictor, especially socialization that occurred 

during the years between ~ 8 and 24. (college age); 

°~° Activities which socialize young people to be consumers of art are good predictors of later participation as 

audience, but not as good predictors of participation as artist 

or performer; and 

°:° Lessons and appreciation classes are much more 

closely related to high levels of adult participation than are 

audience-socialization activities. 

Important as these conclusions are, there is more to be learned 

from those useful tools called indices. Up to this point, we have 

been examining the relationships between individual adult activities and socialization experiences. Indices allow us to analyze 

more general indicators. Here, we are comparing indices of socialization (early arts-related experience) with indices of current 

participation. The results parallel those for individuals. For example, we know that for individuals, "more is better," and we 

expect that people with higher levels of socialization will also 

have higher levels of participation in the arts as adults. The indices also show the effects of multiple socialization experiences. 

Indeed, as the level of socialization in the arts increases, the absolute level of adult participation in arts-related activities goes 

continually upward, from 27.5% to 92.8%. At the same time, as 

the level of socialization goes up, the proportion of people who 

participate frequently also rises. This relationship is true for all 

four indices of current adult participation. 

But those adults who responded to the Sl’~’A questionnaire varied in age from ~8 to 95, and the earlier, analysis of socialization 

and participation showed that age made some differences. 

Younger people had higher socialization levels, and participation 

levels varied according to the age of respondents, creating a complex pattern depending on the subject and type of activity involved. We should, therefore, analyze the effects of age on the 

relationship between socialization and participation. 

It would be very tedious to run through all of the foregoing 

analyses for each age group. Fortunately, there is a shorthand 
The Relationship
 

technique for describing the magnitude of relationships between 

socialization and participation. It is called "correlation analysis," 

and simple correlations show how closely related a pair of characteristics is. Making these kinds of comparisons will permit us 

to assess the "effects" of socialization across age groups, and 

across categories of socialization and/or participation. 

In this analysis, the strength of relationships is ekpressed by 

Spearman Rank Order coefficients (Rho) ranging from -* to 

+ I. Minus I indicates an inverse relationship: As the value of 

one characteristic goes up, the other comes down. Zero indicates 

that there is no relationship between pairs of characteristics: A 

change in the value of one has no effect on the value of another. 

A perfect positive relationship (every change in the value of one 

characteristic corresponds to a precisely proportional change in 

the other) is expressed by + I. In the social sciences, where behavior is usually the result of a complex set of circumstances, 

correlations of about .3 are acceptable, .5 is good, and .7 or .8 

may be too good to be believable, especially if only two characteristics are being compared. 

A matrix of correlation coefficients is used to describe the relationship between pairs of socialization experiences and current 

adult participation activities. In this matrix, a single number summarizes all of the results, albeit with some loss of information. 

For example, for individuals from ~8 to 24 years old, the correlation coefficient of .25 tells us that there is a moderate positive 

relationship between childhood attendance at arts events and creating art as an adult. However, we also find that for people between 43 and 62 years old the coefficient is only . I6; therefore, 

the relationship between childhood attendance at arts events and 

creating art as an adult is not as strong as it was for the ~ 8- to 24­

year-olds. Other kinds of information emerge from such analyses; for example, for people who are aged 62 +, childhood attendance at arts events is a much better predictor of adult participation at music events than of actually creating art. 

The correlations reveal many such differences. Indeed, one of 

the most persistent differences is that correlations between socialization and adult participation are often lower in the oldest 
42 The Relationship 

age group. Is it possible that the effects of socialization have worn 

off by the time an individual reaches age 62? 

A second pattern reveals that correlations for creating visual or 

literary art are usually highest for the youngest respondents, 

those between ~ 8 and 24 years old. Can we explain this because 

young people are much closer to their classes and the age when 

there are more opportunities for experimentation? As this age 

group assumes responsibility for .jobs and families, will it become more difficult to maintain relatively high levels of activity 

in these areas? 

A third general pattern reveals another prominent difference 

associated with the age of respondents. Middle-aged people (43 

to 62 years old) are most likely to engage in sedentary audience 

activities. The delay in embarking.on this kind of participation 

may be the result of changing socio-economic status and the 

aging of their children. 

In some cases there is very little difference across age groups. 

For example, age does not seem to matter much when it comes 

to engaging in all visual arts activities prior to the. age of 62. In 

other areas, such as creating art or attending musical performances, there are wide differences, depending on the age of respondents. 

Thus we may conclude that the role played by the age of the 

respondents varies more with the type of adult activity than with 

the level or type of socialization experience. 

The data allows us to make another point about the relationship of socialization to participation. The correlations between 

early lessons and adult creation of art are much higher than between either attendance or appreciation classes and similar adult 

participation. Furthermore, correlations, between attendance or 

appreciation classes during youth, and adult attendance at artsrelated events are not higher than the correlations between lessons and current attendance. These analyses reveal clearly that 

lessons in the arts are the strongest predictor of subsequent participation. It seems that "learning to do" is a better approach to 

socialization than "learning about." 

Nevertheless, we must be cautious: Other factors, such as socio-economic status and demographics, play a role in determin­
The Relationship 43 

ing the effect of socialization on adult participation. Indeed, factor analysis which took those characteristics into account reveals 

that there are no strong connections between specific socialization and participation characteristics--at least none that are 

stronger than the internal relationships (that is, relationships 

within either the participation or socialization characteristics). 

Nor are there any overriding predictors of either socialization or 

participation among socio-demographic characteristics. Thus, 

while it is possible to identify relationships between individual 

experiences, much of the variance in current adult participation 

remains unexplained in terms of socialization or socio-demographic characteristics. The unexplained variance is probably 

largely the result of the complex development of attitudes towards leisure activities and the interaction of those attitudes and 

other key factors in people’s lives. 
CHAPTER FIVE 

Contrary Cases 

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA from the Survey of 

Public Participation in the Arts has so far focused 

on the behavior of the majority in each of the subgroups identified. The SPPA data allows us to define 

two kinds ofma.jorities, one that participates in the 

arts as adults, and one that does not: 

°:° If a sub-group is composed of people with significant socialization in the arts, the majority of that group continues to participate. °~° If a sub-group consists of individuals with no socialization experiences during childhood and youth, the ma­

.jority of that group does not participate in the arts as adults. 

But what do we know about the minority in each of those cases, 

those with high levels of socialization who no longer participate, 

or those with no socialization who now, as adults, dedicate at 

least part of their leisure time to arts-related activities? 

Why do some people behave differently from the majority? To 

find out, we will employ something called "exception analysis." 

But we cannot possibly examine all of the factors that contribute 

to these differences. Indeed, the data provided by the svv~, permits us to analyze only a few characteristics of the minorities in 

each category. 

Of the three types of variables examined in this study--socialization, participation, and socio-demographic characteristics-­

only the third provides a basis for comparison of majority and 

minority respondents in each sub-group. Specifically, the research question being asked is this: How do the minority respondents-the contrary cases--on a particular participation 

question differ socio-demographically from the majority respondents? For example, are the 2% ofunsocialized opera-atten­
46 Contrar~ Cases 

ders richer, better-educated, or more likely to live in cities than 

the majority of unsocialized respondents who. do not attend opera? 

To answer the research question, we must first establish what 

constitutes a majority-minority situation. In terms of percentages, a 5~-49 split would not be significant. Instead, this study 

assumes a 7o% to 3o% split. In other words, wherever there is a 

strong relationship between socialization and participation, a set 

of contrary cases exists. Thus for each question on current adult 

participation, at least 7o% of the respondents must have been socialized at a specific level, or have had no socialization experiences at all. 

Secondly, the socio-demographic characteristics of the two 

groups--majority and minority--must be compared. Seven socio-demographic factors are significant: age, income, marital status, race, sex, education, and the size of the community in which 

the respondent lives.~ 

Who, then, are tl~e unsocialized participators? They share four 

key characteristics: 

°.% They are almost always better-educated than the 

majority, the unsocialized non-participators. 

o~" They usually have a higher income, but often their 

current arts-related activities do not require money to suppdrt participation (instead of attending the opera, they 

watch it on television). 

°~" If they are involved in jazz-related activities, or are 

creating art, they are younger than the majority. 

°~" They are more likely to live in urban areas, even 

when participation would not be affected by the availability 

of arts-related facilities such as concert halls, dance studios, 

or museums. 

’ For each factor, the mean value for participants and nonparticipants is con> 

pared using a t-test to estimate the probability that sample differences are statistically different in the population. Because a large number of tests (64 x 7 varia- ’ 

bles) were performed, a very stringent probability (p <_ .oos) was used to judge 

significance. Therefore, where differences are reported, they are very likely to 

represent real differences in the total population. 
Contrary Cases 47 

The opposites of the unsocialized participators are, of course, 

the socialized nonparticipants, and, as might be expected, these 

nonparticipants often exhibit the opposite characteristics. They 

tend to have less education, to live in more rural areas, and to be 

slightly older. 

The results for socialized nonparticipants are different from 

the results for unsocialized participants in another way. Of ~8 

current activities on the indices, eight show no differences on any 

of the seven socio-demographic factors. Whatever it is that keeps 

highly-socialized individuals away from the arts-related activities 

enjoyed by at least 7o% of people socialized like them, it is not 

explained by the socio-demographic characteristics examined 

here. Could these contrary individuals be representative of the 

problem of imprecise measurement? The lack of precise qualitative or quantitative measurements of socialization experiences 

may have grouped them erroneously with respondents who had 

more or better socialization experiences. Or perhaps these 

highly-socialized people no longer enjoy the particular activity. 

The little girls dancing in tutus may have become women who 

would rather go canoeing. 
CHAPTER SIX 

Art, Artists, and the Public 

NOW THAT WE KNOW something concrete 

about the relationsl~,ip between socialization in the 

arts and later participation in arts-related activities, 

how can we put that knowledge to use? What can 

be done to increase enjoyment of the arts among 

our fellow-citizens who, as we have seen, have been only marginally exposed to the excitement, joy, and practical rewards of music, drama, dance, and the visual arts? 

The easiest way to increase participation would be to provide 

opportunities for people who have expressed a desire to spend 

more of their leisure time on arts-related activities. Is there unsatisfied demand for more opportunities to participate in the arts? 

The s~,~’A revealed that demand always exceeds levels of current 

participation, but, depending on the activity, it varies greatly in 

intensity. For example, no less than 32.7% of respondents would 

like to attend more musicals, but only 7.6% expressed an interest 

in seeing more opera. 

Based on the expressed desire for more participation, how 

many people might attend arts-related events in the future? We 

can estimate their numbers by adding current participants to 

nonparticipants who expressed an interest in attending. The results suggest that there are significant opportunities to increase 

participation; we learn, for example, that it might be possible to 

increase the audience for opera by 365%, provided that there 

were no barriers to participation. But there are barriers to realizing the desire for increased participation, some external and others.self-generated- Not everFone who would like to attend four operas instead of one will be 

able to do so. Therefore, the real potential for an increase in attendance is probably much smaller, closer to current rates of participation in each activity. 
50 Art, Artists and the Public 

What is the effect of socialization on demand for increased participation? Surprisingly, it is not a ma,jor factor, except indirectly. 

Demand for more participation in arts-related activities is much 

greater among current participants (ranging from 5o% to 68%) 

than it is among those who do not now participate (ranging from 

only 7% to 25%). We already know that socialization is related 

to higher levels of participation; thus we might expect current 

participants to demand opportunities for more participation. 

There is also .somewhat heavier demand, for increased participation among those non-participants who had more socialization 

experiences than others in their group. Both groups, however, 

reported barriers to increased participation. 

The sm, a identified 2 ~ different barriers to attendance at seven 

types of events. Three ofthem-,time, cost, and lack of availability--were cited most frequently. Barriers associated with health 

problems were the most common only for the older age groups. 

No matter which arts-related activity is chosen by those who 

want to increase their participation,, the cost in time and money 

of doing so is ofma.jor importance. The fact that visiting art galleries is often free is reflected in a lower proportion of respondents mentioning cost as a barrier, and a higher proportion mentioning time. 

Sometimes, the barriers to increased participation are external: 

People may work so hard that there is li{erally no time for leisure 

pursuits of any sort. Similarly, some people may earn so little 

money that all "costly" leisure activities are prohibitive. In other 

cases, however, people are making choices about the use of their 

leisure time and discretionary funds that amount to the establishment of priorities, whether consciously or unconsciously. 

The existence of priorities implies value judgments. If people 

have made such choices in the past, particularly with regard to 

the use of time, it is doubtful that those choices will change unless there is a change in attitude. Therefore, demand for increased 

participation must surely be discounted to the extent that realchoice behavior has determined participation in the past. 

Can attitudes be changed? The s~’~,a data offers an intriguing 

possibility. The logic of the results implies that, because higher 

levels of socialization are associated with higher levels of adult 
Art, Artists and the Public 

participation in arts-related activities, and because demand for 

increased participation is greatest among those who already participate, increased efforts to socialize young people in the arts 

might lead eventually to a change in attitudes. 

The implications of these results for policy and program design are significant. If higher levels of current adult participation 

are a goal, then inducing higher levels of socialization may be one 

key to achieving that goal. Although the s~,pa does not provide 

sufficiently reliable and unambiguous data to support conclusions about direct causallinkages, we do know that socialization, 

especially certain activities such as having lessons, is strongly associated with current participation and with the demand for 

more participation among current participants and non-participants alike. We also know that people who had lessons later in 

life (ages ~ 8 to 24) are likely to participate more than those who 

had their training while very young. In terms of designing training programs, maximum effect is po.ssible only if the training is 

continuous, or at least occurs over several different timeframes. 

Training that occurs only once and at a young age will have the 

least effect on adult participation. 

There are at least two possible explanations for this pattern. 

Training received only a few years ago is more likely to have an 

effect than training received 2o or 30 years ago. Other analyses 

show that the correlation between socialization and participation 

decreases somewhat with age. Second, training that takes place 

between the ages of ~ 8 and 24 is more likely to be voluntary, and 

therefore reflects the real interests of the individual. Because it is 

something people want to do, they are more likely to continue 

to pursue it in later life. Thus a program that offers the opportunity [’or later training during youth is more likely to produce 

more patrons and practitioners of the arts than programs offered 

at an earlier age. 

There is very little known about the quality of earlier socialization experiences, and therefore we cannot argue for programs 

that include involuntary features like training quotas. The process at work is complex enough to make it impossible to tell exactly hou, socialization influences later behavior. There are several 

possibilities, however. Socialization may instill a real love for the 
52 Art, Artists and the Public 

arts, or an intellectual connection of the sort that draws the former piano student to piano recitals to admire the technical skill 

being demonstrated. Feelings of guilt may be important in cases 

where individuals were indoctrinated with the idea that they 

should enjoy the arts; they might be the once- or twice-a-year 

audience. A kind of guilt may also drive parents to expose their 

children to the arts, thereby accounting for considerable attendance at performances, and probably much of the participation 

as audience for recordings and for arts-related programs on television and radio. Of course all of these possible linkages are affected by current environmental factors such as cost, family situation, availability, and social pressures, among others. Even if 

we assume for the moment that the relational results described 

here represent some kind of causal link, it is clear that most of 

the variance in current participation is still unexplained. In other 

words, we know only a small part of why people participate in 

arts-related activities. 

In the light of these considerations, it is difficult to identify a 

policy that will have a high probability of furthering the goal of 

increasing adult participation. It is even difficult to target the appropriate population group. Using the logic that "more is better," should we target those already being socialized inthe arts? 

Or should we select those not receiving any. socialization, on the 

assumption that it is more important to take the first and most 

basic step towards increased participation? The latter approach 

assumes that other factors, not even considered in the present 

study, are not driving socialization results or at least operating as 

catalysts. Given the nature of the data from the Survey of Public 

Participation in the Arts, these remain unanswerable questions.