This report synthesizes findings across several modes of arts participation (attending the visual and performing arts, reading literature, creating/performing art, using digital media to consume art, and learning within the arts) to show how many American adults--and from which backgrounds--have engaged in art throughout the decade of 2002 to 2012. Based on the NEA's Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Community Arts Center Handbook is a collection of illustrated methods to aid arts organizations at various stages of the planning and design process. Setting up a new arts council or improving an existing requires a visioning process that offers community participants opportunities to make their arts concerns known, as well as planned actions to achieve desired outcomes. The effectiveness of an organization depends upon a relationship to its constituents, who may be actual members or the broader public. The transparency of the arts groups' goals can influence the way that media is

In 2012, the National Endowment for the Arts partnered with the General Social Survey to ask why people attend arts events (specifically music, dance, theater, and visual arts). This new report looks beyond demographics to discover the attitudes, motivations, and barriers for attending the arts at different life stages—the first time the NEA has published a report on this type of data.

The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) is the largest and most comprehensive survey of U.S. arts participation, with a total sample size exceeding 37,000 adults, ages 18 and over. The latest SPPA compares arts participation rates based on surveys from 2002, 2008, and 2012, as well as regional, state, and metro-area statistics.

The Why Do People Attend The Arts Infographic was created by the National Edowment fo rthe Arts from their report When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivatons Affecting Arts Attendance.

The How Do Americans Participate in the Arts Infographic was created by the National Edowment for the Arts from thier report A Decade of Arts Engagement: Findings from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2002-2012.

Arts Midwest and Metropolitan Group recently launched Creating Connection, a report that details our findings from a national research project conducted in Fall 2014 around public values, behaviors, and attitudes as they relate to arts and culture. Part of a broader effort to use the social change strategy building public will to make arts and culture a more recognized, valued, and expected part of our everyday lives, this report signals the completion of our first phase of work.

Artists and cultural institutions have an important role to play in neighborhood social and economic vitality. As community developers consider how best to reimagine space they can and should look to the arts to help create place. This work, otherwise known as “creative placemaking,” is beginning to take shape across the country. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is pleased to dedicate Volume 10, Issue 2 of the Community Development Investment Review to this emerging work.

The 2014 Patron Loyalty Study: Loyalty By the Numbers examines the financial transactions (including ticket sales, memberships and donations) of almost a million Greater Philadelphia households, using seven years of data from 17 major cultural attractions in the region. One of the key findings of the report is that, despite the sector’s focus on developing new audiences, the erosion of current audience loyalty represents one of the most significant financial risks for cultural groups. 

Based on case studies of 10 arts organizations that undertook audience-building projects as part of the Wallace Excellence Awards initiative, the report, The Road to Results: Practices for Building Arts Audiences, pinpoints nine practices that successful efforts had in common — from identifying a target group that made sense for the organization to determining what barriers needed to be