Andrew Taylor on the Business of Arts & Culture
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Everything's about a date in Kansas City
Posted: October 26, 2005
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The on-line arts research warehouse CPANDA has a new 'quick fact' this month that's bound to annoy the aesthetically pure. Drawn from a cultural participation study in 1998, the summary shows the stated motivations of surveyed Kansas City residents who had attended an arts event in the prior year.
The answers shouldn't shock any of us by now:
But the gut punch comes in the alternate responses that showed the ''quality of the art'' was completely irrelevant to 21 percent of those surveyed. In other words, 21 percent of respondents claimed that artistic quality played no role in their motivation to attend. None.
I'm not saying there is a proper motivation for attending a cultural event. I honestly believe there's truth, honor, and beauty in (almost) all ways of connecting with cultural experience. I'm just suggesting that many arts organizations continue to believe their own promotional materials -- that it's all about excellence -- when a sizable percentage of their audience doesn't agree.
In my head, I'm picturing a group professional actors staring out at a full house, realizing that perhaps 20 percent of the people staring back at them had no interest in the calibre of their work (at least when choosing to attend). Sure, the audience may have chosen them as the best environment for their date or gathering. Sure, they may be there as family and friends of those on stage. And sure, the same people could be sitting anywhere else at that moment, but they chose not to be. Despite all those wonderfully positive choices, it's likely a disconnecting statistic, nonetheless.