Cultivating Demand for the Arts

Once again, Bill O'Driscoll showed up, thought critically, and responded intelligently to our recent public forum based on a RAND corporation report entitled Cultivating Demand for the Arts. Through her research, author Laura Zakaras developed a model that looks at two forces ultimately impacting our relationship to arts and culture: Supply (e.g. the works of art) and Demand (e.g. the audience). Together, they create the "aesthetic experience" through Access. Her research brief shows the relationship graphically.

Zakaras pointed out that the most reliable indicator of adult participation in the arts is based on the arts education that we receive as children and students, which allows us to develop:

• the ability to see, hear, and feel what works of art have to offer;
• the ability to create within an art form;
• historical and cultural knowledge that enriches the understanding of works of art; and
• the ability to draw meaning from works of art through reflection and discussion with others.

A community can develop, create and support a great array of artistic supply, and the Greater Pittsburgh region has certainly done that. But without a citizenry that possesses the abilities above and a deep sense that "learning" is not something we do just because it is good for us (and happens primarily in our student years), we will come less and less often to the richness of the aesthetic experience.

We all recognize the greying or our audiences--but do we really understand that they are the people who consistently had arts education in their schools, or, like me, religiolusly watched Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on Saturday morning TV?

The solution will not be an easy one, and will involve the leadership of funders, policymakers, educators, and arts organizations.