Sunday, November 17, 2002
From an interesting article in todays Star Tribune . . .
Why haven't arts organizations been able to shed their elitist image and break boundaries of income and education?
A leading predictor of arts attendance is early exposure to the arts, McCarthy said. Perhaps not surprisingly, people who get the most exposure to the arts early in life tend to come from wealthier families, he said. The arts find themselves in what arts consultant Neill Archer Roan calls a "self-reinforcing system" of exclusion.
Education levels are indeed high among Twin Cities arts audiences. Eighty percent of Minnesota Orchestra audience members are educated at or beyond the college level, as are 59 percent of Walker visitors, 80 percent of Pillsbury House patrons and 63 percent of Guthrie audiences.
And how about those Vikings fans? Only 25 percent are educated at or beyond the college level, according to fan demographics provided by the NFL.
Why haven't arts organizations been able to shed their elitist image and break boundaries of income and education?
A leading predictor of arts attendance is early exposure to the arts, McCarthy said. Perhaps not surprisingly, people who get the most exposure to the arts early in life tend to come from wealthier families, he said. The arts find themselves in what arts consultant Neill Archer Roan calls a "self-reinforcing system" of exclusion.
Education levels are indeed high among Twin Cities arts audiences. Eighty percent of Minnesota Orchestra audience members are educated at or beyond the college level, as are 59 percent of Walker visitors, 80 percent of Pillsbury House patrons and 63 percent of Guthrie audiences.
And how about those Vikings fans? Only 25 percent are educated at or beyond the college level, according to fan demographics provided by the NFL.