Arts in the US - 1998 to 2007

'Americans for the Arts' has just produced the National Arts Index - an annual measure of the health and vitality of the arts in the United States, using 76 national level indicators.  The full report is a 'must read' as trends in all 76 areas are reviewed and discussed.

The 2008 National Arts Index score is 98.4, compared to the 2003 baseline of 100 and the previous year's score of 102.6.  The Report draws attention to four overall themes:

• the arts follow the business cycle - facing tough times in 2008/2009 but looking forward to an arts rebound in 2011
• demand for the arts lags supply - the report documents stready growth in the number of artists, art organizations and arts-related employment opportunities; yet one out of three nonprofit arts organizations fail to achieve a balanced budget (even during the strongest years)
• there is a noticeable decline in attendance at concerts, plays, opera and museum opportunities; however the percentage of Americans who create art is up, as is the percentage who experience the arts through technology and social media
• the competitiveness of the arts is slipping - not holding it's own when you look at uses of potential audience member time, donor/funder commitment, or spending (when compared to non-arts sectors).

From our Foresight perspective, highlights of the report follow:

• the % of Americans attending museums declined by 13% between 2003 and 2008
• the % of Americans attending performing arts events declined by 17% between 2003 and 2008
• the % of Americans personally creating art (e.g. photography, music making and drawing) is growing slightly ahead of the US population growth rate - up from 18.5% to 19.5% between 2003 and 2008
• a slightly greater percentage of toal personal consumption was spend on arts and culture (e.g. theatre, books, movies) , growing from 1.78 to 1.83 percent from 2003 to 2008
• the share of foundation funding being directed to the arts decreased from 14.8% in 1998 to 10.6% in 2007
• the corporate giving share to the arts decreased from 10.3% to 4.6% from 1998 to 2007
• artists remained a steady 1.5% share of the total civilian workforce from 1996 to 2008
• there has been a steady growth in the number of nonprofit arts organizations over the past decade - from 73.000 to 104,000.

http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/information_services/art_index/NAI_full_report_optimized.pdf

Aging Cultural Assets - Canada, 1961 to 2007

The Simon Fraser University 'Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities' published 'Under Construction: The State of Cultural Infrastructure in Canada' in 2008. Along with various appendices, it is the most comprehensive report available on the topic. Appendix A, by Maria Waltman Dashko, reviews and analyses data sources, including the following table that looks at the average age of Canada's culutral assets from 1961 to 2007.

In general, the significant aging of these assets occurred from the early 1990's on as government funding for new facilities diminished..  By 2007, the average age of a Canadian performance venue was 8.8 years older than it had been in 1976.  Librairies, museums, science centres, and public archives are also aging. Ironically, the only category where the average age of new development is decreasing relates to historical sites - not the age of the historial site itself, but the average age of improvements to and developments on those sites.

    Average age in years of Canada's Cultural Assets
                                - 1991 to 2007

Source: http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/downloads/Under-construction/AppA-State-of-Data.pdf

Culture Institutions Trends - Canada, 1993 to 2004

The Simon Fraser University 'Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities' published 'Under Construction: The State of Cultural Infrastructure in Canada' in 2008.  Along with various appendices, it is the most comprehensive report available on the topic.  Appendix A, by Maria Waltman Dashko, reviews and analyses data sources, including the following tables.

Although there was growth in the number of movie theatres in Canada in the late 1990's, the total available in 2004 was virtually the same as eight years earlier in 1996.  The number of heritage related institutions grew over the same period - most dramatically in the museum category which more than doubled.

     Estimate of Number of Selected Cultural Institutions

When you look at the number of individuals in the population per institution, it becomes clear that there are fewer movie theatres per 1000 population; with museums and historic sites increasing faster than population growth; and archives expanding in number but generally keeping up with population growth.

   Number of Individuals in Population per Institution

Source:

http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/downloads/Under-construction/Under-construction.pdf

http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/downloads/Under-construction/App-State-of-Data.pdf

Rural Employment in the Culture Sector

Statistics Canada publishes the 'Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin'.  In 2006, they reviewed rural employment trends in the culture sector and found that:

• relatively fewer rural people are employed in the culture sector - 2.8% of the rural workforce as compared to 3.9% at the national level
• rural culture employment grew more quickly than overall rural employment during the 1996 to 2003 period - up 2.6% per year compared to overall rural employment growth of 1.5% per year
• rural culture workers are more likely to be emplyed part-time - 37% compared to 22% nationally
• highest growth rates in rural culture employment (1996-2003) were found in Newfoundland and Labrador (>8%), Alberta (aprox. 6%) and PEI (Just over 4%) - Manitoba, Saskatechewan and Nova Scotia actually experienced declines.

Note that the data is based on a three year moving average and therefore includes employment information to 2004.

Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/21-006-x/21-006-x2005008-eng.pdf

Digital Culture - Emerging Opportunity

Much of the current debate about the impact of the digital age on arts and culture focuses on issues related to file sharing, intellectual property and how best to manage digital music technology.  As a result, we often find ourselves defending arts and culture from an inevitable transition.  This brief paper summarizes some of the opportunities we could be looking at if we took the 'glass half full' perspective.  Consider:

  

Access to Art:

• 
  
  millions of p2p users are online at any given moment - sharing music, images and video
  
  
  
• 
  
  thousands of new artists are getting exposure that the traditional music industry would have blocked
  
  
  
• 
  
  listeners who are excited about a new sound, etc. are sharing with friends over a coffee table, a distribution list, a blog - popular underground marketing at its best
  
  
  
• 
  
  access to hard to get music and movies is facilitated both by online distribution systems and social networks that identify and extol the virtues of little known talent
  
  
  
• 
  
  increasingly, art is available in digital format - see Digital Living Gallery, created by Bandai (a toy and game company) and the creation of a photoframe that looks like a traditional picture frame with artistic content both included and available (e.g. Renoir, van Gogh) - Deviant Art.com shares over 35 million digital artwork
  
  
  
• 
  
  online books have become a fact - dramatically reducing the cost per copy, with the potential to democratize access
  
  
  
• 
  
  increasingly music, visual art and performing art performers and groups will turn to mass distribution at a lower price (or even as a market teaser/loss leader) as the optimal means of attracting enthusiasts to their paying products, venues and performances - a possible win/win situation based on increased accessibility.
  
  
  Virtual Institutions:
  

• 
  
  specialized galleries and museums will always have trouble finding critical mass in their narrow geographical market, but are now reaching out to any and all who share their relatively narrow interests around the globe
  
  
  
• 
  
  a number of organizations are engaged in the awesome task of putting millions of books online - Google is targeting the 10 million most popular, half a dozen other such projects have plans to scan the texts of over 60 million books by 2020 - clearly the world's greatest library
  
  
  
• 
  
  the European Commission has launched Eurpeana, a showcase to encourage organizations to donate digital content - it hopes to be the greatest online repository of European culture available (art, films, books, music)
  
  
  
• 
  
  our ability to curate online shows with content borrowed from instititutions around the world is seemingly endless - in time, the consumer may well be the curator, sharing his or her 'production' with others just as music playlists are shared today.
  
  
  

New Creative Opportunities:

• 
  
  a 2005 study found that 57% of American teenagers create content on the internet
  
  
  
• 
  
  PhotoShop, Corel and others have created a technical environment that has spawned a new generation and massive wave of digital art - while galleries and museums focus primarily on using digital technology to store copies of traditional art forms, not yet ready to embrace the new modern art
  
  
  
• 
  
  millions are creating and sharing writing, photography, video productions - Fotolog, Blogger, LiveJournal, Flickr, Broadcaster (to name but a few)
  
  
  

Creative Networking:

• 
  
  millions are creating and sharing writing, photography and video productions with friends and specialized interest groups every day - using social networking sites, blogs, YouTube, etc.
  
  
  
• 
  
  artists with specialized interests are in touch regularly using the same social networking supports - learning together, supporting one another, facilitating creative opportunities
  
  
  
• 
  
  increasingly we will be building virtual cultural spaces - where we expererience the same artistic stimulant and learn to appreciate each others culture-based response
  
  
  

Shared Spaces:

• 
  
  virtual worlds, of which Second Life is a part, comprise one of the fastest growing relms of virtual reality - once the domain of the gaming industry, many corporations and politicians are now creating virtual territory (press conferences, product demos, town hall meetings)
  
  
  
• 
  
  by 2007, there were almost 6 million Second Life residents the US and a study showed a single day expenditure of $1,636,815 in Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/)
  
  
  
• 
  
  virtual travel is taking people to simulated cafes in cities around the world, to art galleries and museums, to parks, to events - and these 'travellers' are interacting in real time with people with shared interests from other countries
  
  
  

Intercultural Dialogue:

• 
  
  portals, blogs and partcipatory internet enable intercultural dialogue
  
  
  
• 
  
  even though we speak different languages, the digital age is supporting new ways of exchanging cultural opinion, views, services and products
  
  
  
• 
  
  language barriers are being overcome through technology - Web portal Lycos has a free translation service (Babel Firsh) making translation algorithms available to all; new Google tools are removing language as a barrier to communication across the full international scope of the Internet
  
  
  
• 
  
  digital culture changes our relation to one another and to knowledge transfer, removing previous boundaries inherent in traditional art/cultural communication and distribution systems - ultimately redefining cultural creativity
  
  
  
• 
  
  we have no idea where this potential convergence of cultures will take us - but digital technology is likely the 'game changer' that will define our global cultural future.
  
  
  

Culture has become accessible, portable and transnational all at the same time. Technology is fundamentally reshaping the way we create, distribute and participate in arts and culture.  The challenge to traditional arts and culture communities and organizations is both to utilize this opportunity to expand audiences AND to find ways to embrace emerging digital art and culture.  We cannot afford to ignore the phenomenon;  we must at least be participants, if not leaders.

Canadian Performing Arts Organization Trends

'Business for the Arts' (www.businessforarts.org) conducts regular surveys to monitor the operations, status and health of non-profit performing arts organizations. Based on their 2005/2006 Survey report, Hill Strategies has provided an overview of trends from 1996/97 to 2005/06.

Trend/historical data was available for 101 organizations - including 42 theatre companies, 31 music organizations, 12 opera companies, 12 dance companies, and four multidisciplinary organizations. Findings:

• total revenues increased by 23% (after adjusting for inflation) from 1996/97 to 2005/06 - with 71% of the performing arts organizations showing a real increase in revenues
• total expenditures lagged slightly behind at a 20% increase over the same period
• there were only minor shifts in revenue sources over the ten year period: earned revenues decreasing slightly from 50% to 48%; government funding stable, 30% in 1996/97 and29% in 2005/06; private sector revenues incrased from 20% to 23%
• attendance increased by 13% - from 7 million in 1996/97 to 8.0 million (including both home and tour attendance)
• theatre companies experienced strong growht in revenues (39%) than music organizations (24%), dance companies(12%) and opera companies (11%)
• the smallest performing arts organizations (revenues under $500,000 in 1996/97) experienced the highest growth in revenues (38% from 1996/97 to 2005/06, after adjusting for inflation).

Source: http://artsresearchmonitor.com/article_details.php?artUID=50394

Canadian Museum and Art Gallery Trends

'Business for the Arts' (www.businessforarts.org) regularly conducts surveys to monitor the operating situation and environment of Canada's non-profit museums and art galleries.

Hill Strategies has reviewed their work and provided an overview of trends from 1996/97 to 2005/06. Trend information existed for about 75 institutions - 29 public museums, 34 public art galleries, 11 university-affiliated museums or galleries, and one artist-run centre. Findings:

• total revenues increased by 15% over the 10 year period (after adjusting for inflation) - 68% of the institutions registering a real increase in revenues - of all revenue categories, private sector revenues grew the fastest (38% increase after adjusting for inflation)
• total expenses also grew by 15% after inflation
• art galleries experienced stronger revenue growth than museums - up 20% over the ten year period, compared to 12% for museums
• from 1996/97 to 2005/06, there were minor shifts in revenue sources: government funding decreased from 71% to 69% of total revenues; earned revenues increased from 20% to 22%; private sector funding increased from 7% to 9%
• attendance was relativelys stable over the decade (in spite of population growth) - 10.1 milion in 1996/97 to 10.2 million in 2005/06
• the smallest museums and galleries (revenues under $500,000 in 1996/97) experienced the highest growth in revenues (62% after adjusting for inflation) - and experienced the highest growth in private sector revenues (more than a threefold increase after inflation).

Source: http://artsresearchmonitor.com/article_details/php?artUID=50390

Artists in the US Workforce - 1990 to 2005

The US National Endowment for the Arts has analysed US census occupation data to identify trends in employment patterns for artists from 1900 to 2005. Key findings include:

• nearly two million Americans identify an artist occupation as their primary job - this total excludes an estimated 300,000 Americas with secondary employment as artists
• after doubling from 1970 to 1990, artists have begun to hold steady as a proportion of American workers (1.4 percent)
  
• writers were among the fastest growing artist occupations from 1990 to 2005 - growing at twice the rate of the total labor force
  
• the US artist population is becoming more diverse: percentage of non-Hispanic white artists dipped from 86% to 80% (from 1990 to 2005); percentage of Hispanic, Asian and Native-American artists rose from 6% in 1990 to nearly 15% in 2005; over the same 15 year period, the proportion of African-American artists remained steady at 5%
  
• the West and South have seen the greatest growth in artists by state: Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Arizona saw growth in the artist population 2.5-5 times taht of the US labor force from 1990 to 2000; Florida and Georgia led the South with a 23% growth in artists (double the national average).

Artists In Workforce Over Time

	1990 census	2000 census	2003-2005 ACS
Total Artists	1,727,507	1,927,400	1,999,474
Actors	35,916	38,605	39,717
Announcers	68,590	54,855	55,817
Architects	167,151	192,860	198,498
Fine artists, art directors, animators	278,516	231,690	216,996
Dancers and choreographers	21,771	26,915	25,651
Designers	619,328	749,335	779,359
Entertainers and performers	16,929	37,590	41.128
Musicians	148,162	170,015	169,6487
Photographers	117,084	124,045	147,389
Producers and Directors	120,609	139,335	139,996
Writers and Authors	133,471	162,155	185,276

Source: http://www.nea.gov/research/ArtistsInWorkforce.pdf

Alberta Creative/Cultural Activity Tr...

Alberta has been conducting the Alberta Recreation Survey every four years since 1981. The following creative/cultural trend data was obtained for the 20 year period from 1988 to 2008 by extracting data from each of the survey reports.

Alberta Creative/Cultural Activity Trends - 1988 to 2008
% households participating

listed by most popular in 2008

Activity	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008
Attending a fair/festival				59.6	56.7	62.4
Craft/Creative Hobby	67.7	54.2	58.8	67.9	63.8	54.3
Visiting a museum. art gallery	65.4	47.3	52.3	71.5	50.9	51.4
Attending Live Theatre*					51.9	44.7
Taking part in the arts**	33.0	28.3	30.6	35.7	30.8	29.4
Dancing	46.9	39.1	34.4	33.8	29.4	27.3
Doing other hobbies						19.1
Other creative/cultural activity						3.2

* this category previously included in 'visiting a museum, art gallery, live performance
** e.g. drama, music, writing, drawing
Source: http://tpr.alberta.ca/recreation/ars/default.aspx

Canadian Cultural Participation Rates (1992 - 2005)

The General Social Survey (Statistics Canada) looks at participation in cultural and heritage activities. Hill Strategies Research Inc. has reviewed data from 1992, 1998 and 2005 and prepared an excellent 45 page analysis entitled, 'A Profile of the Cultural and Heritage Activities of Canadians in 2005' (March 2007). The following table captures the overall trend in each major category - showing participation rates or percentage of the population 15 years of age or over who participated at least once in an activity over the previous 12 months.

Activity/Category	1992	1998	2005
Performing Arts attendance Theatre attendance Pop Concert attendance Classical Music attendance Art Gallery attendance Museum attendance Newspaper reading Magazine reading Book reading Movie going Video watching Listening to recorded music	42.4% 24.3 24.0 8.4 19.6 32.7 93.2 80.8 66.8 49.2 71.8 81.7	37.6% 21.7 21.3 9.0 24.0 32.3 88.7 77.2 66.5 64.1 79.1 83.3	41.2% 22.6 23.8 9.5 26.7 35.2 86.7 78.2 66.6 61.0 78.6 83.9

Essentially, the report found that most cultural and heritage activities held their own, attracting roughly the same percentage participation from the Canadian public over the period 1992 to 2005. Given the rapid population growth over the same period, this clearly implies a growing market.



Source: http://www.hillstrategies.com/docs/Cultural_activities2005.pdf

Overall Trends in US Arts Participation (1982-2002)

The National Endowment of the Arts produced the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts in the United states. The tables below compare 2002 results with previous surveys in 1992 and 1982. There are few dramatic shifts in participation rates (% adults participating at least once in the past 12 months). However, overall population growth results in significantly larger numbers participating (attending/visiting/reading).

The picture is different when you look at the number of US adults who actually perform or create art. Each activity has experienced a reduced percentage of the population performing or creating art with the exception of music composition. The absolute number of people involved in creating or performing has also fallen except for composing muxid and writing (poetry, novels, plays and short stories).

US Adults Participating in the Arts at least once in past 12 months

% of adults of adults attending/visiting/reading

Category	1982	1992	2002
Music - Jazz Music - Classical Music - Opera Plays - musical Plays - non musical Dance - ballet Dance - other Art Museums/Galleries Art/craft fairs/festivals Parks/Historic buildings Plays/poetry/novels/stories	9.6% 13.0% 3% 18.6% 11.9% 4.2% NA 22.1% 39% 37% 56.9%	10.6% 12.5% 3.3% 17.4% 13.5% 4.7% 7.1% 26.7% 40.7% 34.5% 54%	10.8% 11.6% 3.2% 17.1% 12.3% 3.9% 6.3% 26.5% 33.4% 31.6% 46.3%

US Adults Performing or Creating Art at least once in past 12 months

% of adults and millions of adults personally performing or creating

Category	1992	2002
Music - Jazz Music - Classical Opera Choir/Chorale Composing Music Plays - musical Plays - non musical Dance - ballet Dance - other Painting/Drawing Pottery/Jewelry Weaving/Sewing Photography Own Original Art Plays/poetry/short stories	1.7% - 3.2m 4.2% - 7.8m 1.1% - 2.0m 6.3% - 11.7m 2.1% - 3.9m 3.8% - 7.1m 1.6% - 3.0m 0.2% - 0.4m 8.1% - 15m 9.6% - 17.8m 8.4% - 15.6m 24.8% - 46.1m 11.6% - 21.6m 22.1% - 41.1m 7.4% - 13.7m	1.3% - 2.7m 1.8% - 3.7m 0.7% - 1.4m 4.8% - 9.8m 2.3% - 4.7m 2.4% - 4.9m 1.4% - 2.9m 0.3% - 0.6m 4.2% - 8.6m 8.6% - 17.6m 6.9% - 14.1m 16% - 32.7m 11.5% - 23.5m 19.3% - 39.5m 7% - 14.4m