Minding the gap: Elucidating the disconnect between arts participation metrics and arts engagement within immigrant communities

Abstract

A growing gap between national metrics of arts participation and the many, evolving ways in which people participate in artistic and aesthetic activities limits the degree to which such data can usefully inform policy decisions. The National Endowment for the Arts' Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) is the primary source of arts participation data in the USA, but this instrument inadequately evaluates how members of minority and immigrant communities participate in the arts. As the USA nears a historic demographic shift to being a majorityminority nation -non-Hispanic White individuals will no longer be a demographic majority by about 2041 -obtaining more accurate measures of artistic activities that are meaningful to a more diverse population will be of increasing importance for public policy-making. To better understand the extent to which the SPPA's questions capture the range of artistic activities engaged in by members of immigrant communities, we cognitively tested a subset of the survey's questions with Chinese immigrants to the USA as a pilot case. We found that interviewees participate in a range of culturally specific and non-culturally specific arts activities that they did not report in response to the survey's questions. In this article, we draw upon these interviews to discuss the reasons underpinning the gap and suggest implications for updating research tools and future research. A better understanding of the gap between measured and actual "arts participation" will lead to improved measures and information to support artistic expression and arts more reflective of contemporary society.

Who engages in the arts in the United States? A comparison of three types of engagement using data from the General Social Survey

“…Although our measures of arts engagement were more inclusive than in many previous studies, they were likely still too narrow. Standard arts engagement questions are not able to capture arts engagement in some immigrant communities (Novak-Leonard et al, 2015), and also typically do not cover engagement in digital or electronic arts activities such as graphic design, photography, filmmaking, and music production. This could have contributed to our findings of lower arts engagement in participants who were not White and under-represented arts engagement amongst younger generations.…”

“…However, when defined more broadly, including other types of arts activities, participation is not declining and the way in which people participate may instead be changing (Jackson et al, 2003;Stallings and Mauldin, 2016). There may be a growing gap between arts participation metrics and the ways in which people participate, and this could be affecting our understanding of the predictors of engagement (Novak-Leonard et al, 2015). Therefore, to grow the current evidence base, we used a large nationally representative sample of adults in the US (the General Social Survey; GSS) to investigate predictors of different types of arts engagement.…”

Mapping as a Complementary Perspective on the Dynamics of Participation in a City’s Musical Life

“…Lastly, certain cultural biases can colour survey questions, for example when what is mainly studied corresponds to high culture or western referents. In that respect, a group of researchers in the US tested the limitations of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts with Chinese immigrants in Chicago, noting the incompatibility of the underlying definitions of ‘art’ and ‘culture’ as intended within the survey when compared with most of the participants’ referents and practices (Novak-Leonard et al, 2015). As a result, the respondents tended not to report on their activities and self-censored because they felt that what they would say would not be relevant for the survey.…”

Arts graduates in a changing economy

“…Prevailing understandings (or labeling) of creativity reflect a culturally and historically specific set of values (Sawyer, 2012). Such a normative structure is embedded within arts schools and the larger cultural ecology, which results in certain forms of cultural expression getting recognized and valued over others (DiMaggio, 1982; Novak-Leonard et al, 2015). These articles point to a need for further research on how, through socialization during and after arts school, students come to define success in relatively narrow (or broad) occupational terms—such research would be especially crucial considering the changing contexts and contours of creative careers.…”