It it goes a long way in explaining at least part of the reason for the decline in the current music industry.

I will use music and basketball as my example.

We took arts out of our public schools.

We never took sports out of our public schools.

Because kids grow up playing basketball in school, they can begin to grasp what it must take to play on the level of a Kobe Bryant.

But with no music education in school, they can’t even begin to appreciate what it takes to play at the level of Eddie Van Halen or Ludwig Van Beethoven.

I think the same applies for the other arts as well.

Take the arts out of public schools and we raise a generation that doesn’t know how to appreciate them.

While I personally agree that physical participation in the arts (and newspapers, magazines, music, film…) is preferable to the virtual equivalent, the trend is that physical and virtual representations are equally useful and relevant, and choosing one over the other will greatly depend on contextual factors (probably totally outside the control of the presenter).

It is no longer enough to simply be the best “physical” arts space/event/org in your area, you must also compete against all the virtual spaces/events/orgs.

My advice is to embrace and excel in the virtual as well as the physical and give audiences the choice on how to participate.

With this in mind, do we still consider the child “an artist” and the colleague “a songwriter.” At what point can you make a distinction? On the other hand, if no distinction is made for quality in art (since it’s so subjective…) then everything is art. But — put still another way — if no distinctions are made, the ultimate result is the devaluing of even the best art, because (as with currency, wherein “bad currency drives out good”) calling everything ‘art’ ultimately devalues great art.

It’s all rather an interesting problem….

Similarly, I started an e-mail newsletter in the mid-’90s for my high school class, which I send out 2-4 times a year. We have a reunion every 5 years. But lately I’ve been wondering whether there will be any interest in people coming to NY to have an in-person reunion.

Are we just getting lazy, or are the arts pricing themselves out of business?

Let’s put a number to this thought. OK, lets go to the concert tonight. First lets establish who is the average couple. Guessing it would be parents with 1.5 children that will need a sitter. The cost of 2 tickets, note this is average so your only in the middle of the audience. Even with the jumbo-tron screens the visual is limited. The sound itself is not only delayed but also either loud or not defined for ones liking. Don’t forget the early arrival, the mad scramble out, and traffic delays.

This is all fun when your under 40, and possibility not married so that itself puts an entirely different spin on the event.

From your home one can take a tour of a Museum, be in the front row of a Concert, Play, Zoo, Alaska vacation, a Spaceship Ride, a Lecture. It will soon all be at your fingertips for very little cost. You control the volume, one can stop action, zoom in on something of interest to you personally. The providers of these marvelous events will not see the major part of their return from personal participation. It is still a necessity to capture it in high def and surround sound. The investment is tremendous for the producers. So in turn their copyrights and performing rights return has to be secured and protected.

There are changes coming weather we like it or not. We are witnessing a shift in programming now. A prime example is the reality programming that has, and will soon dominate our entertainment demands. We all want to be there, but the mass’s just can not pull it off financially. There is so much to consider when releasing these events for public consumption. I remain optimistic, but excited about how performing rights societies will conquer the revenue split for the writers, producers, investors, and artists.

Interesting topic. This link was forwarded onto me. Here are two things that I believe are at play here.

1. Competing activities. There are more”options” than ever of things you can be doing for entertainment. There are a myriad of them within the arts and music fields alone. When you combine that with sporting interests and other social activities, the aggregate number is staggering.

2. 9-5 Work Schedules are disappearing. In today’s world, people are working a variety of time shifts at work. Additionally, many are working other jobs to help make ends meet. I myself work from 7:00 p.m. until 3:30 a.m. in the morning. Very few of my close associates work a straight nine to five anymore. It is some variation on this or they are logging more total hours over a work-week.

Some people are working weekends now either because of need or due to schedule variations. Because of these schedules, it makes it difficult to attend performing arts shows at the times they are showing “live”.

When you add in the crazy economy to the two things above, I can see why the trend is where it is. People are tired. They want to relax, unwind and watch things at their “convenience”. –Dan

I don’t mean to be cynical of the study nor your post, but if this was the early 20th century, when jazz was burgeoning, I bet the NEA wouldn’t be gathering data on participation in the backstreet clubs of Harlem. I am 25, living in a reputedly “unartistic” city, and I am surrounded by creators and contributors to a local art scene. Most of my friends are playing in folk bands, sculpting, working as graphic designers, publishing editorial photography, hosting art shows, galleries and blogs, and more. And no, I don’t usually see 45 year-olds in our midst.

The internet is not killing public participation, but enabling it. Participation flourishes outside of the traditional facets. If you want to start a ska-rap-country/metal-fusion collective, you can probably find 4 or 5 other people online who want to try the same, then connect to a local art dealer, who happens to be presenting a ethnic-influenced mixed-media exhibit with gothic undertones and was actually thinking a ska-rap-folk/metal fusion collective would match perfectly with his private installment.

The truth is, the “younger audience” does not feel bound by the upper echelons of an exclusive art society. Part of the reason consumption of modern art among young people doesn’t happen is that, either a) it sucks (who would pay to go see a urinal on display?) or b) its expensive (why pay 50-100 bucks to go see someone play when I could get together and play my own tunes with my friends every week, and hang my other friends’ paintings on the walls?).

You got one thing right – art ciricles “will have to think creatively about how to reach and retain new and different audiences.” There is actually less passive consumption, and more active participation in new art, and THAT is what is hurting the established art scene. People don’t want to stand on the sidelines, nor do they have to anymore. There is little to no barrier to entry, especially with advancements in digital cameras and recording equipment. Perhaps galleries should try to get young people involved in a way that is natural to both – Art galleries that have hosted local musicians, local photographers, local painters are succeeding. Art galleries that assume they can foist their bad but expensive ideas off as art to the general public, well… there audience will dwindle as it grows older. And I personally think they deserve to die slowly.

But what do I know… I’m just a 25 year old.

Thank you for making some very good points. I would say that we are living in a world
of greater choice of lesser quality experiences. We should view the “consumption” of art
as we do food, only art feeds our soul which is what makes life meaningful. This trend
adds up to living that is less inspired and less valuable.

I am a trained classical Indian musician and recording does less justice to the complexity
of this music that is so rich with overtones and unusual resonances than it does to other
more prevalent forms. So I’ve always listened more to live concert music than recordings.
But recordings do have an important place and I have enjoyed being exposed to interesting
music on MySpace–recordings can tell me whether I should attend a concert or not.

Blessings, Sangita