Copyright Addressed in New National Arts Index Report
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 by Lucinda M. Dugger
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The national nonprofit dedicated to advancing the arts in the United States, Americans for the Arts, released today the National Arts Index by Roland J. Kushner and Randy Cohen, a report that analyzes the health and vitality of the arts and culture in the United States. It looks at 76 national-level indicators of artistic and cultural activity that are based on research from government agencies, think tanks, and philanthropic and other private sector organizations. The research took four and a half years to compile and covers eleven years worth of data from 1998-2008.
The comprehensive data will be useful for both policymakers and researchers who are eager to draw conclusions from a widened perspective of the arts. Data covers information on the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, both amateur and professional arts, as well as individual artists. The 76 indicators are organized into four broad categories: Financial Flow, Capacity, Arts Participation, and Competitiveness.
Though many conclusions will likely be drawn from this information in the coming months, Americans for the Arts summarizes four main trends (see the Introduction, pgs. i and ii):
1. The arts follow the business cycle. The arts respond to the booms and busts of the nation’s economy. Based on past patterns, we estimate that an arts rebound will begin in 2011.
2. Demand for the arts lags supply. Between 1998 and 2008, there was a steady increase in the number of artists, arts organizations, and arts-related employment. Nonprofit arts organizations alone grew in number from 73,000 to 104,000 during this span of time. That one out of three failed to achieve a balanced budget even during the strongest economic years of this decade suggests that sustaining this capacity is a growing challenge, and these gains are at risk.
3. How the public participates in and consumes the arts is expanding. Tens of millions of people attend concerts, plays, opera, and museum exhibitions, yet the percentage of the U.S. population attending these arts events is shrinking, and the decline is noticeable. On the increase, however, is the percentage of the American public personally creating art (e.g., music making, and drawing). Technology is changing how Americans experience the arts and consumption via technology and social media is also up.
4. The competitiveness of the arts is slipping. The arts, in many ways, are not stacking up well against other uses of audience members’ time, donor and funder commitment, or spending when compared to non-arts sectors.
Readers of our blog might be interested in learning that the research addresses indicators in relation to: songwriter and composer performing rights royalties (pg. 21), publishing industry revenue (pg. 24), bookseller sales (pg. 25), recording industry shipment value (pg. 27), arts union membership (pg. 43), CD and record stores (pg. 45), movie screens (pg. 46), personal arts creativity experiences (pg. 55), copyright applications (pg. 56), and population share engaged in personal creativity experiences (pg. 79).
As this report was just released today, I have not had sufficient time to pour through it, analyze, and draw conclusions based on the findings. But, I do expect that we will be hearing a lot from this report in the coming months.
Americans for the Arts plans to release an updated version of the report every year during Arts & Humanities month in October.
