Performing arts are crowd pleasers in Boston
More than three-fourths of metropolitan Boston residents took in a performing arts event in 2002, according to the results of a new national survey to be released today at City Hall.
In fact, more Greater Bostonians attend performing arts events (78 percent) than professional sports events (56 percent) each year, according to a report by the Performing Arts Research Coalition.
The survey of households in Boston; Austin, Texas; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Sarasota, Fla.; and Washington, D.C., shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, performing arts audiences are neither graying nor rich.
Attendance at live arts performances was slightly higher in Boston than in the four other cities. Greater Bostonians who don't go to dance, theater, or music performances singled out the cost of tickets and the difficulty of finding parking as major reasons they stay away from theaters and concert halls.
"The Value of the Performing Arts in Five Communities 2," is the second installment in a two-part study of households in 10 metropolitan areas. It was conducted by the Urban Institute and the Performing Arts Research Coalition, which is made up of representatives of leading symphony, dance, opera, theater, and other performing-arts groups. The Pew Charitable Trusts funded the study.
Among its more surprising findings is the fact that "frequent performing arts attenders," such as the one in six Bostonians surveyed who said they had gone to 12 or more events in the previous year, are 22 percent more likely than those who don't see shows to attend professional sports games as well.
"Performing arts goers are just more active than other people," said David Dalena, vice president for marketing and advertising of the FleetBoston Celebrity Series. The FleetBoston Series coordinated the participation of 15 other local performing arts groups in the Performing Arts Research Coalition project.
"They go to more movies, more arts events, more sports events. They go to the polls more. They're just more engaged in their communities" Dalena said.
Attendance at arts performances was higher in metropolitan Boston than in any of the areas surveyed, including the study's first phase in Alaska, Cincinnati, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.
"Nonattenders" in all the regions studied said family obligations, busy schedules, and a preference for spending time in other ways were barriers to attending. Thirty-five percent of Boston nonattenders cited the cost of tickets, and 23 percent mentioned the high price and inadequacy of parking. "The survey results are encouraging, because In all 10 of our cities, there is a very high value placed on arts in individual lives and in the community, " said Marc Scorca, president and chief executive officer of OPERA America and coordinator of the Performing Arts Research Coalition project.
The study also provides a comprehensive national demographic profile of arts audiences that shows they are larger and more diverse than many people might think, Scorca said. "Public policy makers want to say it's a small audience, but what we found is that the audience is diverse, and that even nonattenders believe in arts support."
Scorca said that education level -- not income -- was the strongest factor in arts attendance. "We're not talking about entertainment for rich, old people."
A forum on the Performing Arts Research Coalition report will be held at City Hall from 9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. today.
Results of the report are available online at www.operaamerica.org/parc or through the FleetBoston Celebrity Series at 617-482-2595.Maureen Dezell can be reached at dezell@globe.com
