A summary and reflection of the following three reports, Research Note #101, Three NEA Monographs on Arts Participation: A Research Digest, is available for download from the NEA’s Website (http://www.arts.gov/research/Notes/101.pdf).

Beyond attendance: a multi-modal understanding of arts participation
Jennifer Novak-Leonard and Alan Brown of WolfBrown explore patterns of arts engagement across three modes: arts creation or performance, arts engagement through media, and attendance at arts activities. The report highlights the overlap in participation across modes, and examines factors that drive participation within and between modes.

Age and arts participation: a case against demographic destiny
Mark Stern analyzes the relationship between age and arts participation in the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts data for 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2008. The report concludes that age and year of birth are poor predictors of arts participation and that the age distribution of art-goers now generally mirrors that of the U.S. adult population.

Arts education in America: what the declines mean for arts participation
This report investigates the relationship between arts education and arts participation, based on data from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts for 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2008. The report also examines long-term declines in Americans' reported rates of arts learning -- in creative writing, music, and the visual arts, among other disciplines. Nick Rabkin and E.C. Hedberg from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago find the declines are not distributed evenly across all racial and ethnic groups. 56 pages.
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