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RISE OF THE ‘CULTURAL OMNIVORES’ CHANGES THE TUNE
FOR MARKETING TO FINE ARTS AUDIENCES 

Vanderbilt sociologist, pop culture researcher to speak October 14 at Cultural Policy Center workshop

CHICAGO —The times, they are a-changing. Baby Boomers have a new idea of culture, and that means fine arts organizations must attune to it to tap them as new audiences and donors.

Baby Boomers are “cultural omnivores,” according to sociologist Richard A. Peterson. To them, serious art means the Beatles and B.B. King as much as it does Beethoven and Bizet. With more choices and less time, they enjoy opera and classical music as occasional options amid a wide range of what they consider culture. They don’t associate supporting the fine arts with gaining elite status, a motivator that drove previous generations to the opera and symphony halls.

For fine arts organizations facing aging audiences and decreased attendance, that’s important to understand, says Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Vanderbilt University . Based on his research on cultural participation, fine arts organizations must understand how to market beyond their traditional “highbrow univores”—cultural consumers who disdain mass popular culture in sole favor of highbrow art forms.

Peterson, who introduced the world to the concept of cultural omnivorousness in 1992, will speak on “Changing Arts Audiences: Capitalizing on Omnivorousness” at a workshop on October 14 hosted by the Cultural Policy Center of The University of Chicago . The presentation and discussion will begin at 12:15 p.m. in Room 140C of the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, 1155 E. 60 th Street , Chicago . To RSVP for the workshop, call the Cultural Policy Center 773/702-4407. Read Peterson’s working paper.

Author of numerous books and articles on the production and consumption of culture, cultural policy, and popular music, Peterson is founding chair of the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association. He pioneered a major contribution to the sociology of music with his study of the institutionalization of the field of country music in the postwar period, Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity (University of Chicago Press, 1997). His upcoming workshop and paper build upon his work with cultural omnivorousness, as first defined in his 1992 study with Albert Simkus, How Musical Tastes Mark Occupational Status Groups .

Peterson’s talk launches the first of a 2005-06 workshop series and coincides with current research through the Cultural Policy Center that focuses on participation in the arts. The next workshop on November 4 will examine museum participation by black middle class audiences, as well as historic accounts of audience reactions to The Armory Show, the informal title of the International Exhibition of Modern Art held at New York 's Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory in 1913.

In the coming year, the two major research projects examining arts participation also will be published. This winter, the Center will release the first-ever study and socio-economic map of the Chicago metropolitan area illustrating participation in Chicago ’s major cultural institutions by race and ethnicity. Funded through a grant from The Joyce Foundation, the research will demonstrate who does and does not visit these institutions. In fall 2006, a team of researchers affiliated with the Center will release a national study on arts participation funded by the New York-based Wallace Foundation that examines how American arts organizations have built and enhanced participation through innovation, programming, partnerships and promotion.

"Our focus through our workshops and interdisciplinary research this year is to bring together academics, practitioners, philanthropists, and board members from foundations as well as arts and cultural organizations to examine research-based understandings of what motivates individuals and communities to participate in the arts,” Grams said. “The goal is to apply this understanding to develop practical and measurable means of consistently broadening and engaging arts audiences at all levels.”

The Cultural Policy Center fosters research to inform public dialogue about the practical workings of culture in our lives. As an incubator for measuring, assessing, evaluating and developing new ways of approaching policy on culture and the arts, the Center helps policymakers and arts professionals better understand how to foster cultural creativity, stabilize cultural organizations and institutions, increase public participation in cultural activities, and preserve cultural heritage. For more information, contact the Cultural Policy Center at The University of Chicago at 773/702-4407 or visit http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu.

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