Declining Arts Education and Declining Arts Audiences: How deep is the trouble?



February 8, 2008 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Harris School of Public Policy Studies
1155 E. 60th St.
Room 224

Nick Rabkin presents a preview of his forthcoming NEA report.

The Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts since 1982, document both serious declines in attendance nationwide at ‘benchmark’ arts events — mostly the program offerings of non-profit arts organizations — and declining levels of arts education. What’s the relationship between the two declines, and what do they mean for the future of the arts, and what are the implications for the future of education in America? Rabkin’s talk will be based on a monograph he prepared for the NEA on these questions that will be published in February.

Nick Rabkin is a Research Affiliate in the Cultural Policy Center and a Senior Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the forthcoming monograph “Arts Education in America: What the declines mean for arts participation,” written for the National Endowment for the Arts, and of Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Nick directed the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago, and was a senior program officer for arts and culture at the MacArthur Foundation, as well as serving as Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the city of Chicago.


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