Measuring the arts’ relationship to civic engagement
Advocates for the arts have mostly relied on relied heavily on economic impact studies to validate funding for the arts. But far fewer point to the connections between democracy and arts. This paper finds that “prosocial” attitudes increase with arts participation, and that the arts can offer a pathway to bridge differences across constituencies in the U.S.
Findings
There is a positive, moderate association between participating in arts and democratic activities. Any amount of arts participation in the prior year is associated with a 4 percentage point increase in the likelihood of engaging in civic activities on any given day, the equivalent of nearly 15 additional days with some civic activity across a year.
For every additional type of arts activity an individual engaged in during the prior year, they spent an average of 9% more time on civic activities on any given day.
