This report presents two sets of analyses of the effect of age on adult arts participation in seven benchmark or core art forms. The data which are analyzed herein are taken from the National Endowment for the Arts' Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) which were conducted in 1982 and 1992. The SPPA provides important statistics on adult participation over this 10-year period. These data document the changing composition of arts audiences in America; they provide a snapshot in time of audiences for classical music, opera, ballet, musicals, jazz, plays and art museums.

Based on over 12,000 telephone and in-person interviews of adult Americans, each survey reveals a pattern of participation by age and other demographics. Of special importance is the participation of cohorts, a group of individuals born at roughly the same time and thereby sharing a variety of sociohistorical experiences. Insofar as the socializing experiences of a cohort are unique, they will influence the rate of participation in some or all of the arts. Moreover, the influences will persist as the cohort moves through the life cycle. While aging effects take place over the life span for all individuals no matter when they were born, cohort effects, when present, yield unique attendance patterns.

This report examines the participation of different cohorts between 1982 and 1992, with a special look at the baby boomers generation. The results are important for all those concerned with the arts in America today, especially the cultural institutions, their supporters, and policy makers.

If the baby boomers and their successors, Generation X, tend to participate in most of the seven core art forms at lower rates than their elders as examined in this report, what are they doing instead? Without question, many of the baby boomers are participating in the core art forms and popular arts, especially music, in ways that are not accounted for in these data. On that assumption, it is no accident that their rates of participation are highest in jazz - the art form closest to popular music - and in art museums, with which popular music competes least. If the nature and location of that other participation could be determined with greater assurance, it might aid the core arts organizations in developing strategies to lure nonparticipants away from their present activities to those that might be considered more enriching of adults.

This report suggests that something should be done to ensure future audiences for the benchmark art disciplines, the backbone of traditional American culture. The problem of nonattendance is serious for a number of reasons, especially in its effect on earned income. This is compounded by the fact that unearned support from public agencies and foundations, as well as from private patrons, is becoming ever more competitive to obtain. In an increasingly hostile environment for cultural endeavors, if the largest segment of the adult population - the baby boomers - turns away from providing support and from participating in core art forms, the future of the arts is indeed grim. (p. 1, 5).

CONTENTS
List of tables.
List of figures.
Executive summary: The report in brief.
The cohorts.
Highlights of change in cohort attendance from 1982 to 1992.
Life course, demographics, and alternatives.
Education, income, children, and the baby boomers.
The ultimate question.
Introduction.
Background on the SPPA.

Part I. Effects of age on arts participation:

Introduction to age cohorts.
Comparisons of arts participation across cohorts by art form.
Arts participation of specific cohorts over time.
Implications of life course and demographics.
Alternatives to active arts participation: consumption via media.

Part II. Arts participation of the baby boomers:

Introduction and methodology.
Arts participation by cohort in the 1982 and 1992 SPPAs.
Effect of education on arts participation.
Effect of income on arts participation.
Effect of households with children on arts participation.
Alternative forms of arts participation: the case of music.
Implications of baby boomer analysis.
Summary.

Appendix:
     A. 1992 survey of public participation in the arts.
     B. Additional tables.
Notes.
Bibliography.
About the authors.
Other reports on arts participation.

This report presents two sets of analyses of the effect of age on adult arts participation in seven benchmark or core art forms. The data which are analyzed herein are taken from the National Endowment for the Arts' Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) which were conducted in 1982 and 1992.