NEA Survey on Public Participation

Last month the National Endowment of the Arts released the findings from their Public Participation report.  Conducted in May 2008, it showed significant drops in overall attendance for performing arts events, museums and craft events.  Full PDF of the report is here for download.

The report also indicates a rising median age for attendance from 43 years old in 2002, to 45 years old in 2008.

Attendance drops were partially influenced by high travel costs at the time of the survey.  Gas prices were registering between $3 and $4 per gallon during this period.  So those attendance numbers could be expected to bounce back if the survey was taken with today's lower energy costs.

But the report suggests that the median age numbers shows that an aging arts audience is a more permanent trend.  

The data reported by the NEA offers an excellent opportunity to compare your own attendance surveys against national trends and to consider how much your audience/visitor population is aging.