LitTAP Blog

Steven J. Tepper, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University

YouTube video — 58 million people have seen Paul Potts on “Britian’s Got Talent.” Root for pro-am — professional amateur. Vs. artists performing flawlessly for audience — our model. Shows that arts are not “dead.”

All in arts have operated in shadow of last great transformation in field — shaped by technology. 1909 — 365,000 pianos sold in U.S. Piano “was a musical hearth” in 19th Century. “Participation was all about doing.” In 19th Century, Shakespeare was “popular” art — performed by families. 1/3rd of pianos = player pianos. Era of passive participation had begun — radios, phonographs, movies, etc. changed from doing to consuming. From “thick” to “thin” participation — consume what someone else performed. Art orgs, institutions, schools developed to help.

By mid 20th century — participation = audience. People listening to events. 2002 NEA survey — audience participation = all about attendance.

Wholesale disengagement — young people not going to musical events, reading literature, going to baseball games. People who do things do other things, across all sorts of activities. SO, people are changing the kinds of things they do — biggest events, with biggest audiences, do not do best (i.e., Little League, Minor League baseball doing well). US rates similar to, sometimes better than, Europe.

Religious communities — engage in arts. Mainline churches — 20% have book clubs.

WSJ survey — 3/4 of college grads said moving to a place they want to live, as opposed to place for a job. Music is no. 1 activity for Gen. X & Y. Want “mash-ups” of art forms. 17% of young people want careers in arts — more than double that want to go into business.

UCLA student survey — students want to do more in arts.

Other surveys: 81% of Americans want to write a book. 33% of teens online have created something. 19% have created an online journal. NWU survey – 21.8 of students writing poetry/fiction. 86% — own creative work is very important to them. Survey: 52% discuss book, poem, story — vs. 90% own creative work.

Also — young people want to see creative process unfold. Why “Reality TV” is so popular. Plus, choice is important — exploration of the new is a cultural activity. Rhapsody — given the opportunity to listen to an unlimited amount of music, people take advantage of it. “Will lead to death of mass market.” Find niche market.

Also, breakdown of cultural consumption. Rise of the omnivore — person who likes Classical music will like all over kinds of music (except Country/Western!).

Second Life: 250,000 a day interact. 10 x the size as San Francisco. 100 million user-created objects. Average age = 32. $35 million traded in SL properties. Also, cultural graffiti. Terms: modding, wiki spaces, machinima, life catching, mob tagging, narrative overlay, etc.

12% — feel they are VIPs in 1950 vs. 80% in 1980. Avg. student in 1980 is more anxious than 85% of students in 1950. More overconfident, but more anxious.

Young people — better at engaging moment, but have a harder time finding meaning/purpose.

Have to understand social life connected to Facebook, Twitter, etc. to engage w/ them.

Narrative — important to understanding who people are and why they do what they do. To succeed, most have an understanding of own story.

Process — question about Yaddo, which does not want younger attendees making videos, blogging about time. Audiences want to know about process. Theater group made video of rehearsals, showed to audiences before performance.

Anyone who’s doing something wants to do it better — and gain status from doing it better. “The fact that they are in the game is so important — we have to deepen their engagement.”