Mapping Cultural Participation in Chicago - Cultural Policy Center

Mapping Cultural Participation in ChicagoTable 3:Participation Overlap between Other Institutionsand Larger Cultural InstitutionsOverlap Count %Other Small/Also in Larger Institutions 56,000 36Other Small/Not in Larger Institutions 102,000 64Totals 158,000 100Each category of arts organization reaches an additional audience.Across all three categories of organization, therefore, we find that additional audiencesare reached by the range of Chicago’s arts organizations. Though there are some overlapsacross the categories, the major part of each category’s audience is an addition to overallparticipation.The geographic distributions of participation in the smaller organizations differ fromthe distribution for the large arts organizations. Participation in the smaller institutionsin our sample is more spread out across the city than is participation in the large artsorganizations. This raises the question of whether, if we add together participation in thelarge organizations with that of all other organizations, we would find the same set ofdeterminants for arts participation. We hope to address that question in future research.Overall these data provide a striking illustration of the specificity of the audiences ofdifferent categories of institutions, and make it clear that participation in the largerinstitutions cannot be taken as representative of arts participation in general. Whilerecognizing the great importance of these flagship institutions, it is also important torecognize the vital role played by Chicago’s other institutions. In future research we hopeto accumulate a more comprehensive data set that will enable us to address the issue ofthe determinants of arts participation in general.50 Ethnic, Diverse, and Other Institutions