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Rabkin, Nick and E.C. Hedberg (2011). Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for
Arts Participation. Washington DC: National Endowment for the Arts.
Accessed at: http://www.nea.gov/research/2008-SPPA-ArtsLearning.pdf
In their analysis, the researchers Nick Rabkin and Eric Hedberg test and ultimately confirm the
validity of an assumption made with prior SPPA data, that participation in arts lessons and classes
is the most significant predictor of arts participation in later life, even after allowing for other
variables. They also show that long-term declines in Americans’ reported rates of arts learning
correspond with a period in which arts education has been widely acknowledged as devalued in
the public school system.
After comparing data from four administrations of the SPPA, in 1982, 1992, 2002 and 2008 the
study starts with the statement that arts education and arts participation are strongly correlated as
demonstrated by the fact that in those research results more than 50 percent of adults who
indicated that they had had any childhood arts education attended a benchmark event in the year
before each survey, while fewer than 30 percent of those who had no childhood arts education
attended a benchmark event.
After a brief discussion of the main results in the executive summary, the study begins by
explaining what was considered for the purpose of the survey as arts participation and arts
education. Arts participation takes many forms: from the classic visits to museums, galleries, and
the theatre to engagement with the arts through electronic media. It is also accepts amateur
activities as arts participation since a large numbers of Americans make art themselves,
performing or creating work professionally or informally, alone or in groups, for their personal
pleasure or for their friends or community. Pathways for arts education are also diverse: Americans
participate through classes and lessons in schools, colleges, and conservatories, in a wide range
of other community venues, and in private lessons throughout their lives.
In spite of the fact that there is strong evidence that arts education is a predictor of arts
participation in the future, the authors also explain in this chapter that the effects of arts education
may also depends on the kind, the quality, the intensity, and the longevity of arts education
experiences.
Chapter 1 “Arts Education and Arts Participation” is a deeper exploration of the complex but
powerful relationship between arts education and adult arts participation. In this chapter the main
conclusion according to which data are provided are:
� Arts education has a powerful positive effect on adult benchmark arts attendance.
� More arts education leads to more arts attendance.
� Arts education has similar effects on other forms of arts participation: personal art-making,
participation in the arts through media, and additional arts education.
� Arts education has a more powerful effect on arts attendance than any other measurable
factor.
� Children of parents who had arts education or who attend benchmark arts events are more
likely to take private arts classes or lessons and are more likely to attend arts events
themselves.
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