NEA: Colorado ranks No. 1 in performing-arts visits

Attendance at arts events in the Denver Performing Arts Complex are outpacing other parts of the country. Photo by John Moore.

A new federal government survey ranks Colorado No. 1 in per-capita trips to theaters, concert halls and museums. 

Nearly 52 percent of Colorado adults reported attendance at live performing-arts events in 2012, far above the national average of 37.4 percent. An even greater number, 59.2 percent, say they went to a visual arts event, topping the country’s total average of 39 percent.

Attendance at nonmusical plays in Colorado is roughly twice the rate of the country as a whole.

The results are from a new study just released by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Here is a link to the NEA’s summary of the report
Here is the link to download a copy of the report

The study was reported in today’s Denver Post. The results are “validating,” DCPA head of marketing Jennifer Nealson told reporter Ray Mark Rinaldi for the story. She suggests they are rooted in a combination of high-quality institutional organizations, many with national reputations, and a local enthusiasm for arts. The DCPA’s own research shows that 62 percent of families in the region have attended its shows in the past seven years.  “We have a high penetration in the marketplace, and we’re always trying to find new ways to make things accessible to audiences,” Nealson told The Post.

But nationally, the proportion of Americans who attended at least one “benchmark arts activity”  has gradually fallen over the last 10-year period, from 39 percent in 2002 to 33 percent in 2012.

Click here to read the full story in The Denver Post.

Snapshot of national statistics:
By percentage of overall adults nationally:

59.4 percent say they have attended a movie in the past 12 months
58.2 percent say they have read a book
50.1 percent say they have attended a performing art event

15.2 percent say they have attended a musical in the past year
8.3 percent say they have attended a non-musical play in the past year

40.7 percent of those who say they have attended a musical in the past 12 months are male
59.3 percent of those who say they have attended a musical in the past 12 months are female

42.1 percent of those who say they have attended a non-musical play in the past 12 months are male
57.9 percent of those who say they have attended a non-musical play in the past 12 months are female

Of those who say they have attended a musical in the past 12 months:
80.4 percent are White
7.1 percent are Hispanic
7.0 percent are African-American

Of those who say they have attended a non-musical play in the past 12 months:
80.7 percent are White
6.4 percent are Hispanic
8.5 percent are African-American

A few more random findings:
By percentage of adults in the Mountain region:

21.1 percent say they enjoy Broadway show tunes
41.7 percent say they enjoy country music (No. 1 type of music)

51.8 percent of adults who read literature, second only to New England (51.9)
47.0 percent: National average of adults who read literature

55.5 percent say they have taken a class in any performing art in their lifetimes
8.7 percent say they have taken a class in acting or theater

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