Pop Art
Wed, 31 July 2002, 01:18 pmcrgwllms12 posts in thread
Pop Art
Wed, 31 July 2002, 01:18 pmAn article in the New York Times today claims that the number of arts festivals happening nationwide over there has reached a record high of about 3000, drawing audiences of around 130 million.
I roughly estimate those attendances as being about 45% of the USA's population, although it doesn't account for the fact that obviously a much smaller arts-going population must be attending multiple events to give that sort of box office estimate.
And also, that's still only 1 festival every 96,000 head of population.
I wonder what percentage of our population attends arts events? How many festivals do we have in Australia, compared to our population?
And I wonder what sort of similar comparison could be made with the people who attend our traditional form of culture - sporting events?
Is it possible to increase the general status of arts events in Australia? Are we hindered or helped by our smaller population?
Food for thought.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/30/arts/30SUMM.html?pagewanted=1&todaysheadlines
Cheers,
Craig
[%sig%]
I roughly estimate those attendances as being about 45% of the USA's population, although it doesn't account for the fact that obviously a much smaller arts-going population must be attending multiple events to give that sort of box office estimate.
And also, that's still only 1 festival every 96,000 head of population.
I wonder what percentage of our population attends arts events? How many festivals do we have in Australia, compared to our population?
And I wonder what sort of similar comparison could be made with the people who attend our traditional form of culture - sporting events?
Is it possible to increase the general status of arts events in Australia? Are we hindered or helped by our smaller population?
Food for thought.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/30/arts/30SUMM.html?pagewanted=1&todaysheadlines
Cheers,
Craig
[%sig%]
Re: Pop Art
Thu, 1 Aug 2002, 12:03 amInteresting responses, thanks.
The original article didn't distinguish how those categories of art festivals were divided - music, theatre, circus, craft, dance, film, hybrid, etc.
I'm interested to maybe try and find out attendance estimates in the US for sporting events, to see how they compare with the arts figures. I'm wondering how much it's all affected by the economic climate, and that's partly why I thought it might be a function of population.
Theatre is a tricky one. On this site we're all largely preaching to the converted, but what is the general public perception? What do they want to see? I suspect they don't actually know.
I'd guess hardly any of the people in my street go to the theatre with any regularity, although I'm sure a pretty decent percentage would regularly see live bands, and probably the majority would see films (although it's debatable how many of those films would be Australian). I reckon they all watch television, and catch a fair bit of Australian drama content, but probably more foreign content.
If the "ordinary Australian" (I don't really know who that is, but John Howard seems to think there's a lot of them out there) isn't aware of what they want in theatre (do they want it at all?) then do they at least know what they DON'T want to see? Or are we truly approaching them across a void of ignorance?
In the same way that we regularly hear (read) the same voices on this website, and see the same faces on our stages; we meet the same audiences in our foyers: in fact more often than not it's the selfsame group of people, just rotating their allegiance between viewer and participant. Artists themselves seem to be the largest subsidising body. Does the theatre industry just exist to amuse itself?
Could a solution to revitalising the industry simply be for every regular patron to introduce a new initiate every time you book your ticket? We could have a secret symbolic ceremonial sacrifice of the theatre virgins?
(Don't know why I'm on this tangent tonight, maybe I'm building a new character?)
The original article didn't distinguish how those categories of art festivals were divided - music, theatre, circus, craft, dance, film, hybrid, etc.
I'm interested to maybe try and find out attendance estimates in the US for sporting events, to see how they compare with the arts figures. I'm wondering how much it's all affected by the economic climate, and that's partly why I thought it might be a function of population.
Theatre is a tricky one. On this site we're all largely preaching to the converted, but what is the general public perception? What do they want to see? I suspect they don't actually know.
I'd guess hardly any of the people in my street go to the theatre with any regularity, although I'm sure a pretty decent percentage would regularly see live bands, and probably the majority would see films (although it's debatable how many of those films would be Australian). I reckon they all watch television, and catch a fair bit of Australian drama content, but probably more foreign content.
If the "ordinary Australian" (I don't really know who that is, but John Howard seems to think there's a lot of them out there) isn't aware of what they want in theatre (do they want it at all?) then do they at least know what they DON'T want to see? Or are we truly approaching them across a void of ignorance?
In the same way that we regularly hear (read) the same voices on this website, and see the same faces on our stages; we meet the same audiences in our foyers: in fact more often than not it's the selfsame group of people, just rotating their allegiance between viewer and participant. Artists themselves seem to be the largest subsidising body. Does the theatre industry just exist to amuse itself?
Could a solution to revitalising the industry simply be for every regular patron to introduce a new initiate every time you book your ticket? We could have a secret symbolic ceremonial sacrifice of the theatre virgins?
(Don't know why I'm on this tangent tonight, maybe I'm building a new character?)
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