Survey of Public Participation in the Arts 1985 [United States]

Produced By: National Endowment for the Arts, 1985, Washington, D.C.

Author: National Endowment for the Arts

Abstract (CPANDA): This data collection offers information on Americans' participation in the arts, including ballet, opera, plays, museums, and concerts, during 1985. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and conducted by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, this survey was a supplement to a larger national survey, the National Crime Survey (NCS). Respondents were asked a core set of questions about their past-year participation in, and frequency of attending, art performances and events in the following categories: jazz music, classical music, opera, musicals, plays (nonmusical), ballet, other dance, art museums, arts-crafts fairs, and historical park/monument sites. Subsets of respondents were also asked questions in one of six additional topic areas: 1) barriers to participation; 2) socialization experiences relative to the arts; 3) musical preferences and where respondents attended arts events 4) additional leisure activities; 5) other arts-related participation; 6) consumption of arts programming on television, radio and pre-recorded audio.

Methodology (CPANDA) : A total of 13,675 completed surveys were collected from a sample of U.S. households. The sample was selected using a stratified, multi-stage, clustered design and drawn from Census Bureau population counts. All non-institutionalized individuals living in the U.S. were eligible. All those above age 18 in selected households were asked to respond. The survey had an overall response rate of more than 85 percent. One-quarter of the interviews were conducted over the phone; three-quarters face-to-face. The survey was appended to the National Crime Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau for the Department of Justice. The National Crime Survey is an on-going household sample survey. About one in six NCS households was asked to respond to the SPPA questions in the first six months of 1985. Each month, the questionnaire included the core set of questions (described above) and one of six rotating sets of questions. The NEA had planned to implement a revised questionnaire for the last six months of 1985 with improved wording from test surveys, but the project was aborted by the Office of Management and the Budget. The data included a weight variable to make the sample representative of the U.S. population by age, gender and ethnicity.