Public Opinion Poll Americans Speak Out About the Arts
What We Value: American Opinions about the Piece of work of Artists
Americans value the arts. 81 percent of Americans believe the arts are "a positive experience in a troubled world."one Yet, Americans do not ever identify value on those who create that art. In July 2021, the American University of Arts & Sciences asked Americans how much artists, amongst a number of other professions, "contribute to the general adept of gild." While 64 percent of Americans believe they contribute "a lot" or "some," but 22 percent answered "a lot."2 How can we square this apparent mismatch?
First, consider who came out at the top of the listing. Doctors topped the list, as 93 per centum of Americans believe they contribute "a lot" or "some" to society; followed closely by teachers (90%) and scientists (88%). Retail workers and college professors were in the middle (at around 78%). Athletes, in contrast, were at the bottom of the list at 45 percent, with elected officials only modestly above them at 58 percent.
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The answers reflect our particular moment—a global health crunch and pervasive political mistrust. But in the instance of artists, these responses also have a history. A similar survey in 2009 revealed that 74 percent believed artists contribute either "a lot" or "some" to the well-existence of our society, with 31 percent selecting "a lot."iii A like national poll in 2003 returned just 27 per centum answering "a lot" for artists.4 Simply if many Americans eat the arts on a daily basis, why might they not recognize the contribution of artists to that enjoyment? And is this lack of recognition a problem?
One inkling might be in the answers to another question we asked in our survey: "When you think of the arts, what comes to mind?" Respondents were much more than likely to offer words for art forms ("music"), practices ("paint"), and institutions ("theater") than those for individual creatives like "creative person," "painter," "musician," or "histrion."
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How Americans "Call back well-nigh the Arts"
How Americans "Call back well-nigh the Arts"
Another question on the Academy survey points to the public's lack of information about the work life of artists. Asked if "In your opinion, would you say artists in your area are financially suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic," the majority chose either "more other workers" (29%) or "the same as other workers" (32%). But a revealing number of people chose "Don't know" (33%). As the Academy's Commission on the Arts notes in their new written report on the creative workforce, past September 2020, more than half of actors were unemployed, forth with 27 per centum of those in music-related jobs.5 Nonprofit arts, amusement, and recreation organizations lost over 31 percent of their jobs from February 2020 to March 2021—five times the job loss for nonprofits overall.6
The Academy survey revealed that some groups are more convinced of artists' societal contribution than others. Women are more likely to say artists contribute "a lot"/"some" than men (69% vs 59%). Those with a BA or higher degree are more probable to believe that artists contribute "a lot"/"some" than those with either a high school education or some college (72% versus 56% and 61%). Race/ethnicity and income level were not found to be related to the perception of artists' contribution.
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Taken together, information technology might not exist surprising, then, to learn that data on charitable giving from 2020 shows that while giving overall went upwards from 2019 to 2020, giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations cruel by 8.5 percentage, and but represents 4 percent of total charitable giving. At the same time, charitable giving in that sector has increased essentially since the mid-1980s, both in dollar amount and as a share of all giving.7
At the center of this question is the issue of how nosotros recognize, and nurture, contributions to the good of society. What is information technology that we value, how practice we develop it, and how practice we create space for that value to grow? Money is i way we recognize value—but it doesn't always line up with who nosotros say contributes the most. For case, doctors (who ranked high in our survey) are generally well paid—median annual wages of a family doc in 2020 were $207,380.eight The median wages for a fine artist were $52,340.ix However, median wages of teachers, who ranked nearly every bit high as doctors as far equally societal contribution, were less than a third of what doctors earned, at $sixty,940 (elementary teachers).10
The Academy survey and the other data presented here supplement the new report from the Commission on the Arts of the American University of Arts & Sciences, Fine art is Piece of work: Policies to Back up Creative Workers, which lays out the case for the value of the creative workforce. The recommendations from the Committee are geared towards endmost the gap this survey reveals between the importance of the arts in the everyday lives of many Americans and the support American institutions offer to allow artists—who create the arts—to thrive.
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Source: https://www.amacad.org/news/american-opinions-about-artists
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