Draft report of research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s ‘Cultural Value’ programme in 2013-14.

Dropping in and dropping out: understanding cultural value from the perspectives of lapsed or partial arts participants

Professor Stephanie PittsUniversity of Sheffield(Report date: June 2014)

Executive SummaryThis project sought to understand the perspectives of people on the edges of arts engagement: the infrequent attenders at performances, and lapsed players of musical instruments. Four linked studies were carried out with arts audiences and participants in Sheffield, reaching the following headline findings:On lapsed participants

Musical participants generally face challenges of life transitions, pressures of work and family commitments, or illness and ageing – key differences emerge in the extent to which musical participation adds to or relieves other pressures

Levels of musical confidence are affected by feelings of acceptance and belonging within an ensemble

Experience of musical participation build skill levels and shape lifelong attitudes, with adults more likely to return to playing if they had formed a strong musical identity in adolescence

Viewing music as an obligation or habit, rather than a passion, was often a precursor to dropping out

Articulating participants’ musical goals and personal needs could be a useful way to increase retention and satisfaction in ensembles

On audiences Audiences appreciate the quality of arts events, but are sometimes distracted by

the small annoyances of booking systems and/or staff, or the lack of variety in programming

Rising/high ticket prices make some audience members more selective about their arts attendance, seeking a guarantee that they will enjoy an event

Audiences for different arts have different priorities, giving more or less emphasis to programming and repertoire, live experience and affordability

New audiences have quite different experiences from regular attenders, often feeling they need more background knowledge in order to be enjoy an event to the full

Researchers and Project PartnersPrincipal Investigator: Professor Stephanie PittsResearch Assistant: Katy Robinson

With participation from individuals including:Staff and audience members at the following venues:- Sheffield Theatres- Music in the Round- City Hall, Sheffield- Museums Sheffield- Showroom Cinema- Site Gallery

Members of the following musical ensembles:- Endcliffe Orchestra- Hallam Sinfonia- Sheffield Chamber Orchestra

Staff at the following organisations:- Sheffield Culture Consortium- Now Then community magazine

Key wordsMusical participation, audiences, audience experience, arts engagement, motivation, lifelong learning

Understanding cultural value from the perspectives of lapsed or partial arts participants

Why investigate lapsed participants?

Investigating ‘cultural value’ from the perspective of those who no longer participate, or who attend arts events infrequently, might appear to be counter-intuitive. Much previous research has articulated the value and attraction of musical participation (e.g. Matarasso, 1997; Pitts, 2005; Finnegan, 2007) and arts attendance (e.g. Radbourne, Glow & Johanson, 2013; Burland & Pitts, 2014), demonstrating both the transformative potential of the arts for disadvantaged social groups (e.g. Bailey & Davidson, 2002) and the satisfaction and enhancement of everyday life for those making choices about use of leisure time (e.g. Pitts, 2005; Carucci, 2012). However, the question that always remains at the end of a study of musical participation or arts engagement is “If this is so brilliant, why isn’t everyone doing it?”. This project sought to address that gap in the research literature by working with organisations who seek to recruit participants to arts events, and with individuals who have now or in the past proved resistant to such recruitment.

For those who do participate, the value of their arts activities is compelling, and outweighs the disadvantages of needing to find energy for a rehearsal after a tiring day at work, or spending money on the ephemeral experience of a theatre or music performance. Robert Stebbins, in his studies of amateurs in music and other leisure activities, describes this as ‘value commitment’, which gives amateurs the freedom of choice to pursue an activity, as opposed to the ‘continuance commitment’ which might drive a professional musician to stay in a job they no longer enjoy (Stebbins, 1992: 52). Participating in the arts becomes a necessary, self-perpetuating aspect of life for those who experience such ‘value commitment’ – and yet there are many barriers that prevent such commitment becoming part of everyday life for the majority of the population.

This project set out to understand the factors that cause those with an interest in the arts to lapse from or limit their participation, anticipating that some of these factors might be linked to the arts themselves and a declining level of enjoyment or satisfaction, and others to competing demands on motivation, time and commitment. We aimed therefore to define ‘cultural value’ from the perspective of those who have experienced arts engagement in the past, perhaps through learning an instrument and participating in ensembles at school, but have found obstacles to lifelong participation; and having identified these obstacles, to suggest ways in which they might be overcome in order to make arts participation more widely accessible.

Research focus and questions

Three linked studies were devised for the project, and a fourth – the ‘audience exchange’ – was added as its potential emerged during data collection. The aims and focus for each were as follows:• Study 1: The violin in the attic – investigating lapsed musical participationMy previous work with amateur musicians (Pitts, 2005) has highlighted the many musical, social and personal benefits of belonging to an amateur performing group; likewise my studies of musical life histories (Pitts, 2012) uncovered stories of adolescent musical involvement, fondly remembered as a source of friendship, identity and belonging. With that substantial body of existing evidence (over 500 active musical participants across the two books), this study shifted the focus to explore the experiences and attitudes of those who no longer play; who have expressed ruefully in previous studies that they have a dusty instrument in their home, and who commonly cite pressures of time, family, and work as having caused them to cease involvement. These lapsed participants have understood and experienced the value of participation, and yet have ceased their engagement: they therefore offer a fresh perspective on the drawbacks of participation, and so on the potential for recruiting and retaining adult musical participants more effectively.Participants for this study were recruited (see Appendix on Research Methodology) through the amateur orchestras and other musical networks in Sheffield and the surrounding area, for qualitative interviews addressing the following research questions:

• How are the benefits and costs of musical participation articulated by those who no longer actively participate?

• What are the factors in causing participants to cease their involvement? Are there strategies that amateur groups could implement to increase retention?

• What is the longer-term pattern of arts engagement for lapsed participants? Does concert-going replace music-making, for example?

• How does past involvement affect perceptions of cultural value – and what are the implications of this for arts organisations and their audience development strategies?

• Study 2: Loyalty and its limitations – exploring cultural value across art forms Previous studies with audiences for classical music and jazz (Pitts & Spencer, 2008; Burland & Pitts, 2012) have observed a tendency for arts engagement to be quite specific to particular genres, performers, or even venues, creating an audience loyalty that is not readily transferable to broader arts engagement. There is also current debate in the research literature about the true nature of the ‘cultural omnivore’ (Peterson & Kern, 1996; Friedman, 2012), and the effects of increased download/mobile access to the arts upon live arts consumption (Savage & Gayo, 2011). This study sought, therefore, to explore the articulation of cultural value across genres, by questioning those who attend a narrow range of arts events about their experiences of their chosen genre, and their broader understanding of arts in society. An online survey was designed to ask questions about frequency of attendance, factors in choices of events, openness to other

art forms, and attitudes towards less familiar arts, and so to address the following research questions:

• Are there significant differences between the attitudes and experiences of audiences at specific arts events – or is the notion of ‘cultural value’ generic to arts engagement?

• What are the factors affecting openness to arts attendance (prior engagement, education, perceived value of the arts, or practicalities, finance, access)?

• How might arts organisations be able/willing to share intelligence about their audiences and so strengthen arts engagement collectively across a city or region?

• Study 3: Cultural value in lives and localities This study aimed to add qualitative richness to the understanding of audience experience, using interviews with some Study 2 respondents to engage in a closer exploration of how their attitudes and patterns of engagement have been formed and sustained through their lives. Interviewees were asked to talk about their experience of the arts in school and childhood, their choices in attending or participating through their lives, and the perceived accessibility and openness of the arts opportunities available to them currently. Their responses helped to further inform the previous research questions, as well as addressing some overarching considerations:

• What do the attitudes of these lapsed, occasional and partial arts participants tell us about cultural value as perceived in contemporary English society?

• How might talking about the arts contribute to engagement, allowing transfer of audience loyalty from one event to another, and increasing the involvement of those on the edges of participation?

• How can citizens of all ages and backgrounds be supported to engage more deeply and more often with the arts, and to recognise and articulate cultural value?

• Study 4: The audience exchange The exploration of attitudes towards arts not currently attended or frequently experienced by survey respondents in Study 2 led us to propose an additional strategy for our investigation; namely an ‘audience exchange’, in which volunteers from that survey were taken in small groups to see an event that they would not usually have considered attending. Three such exchanges were set up, at a jazz gig, an opera and a chamber music concert, and the expectations and first impressions of our exchange participants allowed us to enrich understanding of the research questions in Studies 2 and 3, as well as adding some new perspectives:

How do the first impressions of audience members at an unfamiliar arts event compare with those of regular attenders?

What wider perspectives on arts in society are revealed through the expectations and first impressions of new audience members?

What is the potential of an exchange scheme of this kind for recruiting new audience members and changing longer term arts engagement?

Full details of methods, recruitment challenges and participants are given in the Appendix on Research Methodology.

Headline findingsFor the purposes of this report, findings will be discussed under two main headings: lapsed participants (drawing on data from Study 1) and audiences (drawing on Studies 2-4). Journal articles giving full accounts of each study are currently in preparation or under review, and updates to publications from this project will be made available on the Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre (SPARC) website in the coming months: http://www.sparc.dept.shef.ac.uk/

Understanding lapsed participants Players who have ceased musical participation or had a long lapse in the

past have faced similar challenges of life transitions, pressures of work and family commitments, or illness and ageing – the differences emerge in how they cope with those circumstances, and the extent to which musical participation adds to or relieves other pressures

Levels of musical confidence are affected feelings of acceptance and belonging within an ensemble – so ‘fit’ to the ensemble was an important factor in continued participation

Experience of musical participation in school was crucial to building skill levels and shaping lifelong attitudes, with adults more likely to return to playing if they had formed a strong musical identity in adolescence

Viewing music as an obligation or habit, rather than a passion, was often a precursor to dropping out, and was linked to practical reasons in interviewees’ accounts of their decisions to withdraw from ensembles

Making sense of a musical life history, as in our interviews, could be a useful tool in understanding participants’ musical goals and personal needs, and so increasing retention and satisfaction in ensembles

This study investigated whether the benefits reported in previous studies of musical participation were experienced differently, less or not at all by those amateur musicians who have ceased their involvement in an ensemble. Regular participants have consistently described the benefits of participation as an opportunity to demonstrate or acquire skills; to set and meet musical goals; for social interaction and friendships; to enhance/escape from everyday life; and for wellbeing, fulfilment and pleasure (e.g. Pitts,

2005; Carrucci, 2012). In our initial online survey, reasons for participation were broadly similar between the current and past participants, as shown in Table 1:

Table 1: Factors in past and current players’ reasons for joining an ensemble Current players (n = 13) Past players (n = 7)Thought the ensemble was about the right level for me (7)

Playing with like-minded people (6)

Liked the repertoire (6) Liked the challenge (6)Wanted to meet new friends (6) Wanted to meet new friends (4)Wanted to play with like-minded people (4) Liked the particular repertoire of that

ensemble (3)Wanted to try something new (3) Acquiring new skills (3)Played when I was younger and wanted to resume my involvement (3)

Shared faith groups (1)

Was recruited by a friend/existing member of the ensemble (2)Saw a concert and wanted to take part (2)

Joining an ensemble was motivated by a mix of musical, personal and social goals that were broadly similar across the two groups. The only notable difference was that the players who had continued playing tended to prioritise musical goals more highly than social ones: this trend in the admittedly small questionnaire sample was borne out by our interviews, from which all quotes below are taken. The interviews included some examples of lapsed participation in which joining an ensemble for mainly social reasons had led to disappointment:

“I don’t know if it’s something about amateur musicians, maybe, but I’ve never found them particularly socially outgoing [...] one of the reasons was to meet people, but I don’t know, maybe musicians are quite shy in general because they express themselves through their music. But I never found it very easy in the social – like, in the breaks and things.” [Laura, 26-35, past player]

Conversely, those current participants who were most satisfied with their playing were those who felt a ‘good fit’ to their ensemble, both socially but primarily musically: examples of these included players feeling supported in a ‘development ensemble’ designed for adult returners and late starters, and those in a faster-paced amateur orchestra where the challenging musical goals suited their needs:

“We do get a fair amount of musical instruction, and again, because that’s the sort of developmental aspect of it […] you learn from your section as well, you know, the other trumpeter is, he’s very experienced and I actually learn quite a lot about playing just listening to him.” [Nigel, 46-55, current player]“Brilliant, brilliant players in the orchestra, and if you’re sitting next to, or behind, or in front of some very good players, I immediately, my game goes up, and that makes me feel better.” [Hannah, 56-65, current player]

All of the current players involved in the interview study had previously had lapses from their playing, and here again the reasons given were similar across those who had

ceased playing completely and those who had returned after a temporary lapse (see Table 2):

Table 2: Past and current players’ reasons for ceasing or lapsing from musical participation

Current players (n = 13) Past players (n = 7)Family commitments (5) Moved to a new area (3)Moved to a new area (4) Change of circumstances (e.g. new job,

family commitments) (3)No access to instrument (3) Time commitment was too demanding (3)Doubts about own musical abilities (2) Medical circumstances affecting playing

(1)Work commitments (2) Doubts about own musical abilities (1)Medical circumstances (illness/stress) (2) No longer eligible to participate (e.g. youth

choirs) (1)Fit to ensemble (1) Financial costs of participating (1)Loss of interest/motivation (1)

The interviews shed further light on how, while all players had faced similar challenges of life transitions, pressures of work and family commitments, or illness and ageing, there were differences in how they had coped with those circumstances, and the extent to which musical participation had added to or provided an escape from other pressures. A change of job and/or location, for instance, could be an incentive to join a new ensemble or mean that there was a reduced focus on participation:

“I don’t think I looked. I think I was too busy doing other things, because I had a nice, interesting job running a kindergarten at the university, and, er, I made new friends and I was travelling about quite a lot when we had holidays, and I was very busy, and I don’t think it crossed my mind to look for one [an ensemble], really.” [Mary, 66-75, past player]

Similarly, having a young family was often cited as a reason to stop playing, due to lack of time and energy, but for some players parenthood brought a new lease of life to their playing as they focused attention on encouraging their children into musical activities:

“I practised diligently, half an hour in the morning and another 20 minutes at night – much to [the family’s] annoyance, because I wouldn’t give up – and the reason being, that [my son] got his oboe, and I got my oboe, simply to prove that it was worthwhile practising. And I said to myself, there’s two ways, you can bully him, or you can demonstrate.” [Brian, 76-85, past player]

Stress and illness also had different effects on musical participation for different participants: for some these reasons were cited as the strongest factor in giving up playing, but were often linked to more psychological, confidence-based reasons:

”My old job was incredibly stressful – this job is less stressful, but still very emotionally demanding [...] and like I said, when I had a family bereavement, I couldn’t really cope with the stress any more, so that was definitely a colliding

point. I don’t know, if that hadn’t have happened, maybe I’d still be playing. It’s hard to tell. So I would say that non-musical circumstances have definitely affected my ability to play.” [Jenny, 26-35, past player]

Declining health associated with ageing was something that younger players anticipated as a reason for ceasing participation, while older players struggled with the sense of no longer contributing to their ensembles as well as they had in the past:

“I gave the orchestra up, because my fingers in this hand are very, very poor. I can play with this one OK, but this one is rather slow, but you can’t do it with a wind instrument [...] The next thing that’s gone is my breath, and then I had to give up the choir, because it required standing at the concerts, and I’ve got a bad heart, and standing is – they weren’t prepared to let me sit on a chair, which I understand.” [Brian, 76-85, past player]

All these practical reasons for ceasing participation – time, opportunity, stress, health and ageing – were often intertwined with more complex narratives of acceptance, belonging and motivation. Underpinning the stories of competing pressures or dissatisfaction at specific moments in time were often deeper concerns for players who felt they were not contributing to their ensemble at a sufficiently high level, or that the ensemble had different aims to their own. Those who had returned to playing after a temporary lapse tended to be those who had tackled these psychological factors more directly, questioning their own motivations to make music and clarifying their aims for ensemble participation. These included some participants who had joined the amateur music scene after some time working professionally in music, as well as those who were most comfortable with the relationship between their work life and their musical activities:

“I think when you’re young and doing pieces for the first time, and everyone around you is doing the pieces for the first time, and it’s a big deal, and there’s a lot of excitement, and that’s really great to do that. And I guess you’ve got the highs of doing certain pieces that way, performing them for the first time. That’s a bit different to being in a professional environment where you have to do a good job, and you have to play this piece – this concert – four times in a week and you have to be as good on each one – there’s that kind of pressure.” [Tom, 46-55, current player]“I feel like during the day, you know, there’s all this sort of stuff coming in and people coming to me for decisions and things like that, and it’s actually, it’s fantastic, once a week to switch that part of my brain off and go do something and just focus on making music.” [Nigel, 46-55, current player]

The extent and experience of childhood participation in music also seemed to have an effect on players’ level of motivation to continue their involvement. All of our sample had played in extra-curricular ensembles at school and within their county or region, and most reported having enjoyed these experiences, with the exception of some tales of discouraging or didactic teachers, and this striking account of how musical participation had become too strongly associated with school:

“I feel quite ambivalent about it, actually, in some ways I did [enjoy participating], but it's left me with a very strong sense of classical music as a school thing, if you know what I mean, for me, classical music is very tainted by childhood – by school

and adolescence. And it's sort of a tricky one in a way. I say ambivalent because I don't just unproblematically dislike it, but there is always a bit of that about it for me.” [Robert, 36-45, past player]

Differences also emerged in the extent to which enjoyment of school activities was relatively light-hearted – associated with fun and friendship rather than musical progress – or a more central part of participants’ adolescent lives and identity. Those who had acquired not just a high level of musical skill, but also a strong sense of the importance of music in their lives, were those most likely to continue or return to these activities later in life. Where they had experienced a lapse in playing, before subsequently returning to participation, there was a sense of wanting to capitalise on the investment of time and effort they had made during adolescence:

“When I look back on it now it’s kind of incredible to me that it happened, that I put so much time and effort into, um, into music, into getting to a reasonable standard, and spending all this time participating in various ensembles, and you know, to a certain point, I just dropped it. And it is kind of weird that it happened.” [Nigel, 46-55, current player]

This retrospective bewilderment at having dropped out of musical participation shows that no matter how highly players value their musical activities in adolescence, there are few guarantees that these activities will be continued throughout the lifespan. Once playing has ceased for a time, the hurdle of resuming it is by no means insignificant, and returning players had often been disappointed by their level of residual skill:

“[Playing the cello] was difficult to start with – I realised how much my fingers had closed up from getting a job where I’m typing all the time. Um, in first position, it was so, so difficult to get back into stretching my hands out, and making the right sound that I wanted to make. Intonation was appalling, actually! [...] it kind of snowballed from there, I suppose, and I started realising that actually I have still got the ability – I mean, the technical ability’s not there as much as it was, obviously, because I don’t practise bowing for an hour a day and fingering for an hour a day.” [Jonny, 36-45, current player]“I had an operation on my left shoulder, and now I can just about hold up the flute again, so I’m trying to get back to it a little bit, but like, I did my Grade 8 and I tried to play one of my pieces that I used to be able to basically play off by heart because I played it so often, and, like, it was just rubbish in comparison – it was very sad!” [Rachel, 18-25, past player]

While some players had relished the challenge of regaining their former levels of musical expertise, for others this loss of facility had been a further obstacle to returning to playing, particularly in the public forum of an ensemble:

“I had this long gap from [playing], went back into it, and found, technically, I just wasn’t up to it. And I found that so frustrating, so I took music home, practised more than I’d ever practised in the past, and I just couldn’t get up to speed.” [Ian, 56-65, past player]

Judging their own playing to be inadequate, and fearing its judgement by others in the ensemble, was an inhibiting factor for several ceasing and returning players, sometimes to a debilitating extent:

“I hated it, I hated feeling like I couldn’t play. I didn’t – I never liked tuning up much, I always feel that everyone’s listening to you, and everyone’s listening for whether you’ve noticed if you’re in tune or not, if you see what I mean.” [Jenny, 26-35, past player]

The experiences reported here (and at greater length in forthcoming publications) demonstrate that while the personal, social and musical benefits of participation are widely understood and articulated even by lapsed participants, the experience of these benefits is modified by psychological factors of confidence and motivation, and external circumstances of work, family, health and available leisure time. Musical participation can bring costs too, contributing to as well as being affected by stress and lack of confidence, and bringing mixed experiences of friendship and social acceptance. Experiences seem to be strongly affected by expectations, both in the ways these have been shaped by memories of adolescent musical participation, and through the importance of fit to ensemble experienced by current and past players. Those participants who are most content with their playing appear to be those who have considered their motivations most closely, suggesting that the process of making sense of musical life histories, as in our interviews, could in itself be a valuable tool in increasing satisfaction and retention rates amongst adult ensemble participants.

Understanding audiences Audiences appreciated the quality of arts events in Sheffield, but were

sometimes distracted by the small annoyances of booking systems and/or staff, or the lack of variety in programming

Rising/high ticket prices made some audience members more selective about their arts attendance – they sought a guarantee that they were going to enjoy an event before purchasing a ticket

The overall venue experience was important – catering, comfortable seating and a sense of feeling welcome in a venue all helped to make an arts event a social occasion

Audiences for different arts had different priorities – classical music listeners were more driven by programming and repertoire preferences, though like theatre-goers they valued the live experience and commitment of performers; art-house cinema-goers were satisfied by affordable prices and accessible film timings, so more willing to experiment; museum and gallery visitors liked being able to drop in and escape from the world

Audiences experiencing new art forms felt that they needed more background information in order to enjoy events to the full, and assumed that others in the audience were more knowledgeable and engaged

Our audience data collection took three forms: an online survey, advertised to audiences attending events in Sheffield, follow-up interviews with ten of those survey respondents,

and an audience exchange in which three groups were taken to see an arts event unfamiliar to them and involved in a focus group discussion afterwards.The online survey addressed questions of attendance habits, preferences for specific arts, barriers and incentives to attendance, and the place of the arts alongside other uses of leisure time. The Appendix on research methods gives full details of the survey participants and their demographic characteristics, and so this section of the report will focus on their qualitative responses.Audiences in this sample included occasional to frequent attenders, and there was a broad trend of satisfaction with the quality of arts events in Sheffield, and a sense that the city sometimes undervalued its cultural status and contribution:

“The city appears to be thriving, with a wide range of venues and events that will appeal to a wide range of people. It is not afraid to try something new or to take risks, it will make an attempt to prove to people that the arts ‘is for them’”. [AQ12]“On the whole very good. Perhaps too much 'fringe music' gigs" and stand up so-called comedy, and not enough classical music concerts. Cinema and theatres - excellent, so too museums and art galleries.” [AQ74]

As the second comment here demonstrates, audience respondents had different views of provision depending on their personal preferences: orchestral concerts and opera were felt to be under-served, but those attending the theatres, galleries and independent cinema regularly tended to be more satisfied with the quality and variety of provision. Some regular attenders noted an unwelcome element of ‘safety’ in programming, feeling that reductions in public and council funding for the arts was leading to a lack of variety and risk by some venues:

“I think we do well for the money we get despite the big cuts, but I would love to have more and distinguished art exhibitions rather than having to go to London to see good art.” [AQ100]“Unable to attract the top line orchestras and artists.” [AQ19]

Different venues also attracted varied levels of praise, illustrating that opinions of the arts were closely linked to specific experiences, and sometimes to only one venue, as has been observed before in Sheffield’s classical music audiences (cf. Pitts & Spencer, 2008). Evaluations of venue encompassed the whole event experience, from social spaces to acoustics, with both elements attracting not entirely consistent reviews across respondents:

“I like [Venue A] because it's large enough to have atmosphere but small enough not to feel dwarfed.” [AQ2]“Sheffield has excellent theatre provision and some excellent concert venues, unfortunately this does not include [Venue A], which suffers acoustically and because of intrusive sounds during classical concerts from other event in the building.” [AQ23]

Accessibility of venues was important to respondents, both in terms of cost and convenience, as in this description of the city’s newest art gallery:

“[Venue B] Galleries - because it is so central and on a thoroughfare. I deliberately vary my route through town to go through the gallery, it is so accessible. The beauty of [the surrounding gardens] plays a big part in this too. Art and culture should not be locked away in cold stone buildings, make it part of people’s everyday lives, their journeys to work, their shopping trips etc...” [AQ36]

The civic pride and connection evident in many of the respondents illustrates the difficulties of generalising about arts audiences: geographical specificity and family tradition shape engagement as much as genre and repertoire preferences, though these factors in arts experience are more rarely considered in the research field:

“[Venue A] has the best range of events that interest me, it is conveniently placed and an interesting environment architecturally. My family comes from Sheffield and there is a tradition of members attending events there.” [AQ12]

The notion of tradition and habit in arts attendance was evident in other responses, contributing to the comfort that comes with feeling familiar with a venue and its audiences:

“If I have heard the artist before and know that I would like their music. First time in a new venue I always find difficult. Always more comfortable on a second visit.” [AQ93]

We decided to explore further the experience of first-time attendance at a venue or arts event through our ‘audience exchange’, in which we took small groups of volunteers from the online survey to an arts event that they had not previously experienced, and then interviewed them as a group afterwards. The first of these was a jazz gig at a small studio theatre in the city centre, which more often hosts classical music concerts and contemporary drama. Our four focus group participants all knew the venue, but showed less affection for its ‘in the round’ stage and proximity of seating than its regular users:

“it works for a classical concert, I think, that space, ‘cos it’s quite intense and you can concentrate on the music, and the music’s a narrative story and you’re on that journey, but that was like – do you have concentrate on that in the same way? Do you – can you go in and out of it? And if you can, then it’s not really the space where you can turn and talk to somebody and say ‘oh, I like that bit’.” [Antony, FG1]

Like the regular jazz listeners interviewed in an earlier study (Burland & Pitts, 2012), these new attenders came with the expectation that jazz was best suited to a “smoky bar” [Alice, FG1], and would have welcomed more opportunity to mix listening and socialising with easier access to the bar “so you can drift in and out and be with your friends and talking” [Alice, FG1]. Getting used to the conventions of applauding solos was also a challenge, and generated a sense that others in the audience were understanding the performance at a deeper level:

“ I could see they were skilful musicians, but it’s like, at times, when people were clapping, it’s like ‘well, what were they doing there? Why is that – why was that skilful?’ – I can kind of see sometimes the emotional part, when they were clapping, the rhythmical part of it, but it’s like why was that particularly skilful or admired? I didn’t quite think that I understood that.” [Antony, FG1]

The new listeners quickly became attuned to these conventions by following others in the audience and, in one case, meeting friends in the interval who reassured them of the appropriateness of their responses:

“To start with, I didn’t, I started – I felt very uncomfortable clapping in the middle – and then as time went on I thought ‘oh, yeah it’s OK to’, and - in fact we just bumped into somebody we knew, and weren’t expecting it, who is a jazz person, and he was saying ‘oh, yeah, it’s fine to clap, it doesn’t matter’ and, so I felt more happy then!” [Julie, FG1]

As would be the case for all our focus groups, these first time attenders felt that they needed more information in order to understand the performance to the full, gleaning what they could from spoken introductions by the players, but feeling the need to be better prepared for future listening. Julie and Malcolm’s friends had reinforced this by suggesting that the group performing were quite “difficult”, but had proposed a solution to help their future listening:

“it may be better to work up to something like this, and go via the more – slightly more melodic jazz things first, and then get more used to it before you try this. So that may be a different way of going about it. He said he’d make us a CD up, to educate us!” [Julie, FG1]

A similar sense of being unsufficiently prepared or educated to enjoy a new arts experience was evident in our second focus group, where we took six first time opera goers (and one who had attended more, but many years ago) to see Verdi’s Nabucco. Settling into this performance was not helped by poor visibility from our booked seats, and some of the participants were critical of the venue for selling these restricted view seats while leaving others empty. Even after moving during the first interval, following the story of the opera had proved a challenge:

“just from the subtitles, I couldn’t totally follow – I could follow up to a point – but during the breaks I read up to the next bit – the previous bit and the next bit of the synopsis, so then I could follow it just about. But I must admit, the actual story, ‘cos it’s a biblical type story, it didn’t really, sort of, grab me, I must admit. Which is pretty much how I expected it to be in terms of enjoyment level, which wasn’t great!” [Phil, FG2]

This confusion over plot, combined with the acting, which Phil described as “very stylised, and quite wooden, actually”, had left several of the participants feeling disengaged from the emotional content of the story:

“I just mean that – I was imagining I’d just be really grabbed by the love affair, and like, in tears, but I wasn’t really. You didn’t get the chance to associate with the characters very much, it was just like suddenly it was happening.” [Rose, FG2]

Several of the group made unfavourable comparisons with musicals, which they had experienced as being more musically and dramatically engaging:

I mean, the musicals I’ve seen have always had like an intensity of emotion – I’ve always felt like I’ve really engaged with some of the characters, and you kind of get that intensity. Where, with this, I didn’t. So I don’t know why – I couldn’t work out if it’s a piece of music which I really enjoyed, and really liked the sound of it, or whether it was a bit of theatre. ‘Cos it was almost like a choir, but dressed up, I

guess. Which made it interesting to look at, but it was kind of different.” [Alice, FG2]

Like the friends whom Malcolm and Julie had met at the jazz gig, our most experienced opera goer, Roger, felt that this was the “wrong” opera for new listeners, which led to an interesting dialogue amongst the group:

Roger: “I mean, I’m not a great defender of opera, I don’t normally go, but I have been to quite a few, and I think it’s a very unfortunate introduction to opera – it’s the wrong one. There are a lot, lot better operas – much better in terms of characterisation, in terms of the music, in terms of everything about – you know, I think that’s an early work by Verdi –”

Dan: “I wouldn’t be put off by going to see one, though, from that performance. You know, I’d still be quite interested to see one.”

Roger: “Well, in which case, I think that you’re brave!”

Jane: “I would be interested, but I think I would research what I want to go and see a bit better, and know a bit more about it, so that I’d know it was something that would interest me more.”

Knowing where to start seems to be a clearly identified obstacle to engagement in new arts (cf. Dobson & Pitts, 2011), and one which is reinforced by the apparently comfortable behaviour of more experienced audience members. Nonetheless, the expectations of some first time opera goers that others in the audience would be “posh” had been at least partially confounded:

Alison: “I thought it was gonna be like, really posh people that went, and um, I thought it was a bit pretentious, yeah I thought it was gonna be like, I thought it was really upper class. That’s the impression that I had of it.”

Stephanie: “And has that impression changed?”

Alison: “Um, a bit, well some – at the beginning, like, when I looked around at the different people that were there, there was a lot of people that I wouldn’t have expected to go. Um, but, it wasn’t as, like, strict, and – it was a little bit more relaxed than I thought.”

Similar expectations were voiced by the members of the third audience exchange, who were drawn from the student questionnaire respondents, and taken to a classical chamber music concert in the studio theatre venue that had also hosted Focus Group 1:

“It did definitely seem like an older audience, but there was young people there – people who I thought were quite obviously music students, or people of a younger age that were probably musicians themselves, and were trying to engage themselves that way, and learn. So it seemed like it was a learning experience as well as people who were very much enjoying – they got a bit rowdier than I expected! With their clapping and stamping their feet, stuff like that. So that surprised me, with the triple encores!” [Dan, FG3]

Recurring themes of a lack of background information and a sense that others in the audience knew what they were doing were also raised, and explained in part by the participants’ reference to portrayals of classical music in the media:

“yeah, well – the way that I've always experienced classical music on the TV, it's accompanied by like, grand theatres, and really, upper middle class, and a poshness, and then there's me in jeans, really.” [Amelia, FG3]

Amelia described feeling relieved by the informality, while reflecting that “it might have been nice to feel very cultured”, prompting a discussion of how more detailed introductions would have helped focus their listening:

Duminda: “An introduction, a story. I find things easier to follow when there's a story to it. Definitely – because it started off with the first performance being introduced – if that continued, I felt like it would be much more relatable.”

Asako: “I agree with her. Between the first and second performance, if there'd be more description, introduction, this would maybe be more helpful.”

Akasuki: “Could you have an introductory lecture with, er, say, in cooperation with the music department, so if you introduce us to the music, so say, 'how the triangle works', or something, or, say, 'this song was written when he lost his girlfriend', we would feel more intimacy towards the music. Like, lecture and concert can be quite nice.”

Although these three international students were quite clear about wanting “to have some knowledge before I listen to the music” [Akasuki, FG3], they also proposed the alternative of a “right to daydream” [Akasuki, FG3], acknowledging that their moments of drifting off from the performance had been pleasurable in their own way:

“That's what got me thinking – I realised it while I was there, and I was like 'is the music so good that I'm losing myself in it?' or whether, is it bad that I'm losing my attention? But I think it had this soothing effect that you could kind of drift off – it wasn't a physical lethargy as such, but it was this mental switch-off.” [Duminda, FG3]

Despite their enjoyment of distracted listening, some of the respondents had felt guilty at not matching the “enthusiasm” of the performers or the “intensity” of other listeners, and explained their own responses in relation to their more familiar listening behaviours:

“I was in my own world. I do enjoy listening to classical music, but alongside, say, reading a book, or like, as a background thing. Not so much like, I'm sitting and watching, and this is my only thing that's going on – I do like it – I like to chill and read a book to classical music, but not so much as that's everything.” [Dan, FG3]

The respondents also made comparisons with other art forms, with Duminda favouring the narrative engagement of theatre, while Amelia, a more regular cinema goer, had been excited by the ‘liveness’ of watching the players perform:

“ they're actually real people, right in front of you playing instruments, so it's quite strange in a way, you don't get that connection when you're just sat in a [cinema] seat. It was quite interesting.” [Amelia, FG3]

For Akasuki, this aspect of the performance had been less pleasurable:“I don't know what to see – I thought it was performers, but I don't know how to play the violin, so they're just moving, but it has no meaning to me.” [Akasuki, FG3]

As in the previous audience exchanges, these first time listeners seem to be engaged in a process of reconciling their own listening experiences with what they assume other audience members are experiencing. Whilst admitting in some cases to have enjoyed the relaxation of daydreaming to the performance, or the novelty of watching live players, this group were the most reluctant to declare an intention to repeat their new arts experience:

“I don't think I would go to another classical concert, but I think it would encourage me to go and see different styles of entertainment. I haven't really experienced many different kinds of like – like I don't remember the last time I went to the theatre.” [Amelia, FG3]

In their desire for further information or a greater level of preparation for future events, the focus group participants mirrored a strong finding from the online survey, that audience members, particularly those who attend less frequently, are seeking a guarantee of a good experience when they buy their tickets. The element of surprise and risk is appealing to regular attenders, who have a greater context in which to set their more unusual experiences, but for those on the margins of engagement, the unfamiliarity of the setting and their uncertain role in the audience is enough of a challenge. This leads in turn to the dissatisfaction with programming decisions noted by the most frequent attenders: venues and organisations are correct in their assumption that occasional attenders are seeking a safe and reliable experience, but risk alienating their more loyal audience by restricting the variety of programming they offer.As with the exploring of musical life histories as a tool for supporting ongoing participation (noted in Study 1), the opportunities to talk about and be guided through an unfamiliar arts event could in itself be a valuable way to engage new audiences (see Dobson & Sloboda, 2014). Certainly, the expectations and first impressions of new audience members are quite distinct from the cultural value expressed by more experienced listeners, and bridging the gap between those two remains a challenge for arts organisations and for music education and outreach projects.

Conclusions and next stepsThis project’s contribution to the Cultural Value debate is to demonstrate how the value of arts engagement – experienced and widely reported by regular participants and attenders – is part of a continuum, and not necessarily intrinsic to the arts events themselves. Those on the edges of participation, including lapsed members of amateur ensembles and occasional audience members, might articulate these values without experiencing them for themselves, assuming that others around them are having a deeper, stronger arts experience as a result of greater knowledge or prior exposure. Further along the continuum, those accessing the arts infrequently or never are likely to find these values, and the experiences of audience members and participants around them, to be incomprehensible, even alienating.While regular attenders would therefore argue strongly that cultural value is an inherent property in the arts that they love – particularly in the established repertories of theatre, music and art – liminal participation values the arts in relation to the lives of its audiences and participants. In these studies, those most likely to engage in the arts

throughout their lives tend to have experienced the personal and cultural value of making or appreciating art in their formative years, building foundations of skill and an open-mindedness to arts engagement that allows them to return to these activities after lapses caused by external pressures or priorities.These findings offer no easy solutions for arts organisations and amateur groups seeking to recruit and retain audiences and participants, as they demonstrate the differences in values between regular, occasional and first-time attenders. Strategies to engage ‘hard to reach’ groups are familiar from the arts marketing literature and practice, and we are currently in discussion with arts organisations in Sheffield to consider implementing one or more of the following approaches, which address some of the findings of our studies:

Audience exchange: Continuation of the audience exchange scheme, over a wider range of arts events and a longer period of time, to judge the impact of a first arts experience on subsequent involvement and interest

A “Bring a friend” scheme: Asking members of Friends’ schemes or mailing lists of organisations to ‘bring a friend’ new to the art form, and to discuss their experiences together afterwards, building up a collection of stories about first-time and established audience members

“Artsadvisor” website: Addressing the challenge of needing a guaranteed good night out, a website could be set up to source ratings and reviews from audience members, which would be useful in building audience community and increasing awareness of current events

Our next project, in collaboration with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, will explore the challenges of infrequent and first-time attendance with audiences for the contemporary arts, where routes in from independent and experimental arts as well as more traditional consumption might give a different perspective on how cultural value is experienced and articulated in people’s lives. In conclusion, this project has demonstrated the need to question more closely the expectations and first impressions of new attenders and lapsed participants in the arts, and to encourage audience and participants themselves to articulate their assumptions about arts engagement and how it relates to their personal, aesthetic and social needs. Arts participation will always hold varying levels of prominence in people’s lives, just as not everybody likes football, and the public discourse of ‘art for all’ should be focused on accessibility rather than compulsion. However, understanding a continuum of experience that runs, not from ‘high-brow’ to ‘low-brow’ but from ‘engaged’ to ‘disengaged’ could have potential for overcoming some of the barriers to participation, as well as illuminating further the value of arts to individuals and society.

Appendix: Research Methodology

Methods

The two strands of the project – considering lapsed participants and infrequent audience members – were designed to gather an overview of experiences and then follow these up with qualitative, life history interviews. An online survey was designed for Studies 1 (lapsed participants) and 2 (audience members) which sought to gather demographic information, level and type of current and past arts engagement, and attitudes towards the provision of arts in Sheffield and the place of arts engagement in the lives of respondents. Both questionnaires are available online at http://www.sparc.dept.shef.ac.uk/current-questionnaires/ along with a modified version of the audience questionnaire, which was distributed to students at the University of Sheffield to increase the data sample and seek their particular views on arts engagement during student years.Follow-up interviews were conducted with questionnaire respondents who had indicated a willingness to talk further about their experiences, and covered similar questions in more depth, with an emphasis on formative experiences of arts engagement, and factors that had led to a decline in participation or attendance. Interviews were carried out face-to-face and recorded and transcribed in full; they were analysed using a phenomenological approach, aiming to understand individual experiences in detail as well as to make comparisons between them.The online audience questionnaire was also used to recruit participants for an ‘audience exchange’ scheme, in which first-time jazz, opera and chamber music attenders were taken to an event in Sheffield, and then participated in a focus group discussion about their expectations and first impressions. The focus groups were led by the PI and RA, transcribed in full and analysed alongside the responses of more experienced arts attenders from the questionnaires.Ethical approval for the research was granted through the University of Sheffield ethics process, which required data to be stored securely and referred to anonymously or with the use of pseudonyms in publications arising from the study.

Recruitment challenges Our goals for recruiting participants to our three initial studies had been ambitious (400 questionnaire participants, and 50 interviewees in total), and we soon ran into some challenges familiar from other attempts to locate and consult those who are not currently involved in music-making (Lamont, 2011). While current participants gather regularly in one place to pursue their arts activities, lapsed participants are in some ways everywhere, but in other ways harder to find, since committing to a survey or interview asking questions about something you no longer do could be an unattractive or sensitive prospect for some potentially interesting respondents.Our recruitment strategies were wide-ranging, including the use of social media and mailing lists linked to amateur music organisations and arts audiences in Sheffield, and writing articles for the University of Sheffield and University of the Third Age (U3A) newsletters, and for the local community magazine, Now Then: see http://nowthenmagazine.com/sheffield/issue-72/sound/ A postcard flyer was also distributed at many of the arts venues in Sheffield, and before and after a number of events taking place in September-December 2013, though the number of responses received this way did not entirely justify the cost and time spent on them (a useful lesson

for future research). One of the most fruitful ways to recruit lapsed players turned out to be following up recommendations from some participants to others in their social networks, sometimes called ‘snowballing’.

ParticipantsThe numbers and characteristics of participants across the four studies were as follows:

Study 1 lapsed musicians

Twenty responses to our online questionnaire for lapsed players were received, including four volunteers who were subsequently interviewed; a further 14 interviewees were recruited through similar methods but without completing the questionnaire, giving a total of 18 interviewees, shown in Table 3. Table 3: Study 1 interview participants

Pseudonym Age group Instrument Current player

Past player

Brian 76-85 Oboe xMary 66-75 Clarinet xSteve 56-65 French horn xIan 56-65 Viola xDaniel 56-65 Violin xHannah 56-65 Cello xAshley 56-65 Keyboard xGary 56-65 Tenor horn, guitar xNigel 46-55 Trumpet xLars 46-55 Trumpet xTom 46-55 French horn xPhilip 46-55 Viola xMarcus 46-55 Clarinet, oboe xWill 36-45 Cello xRobert 36-45 Bassoon xJenny 26-35 Flute xLaura 26-35 Clarinet xRachel <25 Flute x

Study 2 audience members

A total of 138 audience questionnaire responses were collected, comprising 109 from the general questionnaire (coded AQ1-AQ109) and 29 more from the slightly modified student questionnaire (coded SQ1-SQ29). Of these responses 67% (n=93) were female; 33% (n=45) were male.

Different age group categories were used in the two questionnaires, intended to distinguish undergraduate students (usually aged 18-21) from postgraduates in the student questionnaire. The age distribution reflected the older age groups typical of

theatre and classical music audiences (Kolb, 2001; O’Sullivan, 2009) but also provided a strong sample of the elusive ‘young adult’ audience, some in employment and some in education (see Table 4):

Table 4: Age range of audience questionnaire respondents

Age group (n/138)

Categories

76+ (5) Mainly retired respondents (23% of sample)66-75 (26)60-69 (1)56-65 (32) Mid-late career respondents (39% of sample)50-59 (1)46-55 (19)40-49 (2)36-45 (7) Early-mid career respondents, including those in postgraduate

education (30% of sample)30-39 (6)26-35 (14)22-29 (14)18-25 (6) Young adults, including those in undergraduate education (8% of

sample)18-21 (5)

Respondents were asked to indicate their frequency of attendance at a range of arts events, and the categories they selected were awarded a points score that was then used to generate an average attendance rating as shown in Table 5:

Table 5: Calculating average attendance

Response Most weeks Most months

Two or three

times a year

Once a year or

less

Once or twice,

years ago

Never been

before

Points 5 4 3 2 1 0

Calculated in this way, a high average attendance score could be obtained by frequent attendance at a few art forms, or occasional attendance across a wider range. The attendance ratings ranged from 0.2 to 3.1, with an overall average of 1.88 across the sample. The distribution of responses is shown in Table 6:

Table 6: Distribution of attendance levels

Category Average attendance rating (n/138)

% of sample

Low attendance <1 (9) 6%Below average attendance 0.2-1.59 (26) 19%

Average attendance 1.6-2.0 (43) 31%Above average attendance 2.05-2.55 (49) 35%High attendance 2.6-3.2 (13) 9%

The survey sample, although small in relation to the overall arts attending population of Sheffield, is reasonably well balanced for age, level of attendance and interest in the arts, with arts preference represented across the sample as shown in Table 7:

Table 7: Distribution of arts preferences

Preferred art form (n/138)

Percentages and comments

Multiple answers (25)

18% of the sampleResponses including 2-3 choices or more were usually congruent art forms e.g. ‘Live music/theatre/musical theatre’ [SQ12], but a few demonstrated more eclectic tastes e.g. ‘Opera/Shakespeare plays/Heavy rock concerts’ [AQ26]

Cinema (25)

18% of the sampleMost of the AQ respondents who preferred cinema were regular attenders at the independent/art house cinema in Sheffield; student respondents were more likely to specify mainstream tastes and multiplex cinema attendance.

Theatre (23) 17% of the sample

Music: concerts (22)

16% of the sampleLive music, including chamber and classical music, with occasional folk and jazz attendance

Music: gigs (17)

12% of the sampleLive music, including pop, rock and local bands, with some folk and jazz attendance

Galleries (12) 9% of the sampleNo answer (5) 10% of the sample, though comedy, musicals, dance and

opera all featured additionally in the ‘multiple’ answersComedy (4)Musicals (2)Other (2)Dance (1)

Study 3 audience interviewees

A sample of audience questionnaire respondents was selected to offer a range of ages, arts preferences, and levels of activity representative of those in the survey population. Within the limits of the time available for the project, ten interviews were undertaken with the (pseudonymous) participants shown in Table 8:

Table 8: Audience interview participants

Pseudonym Code Age group

M/F Average attendance rating

Preferred art form

Mark AQ70 66-75 M 3.1 Multiple: all artsMarion AQ45 66-75 F 1.05 Music: concertsSheila AQ48 66-75 F 1.8 Music: concertsSue AQ89 56-65 F 1.7 TheatreJosie AQ61 46-55 F 2.1 Theatre

Paul AQ98 46-55 M 1.4 Music: gigsJim SQ16 40-49 M 2.2 ComedyColin AQ36 36-45 M 1.9 CinemaLucia AQ94 26-35 F 2.6 GalleriesCaroline AQ103 18-25 F 2 Music: gigs

Study 4: The audience exchange

Our audience exchange participants were also recruited from the Study 2 questionnaire, having expressed an interest there in trying a new arts event and giving us their responses to that experience. Each participant was invited to bring a friend to the event, and although we asked these ‘plus one’ participants to complete the survey as well, this request was generally not fulfilled and so information on some of the audience exchange participants is more limited (see Table 9).

Table 9: Audience exchange participants

Exchange 1: Jay Phelps Sextet jazz gigPseudonym

Code Age group

M/F Average attendance rating

Preferred art form

Joyce AQ58 56-65 F 2.9 Theatre/balletMalcolm n/a 56-65 M n/a n/aAntony AQ76 36-45 M 2.55 GalleriesAlice AQ77 36-45 F 1.9 CinemaExchange 2: Nabucco operaRoger AQ9 56-65 M 1.9 Music: concertsRose n/a 26-35 F n/a GalleriesPhil AQ8 56-65 M 2.3 CinemaAlison n/a 18-25 F n/a Theatre/musicalsAlice AQ77 36-45 F 1.9 CinemaJane n/a 26-35 F n/a n/aDan n/a 18-25 M n/a MusicalsExchange 3: Music in the Round chamber music concertAkasuki SQ7 30-39 F 1.1 TheatreAsako n/a 22-29 F n/a n/aDuminda SQ3 22-29 F 2.45 Theatre/cinemaAmelia SQ4 18-21 F 0.65 Other: heritage

propertiesDan n/a 18-25 M n/a Musicals

References and external linksBailey, B. & Davidson, J. W. (2002), Adaptive characteristics of group singing: perceptions

from members of a choir for homeless men, Musicae Scientiae, 6 (2): 221–256.Burland, K. & Pitts, S. E. (2012) Rules and expectations of jazz gigs. Social Semiotics. 22

(5): 523-543. Burland, K. & Pitts, S. E. (2014) Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience

Experience. Farnham: Ashgate (forthcoming December 2014).Carucci, C. (2012), An investigation of social support in adult recreational music

ensembles. International Journal of Community Music, 5 (3): 237-252.Dobson, M. C. & Pitts, S. E. (2011) Classical cult or learning community? Exploring new

audience members’ social and musical responses to first-time concert attendance. Ethnomusicology Forum, 20 (3): 353-383.

Dobson, M. C. & Sloboda, J. A. (2014) Staying behind: Explorations in post-performance musician–audience dialogue. Forthcoming in K. Burland & S. E. Pitts (Eds) Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience Experience. Farnham: Ashgate.

Finnegan, R. (2007) The Hidden Musicians: Music-making in an English Town (2nd edition). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Friedman, S. (2012). Cultural omnivores or culturally homeless? Exploring the shifting cultural identities of the upwardly mobile. Poetics, 40(5): 467-489.

Kolb, B. M. (2001) The decline of the subscriber base: a study of the Philharmonia Orchestra audience. Market Research, 3 (2): 51-59.

Lamont A. (2011) The beat goes on: music education, identity and lifelong learning. Music Education Research, 13 (4): 369-388.

Matarasso, F. (1997) Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts. Stroud: Comedia.

O’Sullivan, T. J. (2009) All together now: a classical music audience as a consuming community. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 12 (3): 209-223.

Peterson, R. A. & Kern, R. (1996) Changing highbrow taste: from snob to omnivore. American Sociological Review, 61: 900-909.

Pitts, S. E. (2005) Valuing Musical Participation. Aldershot: Ashgate.Pitts, S. E. (2012) Chances and Choices: Exploring the Impact of Music Education. New

York: Oxford University Press.Pitts, S. E. & Spencer, C. P. (2008) Loyalty and longevity in audience listening:

investigating experiences of attendance at a chamber music festival. Music and Letters, 89 (2): 227-238. 

Radbourne, J., Glow, H. & Johanson, K. (Eds.) (2013) The Audience Experience: A Critical Analysis of Audiences in the Performing Arts. Bristol: Intellect.

Savage, M. & Gayo, M. (2011) Unravelling the omnivore: A field analysis of contemporary musical taste in the United Kingdom. Poetics 39 (5): 337-357.

1

The Cultural Value Project seeks to make a major contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture to individuals and to society. The project will establish a framework that will advance the way in which we talk about the value of cultural engagement and the methods by which we evaluate it. The framework will, on the one hand, be an examination of the cultural experience itself, its impact on individuals and its benefit to society; and on the other, articulate a set of evaluative approaches and methodologies appropriate to the different ways in which cultural value is manifested. This means that qualitative methodologies and case studies will sit alongside qualitative approaches.