Determinants of African-American Participation in the Performing Arts : Theory and Empirical Evidence

The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the determinants of African-American (A-A) participation as audience members in the performing arts, e.g., orchestras. Specifically, the focus is on understanding the reasons for lower participation rates of A-A’s relative to Whites. In addition, the paper studies how audience participation rates for A-A’s can be enhanced through effective marketing strategies. The study uses a survey methodology to collect data from 564 respondents to a mail survey in a racially mixed community in the United States. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their participation rates and attitudes to a local (top-10) orchestra that regularly performs at the community venues. Four hypotheses about differential attendance rates for A-A’s and Whites and their determinants were formulated and empirically tested. Empirical results confirm the expectation that A-A participation rates in the orchestra significantly lags those of Whites. This effect is rather persistent and remains robust even after controlling for income and education. Furthermore, in addition to economic variables, e.g., high cost of attendance, psychological variables, e.g., creating appealing surroundings affect A-A participation rates. Building upon existing research, the paper highlights that in addition to economic factors, non-economic or psychological issues also deserve consideration in understanding differential attendance rates for the performing arts. For example, results of the study show that lower attendance rates for A-A’s persists even after controlling for income. In other words, both high-income and low-income A-A’s attend orchestras at lower rates. These psychological factors (e.g., feeling invited and welcome) can therefore be incorporated in addition to economic factors to better understand the determinants of attendance differentials between A-A’s and Whites. Hence, studying psychological factors in conjunction with economic variables provides a more complete understanding of A-A participation in the performing arts