Visual and Performing Arts for Inclusion, Cultural Sustainability, and Social Innovation: National Evidence
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Abstract
Visual and performing arts are frequently presented as resources for educational inclusion, cultural continuity, and community innovation, yet population-level evidence connecting these functions remains limited. This study examines whether prior arts learning is associated with continued participation in visual and performing arts and whether current creative participation is associated with volunteering, community activity, and support for cultural organizations. We conducted a secondary cross-sectional analysis using the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts supplement to the Current Population Survey. We linked public-use person records to 160 replicate weights. The analytical samples included 6,527 adults in the creation and performance module, 6,334 in the arts-education module, and 3,160–3,214 in the paired-module models. Design-weighted prevalence estimates and replicate-weighted regression models adjusted for age, sex, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, family income, disability, metropolitan status, and region. Adults reporting school-based arts classes had a 74.1% current participation rate, compared with 30.3% among adults who had never taken arts classes. After adjustment, school-based arts learning was associated with 5.49 times the odds of current creative participation. Domain-specific training was strongly associated with current visual practice (odds ratio 4.80) and performing practice (4.03). Visual and performing participation were each independently associated with 11.4–18.1 percentage-point increases in community activity, volunteering, and cultural support. The findings identify a coherent pathway from inclusive learning opportunities to creative continuity and community-oriented participation. They do not establish causal effects or directly measure completed social innovations; instead, they show that arts participation is embedded in capacities and relationships from which cultural sustainability and socially innovative action may develop.
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