Wes Akers

I reviewed “When the Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance,” a report from the National Endowment for the Arts, because my research partners Susannah Simmons and LaDawna Wert both read and reviewed the article.  We believed this resource gave us insight into barriers to engaging with art across all our case studies.  I am most interested in Chapter IV: Engaging with the Arts Across Life Stages because there are sections focused on to parents with young and adolescent children.

Although the study focuses on adult arts attendance, some interesting findings are presented around parents with young and adolescent children.

Parents with children under 6 years old

• attended arts events at a 13% lower rate than their childless counterparts (p. 33).
• identified (60%) the inability to find time as a barrier to attending arts events (p. 33).

As children grow up, the study finds parents arts attendances begins to shift.

Parents with children aged 6 to 12 years old

• are equally likely to attend arts events as their peers without children (p. 34)
• are more likely to attend an arts event without their child (70%) compared to parents with younger children (55%) (p. 34).

When examining the graph (p. 33), the statistics that stand out the most to me are the ones about unmarried parents with children.  This group of parents is least likely to expose their children to arts events.  Furthermore, the study finds 63% parents without a bachelor’s degree are less likely to attend arts events, specifically due to cost (p. 34).

When I consider the implications of this study for my research, these statistics stand out to me because many of my students come from single parent homes without bachelor’s degrees.  I am led to infer that my students may have limited exposure to community art events.  This makes me consider the responsibility schools have to fill this gap by providing students with a diverse selection of arts courses.  If students are not engaging with the arts at home, teachers must consider ways to integrate arts into their classrooms so the affordances of engaging with the arts can be leverage for all children.