How the arts fare in Pittsburgh.

What value are the arts to individuals and communities?

Pittsburghers admit that the arts are enjoyable and strongly agree that they are crucial in educating children, important in preserving cultural heritage, and, according to some, are a source of pride in the community. Reportedly, patrons are demographically diverse, and attendance at performing arts events exceeds live professional sports--according to a random 800-household phone survey of attitudes and values spearheaded by the Performing Arts Research Coalition (PARC), a Washington, D.C.-based collective of arts service organizations.

"The Pittsburgh community acknowledges the contribution performing arts make to the city," says Mitch Swain, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's director of shared services. "It seems like a huge victory to be better attended than sports." Swain, who maintains a ticketing-purchase data base in Pittsburgh's theater district, says the PARC study "validates much of what we believed, but didn't have the credible evidence to support. It makes a case based on solid research that provides comparable data among cities, bringing the [participating] organizations together as a sector."

The initial study, in partnership with fifty-three arts groups (eleven in Pittsburgh), was designed to collect data that would be relevant to managers and policymakers and to facilitate their informed decisions. Pittsburgh and four other locations were selected for year-one analysis based on specific criteria, but Swain says, "Each city should be looked at by itself, as each is different in market size, population, and character."

Percentages recently published in PARC's The Value of the Performing Arts in Five Communities: A Comparison of 2002 Household Survey Data in Alaska, Cincinnati, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Seattle rank theater ahead of dance, symphony, opera, and other performing arts. In Pittsburgh that translates as 23 percent of respondents who attended at least one arts event last year chose dance. Fifty-five percent of respondents participating in "other leisure activities" in the twelve-month period of the survey attended professional sports events.

"With Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre [logging 100,000 patrons per season] and the Pittsburgh Dance Council, plus other dance activity in the city, it's a fair assessment," comments Steven Libman, PBT's managing director and treasurer of Dance/USA, which is a PARC collaborator along with Association of Performing Arts Presenters, American Symphony Orchestra League, Theatre Communications Group, and OPERA America, which serves as project coordinator.

In addition to the phone survey, the $2.7 million study, funded by a three-year grant from Philadelphia's The Pew Charitable Trusts and designed by research partner The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., included administrative, audience, and subscriber components.

"Response [to the audience surveys] was good," says Tara Glass Safar, PBT's marketing director, who admitted that "this was not an easy project for us to implement." But "it really reinforced the results (of independent surveys) that PBT has done for years."

However, Sally Sherman, Dance Alloy's managing director, remarks, "The surveys were a bit of a bust for us. We sent them to our audience members and received little to almost no response."

Of concern to local arts organizations are attendance barriers, identified in PARC's report as time constraints, other preferences for leisure activities, and ticket costs. These issues could be addressed by focus groups, suggests Swain. "A second phase of comparative research slated for September should yield a clearer idea of how to move forward."

Results from PARC's second household survey (Austin, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Sarasota, and Washington, D.C.) are due this fall, while a national performing arts convention convenes June 10-13, 2004, in Pittsburgh to disseminate the findings.