New NEA Research Report on Arts Participation and Civic and Community Engagement

From National Endowment for the Arts – 

A new report from the National Endowment for the Arts furthers our understanding of the links between arts participation and broader community engagement, such as attending community meetings or events, volunteering, or doing charity. The Great Connector: How Arts Participation Renews Civic and Community Engagement explores whether and how taking part in arts events and activities can build social and civic muscle.

Among the highlights:

• Arts participants experience a nearly 4x increase in likelihood of civic and community engagement, relative to non-arts participants.
• Adults who participate in many types of arts activities show the highest levels of civic and community engagement, compared with adults who do only some arts activities, or who do none at all.

The full report is available on the NEA’s website as part of our National Arts Statistics and Evidence-based Reporting Center.