Culture

Each year, tens of millions of people attend concerts, plays, operas, and museum exhibitions, yet the percentage of the U.S. population attending these arts events is shrinking, and the decline is significant.

In fact, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts, the percentage of adults attending at least one arts activity declined from 39 percent in 2002 to less than 35 percent in 2008, this all before the market declined. The unexpected drop in the economy squeezed the resources of institutional and individual donors. Suddenly, arts and cultural groups were competing with social service organizations for scarce charitable dollars as donors responded to the immediate needs of shelter, hunger, and environmental or disaster relief.

Another contributor to the decrease in audience participation may be how technology is changing the arts experience. Increasingly, museums are digitizing collections and making their holdings accessible to the world. Dance companies and choreographers are uploading performance videos on YouTube to generate remote audiences and demand for their work. Social media and mobile technology is quickly becoming the primary vehicle to promote works to younger audiences.

While mainstream arts organizations report declines in audience, community-based and culturally specific arts organizations are showing signs of growth. The 2009 National Arts Index found that the number of these organizations has grown faster than the rate of growth for all traditional arts organizations—and even faster than the rate of the minority population in the United States. But in this case, more does not mean better as the Index also reported that up to one-third of these groups operate with a deficit, reinforcing the need to equip these groups with capacity-building resources to strengthen their leadership and financial position.

In 2004, Joyce created an awards and recognition program to support artists of color and expand the repertoire of art that speaks to diverse, urban audiences within the Great Lakes region.

Through the Joyce Awards, the Foundation distributes up to $300,000 to cultural organizations in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis/St. Paul to commission new works by minority artists. Award winners not only present their works to the institutions’ traditional audiences; but they also work with community groups, school children, and public art projects, fostering deeper connections between arts organizations and the surrounding communities.

For example, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO)—seeking to strengthen their relationship with the city’s growing Latino community—received a 2007 Joyce Award in Music to commission a new piece by Latina composer Gabriela Lena Frank.

Frank spent more than two years immersing herself in Indianapolis’ Latino communities, talking to residents about their personal stories of immigration and the sacrifices they made to create better lives for themselves and their families.

The Latino/a Youth Collective, a program that helps youth with personal and community development, was one of the organizations with which Frank developed a close working relationship. She was particularly moved by their use of testimonios, a way for the young adults to publicly share stories about the daily struggles of immigrant life. She incorporated this practice into her own work, calling the five movements of her composition, testimonios.

In 2009, ISO premiered Frank’s work, Peregrinos, Pilgrims: A Musical Journey, a sweeping orchestral piece with a touch of Latin flavor that takes listeners through the real-life stories of the Latin Americans who inspired her.

Since its premiere, Frank’s work and the ISO have received attention from both near and far. Indianapolis’ public television station broadcast a documentary about Frank’s creative process and time spent in the city, and the ISO received an award for its service to the Hispanic Community by La Plaza, a Latino organization in Central Indiana. In addition, orchestras from around the world are clamoring to perform Peregrinos—in fact, 22 requests were received within five months of its first performance.

“By working closely with Latino organizations and residents, Frank helped introduce ISO and orchestral music to a new and important audience,” said Beth Perdue Outland, vice president of ISO Learning Community. “Now that the composition is receiving worldwide attention, we are pleased to help introduce Indianapolis’ Latino community to the world.”

This year, Indianapolis will be home to another Joyce Award premiere. The Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) will debut a new play by Charles Smith, The Gospel According to James, which explores the brutal lynching story of two Indiana African American boys and the escape of another. Accompanying the play, IRT will launch a series of public awareness events that delve into our nation’s dark history of violence and race.

“Only on the stage can we have these kinds of conversations,” stated Janet Allen, IRT’s artistic director. “Only on stage can we transmit the historical tone of that moment; it’s like nothing else. And, we have a responsibility to create art like that.” And it’s the cultural relevancy of the art that will bring new audiences to IRT and remind all Indianapolis citizens of their shared history.