Community arts activity generates high levels of involvement in every geographic and demographic segment of the nation through high quality experiences in local institutions, community centers, and informal settings. Recent research suggests that arts participation is not only popular but is also a highly effective tool in building and sustaining healthy, livable communities.

 "For many millions, involvement in the arts is of intrinsic value, often on a par with religion insofar as their capacity to inspire. In other instances, the arts are seen as a practical tool for communicating cultural traditions, maintaining family cohesion, promoting physical health or making social or economic connections."

-- Pia Moriarty, Ph.D., Immigrant Participatory Arts, (c) 2004

Social Impact of the Arts Project
Mark Stern and Susan Seifert, University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work (ongoing)

Founded in 1994 "to gather systematic data on the role of the arts and cultural activity" on community life, this effort is designed to fill the gap "between conviction and evidence."

Key findings:
Participation in the arts on the local level positively impacts community life. Cultural participation builds bridges across neighborhood, ethnicity, and class divides. And, neighborhoods with a robust cultural life are more likely to attract sustainable, livable development.

• Higher levels of cultural participation change the social environment by fostering a sense of collective efficacy - the willingness of people in a community to act together in public matters of collective and individual interest.

• Disadvantaged neighborhoods with higher cultural participation were four times more likely than average to have low delinquency rates.

• People participate in cultural activities outside their own neighborhoods.

• This reduces social isolation and builds connections across historical divides of ethnicity and social class.

• Places with many cultural providers are more likely to experience slower, more gradual redevelopment and emerge as diverse areas with people of different economic and ethnic backgrounds living together as neighbors.

• Neighborhoods with an active arts scene (measured by the number of cultural providers within half a mile) were nearly three times more likely to see their poverty rates decline and their population increase.

Leveraging Assets: How Small Budget Arts Activities Benefit Neighborhoods
by Michael Warr and Diane Gramms, (c) 2003

This study maps a wide range of performing, visual, and literary arts activities with budgets under $100,000 in ten Chicago neighborhoods. The report links localized arts activities to social research of the community networks that support them.

Key findings:
Arts participation play a unique role in building social networks and relationships and helps local communities mobilize resources to improve the quality of life.

Arts activities leverage assets and provide access to resources-for example, they supplement local educational resources, provide mentors to local youth, and provide training and access to equipment and facilities.

• Arts activities create new productive uses for neighborhood facilities and underutilized or abandoned spaces.

• Arts participation enables problem solving and fosters collaboration, providing a space for cross-cultural dialogue and opportunities to learn new skills.

• Arts activities engaged people directly in civic involvement.

The Informal Arts: Finding Cohesion, Capacity, and Other Cultural Benefits in Unexpected Places
by Alaka Wali, Rebecca Severson, and Mario Longon, Chicago Center for the Arts Policy at Columbia College, (c) 2002

Ethnographers spent two years researching adult participation in such diverse activities as singing in a church choir, writing poetry at the local library, or acting in community theater.

Key findings:
Informal arts activities hold a significant place in the infrastructure of communities and fosters skills among participants that are critical to a healthy civic life.

• Participation in informal arts activities help people bridge social boundaries of age, gender, race, ethnicity, and occupational status. Common interests and passions help unite otherwise diverse individuals, leading to cross-cultural trust and solidarity.

• Regular participation in the creation and practice of art develops collaborative work habits, innovation, creativity, and consensus-building.

Immigrant Participatory Arts
by Pia Moriarty, Ph.D., Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, (c) 2004

The result of a six-month qualitative study, the report highlights ways in which Silicon Valley (California) immigrants are building community through arts participation.

Key findings:
Participatory community arts are one of the strongest channels that immigrants have for self-assertion as authoritative adults, teachers of their children, and allies to their new friends and neighbors.

• Participatory arts opportunities are community-building activities that are particularly enjoyable, authentic, welcoming, and durable.

• Communication through the arts gives immigrants a direct way to reclaim and assert their status as respected, accomplished adults.

• Contemporary services that would be considered threatening (such as Western-style counseling or afterschool programs) become workable when offered in tandem with traditional arts opportunities.