Dropping in and dropping out: understanding cultural value from the
perspectives of lapsed or partial arts participants
Professor Stephanie Pitts, Department of Music
Research assistant: Katy Robinson
Context
As director of the ‘Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre’ (SPARC), I have been researching
aspects of musical participation and audience experience for a number of years, working closely with Music
in the Round, for example, on studies of existing and potential concert attenders. This ‘Cultural Value’
project, running from October 2013 – May 2014, has extended that research in new directions:
 Working with ‘lapsed’ musical participants (e.g. former members of Sheffield’s amateur orchestras) to
investigate the lasting benefits of music education and the barriers to continued engagement
 Surveying audiences across Sheffield, to explore the different loyalties of regular and occasional attenders,
and the attitudes to different art forms and venues
 Setting up an ‘audience exchange’, where survey respondents who go regularly to one art form are taken to
the first time to a different one, and interviewed afterwards about their expectations and first impressions
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Headline findings
Study 1: ‘The violin in the attic’ – investigating lapsed musical participation
Players who have ceased musical participation or had a long lapse in the past have faced similar challenges
of life transitions, pressures of work and family commitments, or illness and ageing – the differences
emerge in how they cope with those circumstances, and the extent to which musical participation adds to
or relieves other pressures
Levels of musical confidence are affected feelings of acceptance and belonging within an ensemble – so ‘fit’
to the ensemble was an important factor in continued participation
Experience of musical participation in school was crucial to building skill levels and shaping lifelong
attitudes, with adults more likely to return to playing if they had formed a strong musical identity in
adolescence
Viewing music as an obligation or habit, rather than a passion, was often a precursor to dropping out, and
was linked to practical reasons in interviewees’ accounts of their decisions to withdraw from ensembles
Making sense of a musical life history, as in our interviews, could be a useful tool in understanding
participants’ musical goals and personal needs, and so increasing retention and satisfaction in ensembles
Studies 2 & 3: ‘Audience loyalty and its limitations – exploring cultural value across art forms’
Audiences appreciated the quality of arts events in Sheffield, but were sometimes distracted by the small
annoyances of booking systems and/or staff, or the lack of variety in programming
Rising/high ticket prices made some audience members more selective about their arts attendance – they
sought a guarantee that they were going to enjoy an event (though did not suggest how that could be
achieved!)
The overall venue experience was important – catering, comfortable seating and a sense of feeling
welcome in a venue all helped to make an arts event a social occasion
Audiences for different arts had different priorities – classical music listeners were more driven by
programming and repertoire preferences, though like theatre-goers they valued the live experience and
commitment of performers; art-house cinema-goers were satisfied by affordable prices and accessible film
timings, so more willing to experiment; museum and gallery visitors liked being able to drop in and escape
from the world, though some wanted more information and others wanted less…
 New audiences (our ‘audience exchange’ focus groups) had quite different experiences from regular
attenders and often expected an event to be more ‘posh’ or inaccessible than it is – they wanted more
background knowledge in order to be enjoy an opera, jazz gig or classical concert, and sometimes found it
hard to know how to concentrate or appreciate the event
Next steps
Having completed this research, we are meeting with the Culture Consortium group of Sheffield arts venues
to discuss a more practically-focused project with a view to bidding to the AHRC Follow on Funding scheme.
Collaborative strategies might include one or more of the following:
 Audience exchange: Continuation of the audience exchange scheme, over a wider range of arts events and
a longer period of time, to judge the impact of a first arts experience on subsequent involvement and
interest.
 A “Bring a friend” scheme: Asking members of Friends’ schemes or mailing lists of organisations to ‘bring a
friend’ new to the art form, and to discuss their experiences together afterwards, building up a collection of
stories about first-time and established audience members.
 “Artsadvisor” website: Addressing the challenge of needing a guaranteed good night out, a website could
be set up to source ratings and reviews from audience members, which would be useful in building
audience community and increasing awareness of current events.