Performing arts and culture

Harold L. Vogel

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139871679.017

13 - Performing arts and culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2015

Harold L. Vogel

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Summary

Break a leg!

It has been said of all the arts generally that they are a product of disciplined virtuosity in which you are the resource that perceives the value. As such, then, the performing arts in particular generate income that is more psychic than pecuniary and they operate under somewhat different economic assumptions than the other entertainment industries thus far discussed. In fact, many organizations in this segment are nonprofit, requiring for their very existence substantial subsidy from government and private-foundation grants and from contributions by individuals.

Although the fundamental creative processes in the performing arts have remained essentially unchanged for centuries, technological developments have been important in mitigating the pernicious effects of inexorably rising costs. Fortunately, it still doesn’t cost anything to wish performers well by telling them to “break a leg.”

Audiences and offerings

The potential widespread appeal of live performances notwithstanding, there are severe time and financial constraints that limit audience size and scope. This was already apparent even as far back as the eighteenth century, when a theater ticket cost more than a full day’s wages. As Baumol and Bowen (1968) indicated in their seminal study, the audience for high culture is dominated by highly educated individuals in high income brackets, an observation supported by the more recent data presented in Figure 13.1.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Entertainment Industry Economics
A Guide for Financial Analysis
, pp. 514 - 547

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139871679.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

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