A mini focus group
Y'all are a fairly diverse group, so maybe you'll indulge me if I ask a few of my own questions of day? These are matters in which I have both a personal and a professional interest, and I'm really interested to hear from you.
For starters, how much are the arts part of your life? Do you attend the theatre? Go to museums? Concerts such as symphonic music, jazz ensembles, choral groups? Dance? Ballet?
Are you a member or season ticket holder to any of these sorts of institutions? Or do you pick and choose?
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I attend the theatre pretty regularly. I'm a season ticket holder with the Raleigh Ensemble Players (3 or 4 shows a season) and I go see various other locally produced shows fairly regularly, probably 5 to 10 times a year. I'll go see a touring show every now and then if it really appeals to me.
I must confess that I don't go see concerts of any kind very often, and never go to dance shows. My wife loves dance, though, so I should probably try to keep track of more such events. She'd love to go see them.
I used to go to the theatre very infrequently, but I moved a couple of years ago and now I live downstairs from a guy who's on the board of two different theatre companies, and he does a good job of evangelizing their shows.
I don't go to "The Theatre" much, but I have had partial season tickets to the LA Opera for the past several years - this year we actually have the full season, which is pretty exciting. We see some symphonic concerts - mostly at the Hollywood Bowl, and the occasional chamber group. Beyond that, I see dance, but primarily related to Stacey (ie Bellydance shows). I do much less museum than I would like, simply because of scheduling, but that's always a big part of my January trip to New York. I also manage to go to several art openings for friends during the course of the year.
We're members at the art museum, but don't go as often as we'd like. We do the "First Thursday" thing about half the time, getting a look at new artists.
We see a couple concerts a year, but other than that, don't do a lot of performing arts.
Our membership at the Asian in San Francisco just expired, and we're about to join the De Young with some sort of family package that will allow me to take shit right off the walls and drag it home. (At least that's my impression.) And I try to buy a lot of original art from up and coming young artists (because it's an affordable habit and a good investment)
But when it comes to "high" culture, I'm almost entirely visual. I rarely make it to plays or musicals. I think I last went to the symphony 9 years ago. I've never been to the opera. Which is odd, because I have a wealth of classical and opera on THE COMPUTOR, which means it plays on the stereo all the time. But I'm not a supporter like I should be.
I also like to doodle on my notebooks.
I attend the theatre about once a year. I should probably go more often. I have a number of friends who are involved in various theatre projects in New York, and I try to support them whenever I can.
I attend way too many concerts a year. Mostly rock, but a good friend's boyfriend is heavily involved at the Manhattan School of Music and Bang on a Can, so I end up at at least two or three of their functions every year.
I go to museums several times a year and I'm a member of two museums, the American Museum of Natural History and the MoMA. I became a member of the AMNH because I lived so close by, and I became a member of the MOMA because I find their admission fee to be absurd ($20). I used to be a member of the Whitney Museum of American Art thanks to work, but no longer.
I'm not yet at a point disposable-income-wise where I feel like I can swing being a regular supporter of the arts on the professional level. Tickets are just too pricey for it to be much more than a very occasional treat, and I'm also kinda intimidated by the formality, the perceived need to dress up, and just feeling like an uncultured rube when it comes to attending things like operas, ballet, symphonies, etc. You can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy, etc, etc.
So, most of my theatre-going is on the community-theatre level, seeing either free/cheap student or amateur productions or things that friends are in. Same goes for classical/choral. And anytime a more professional group is doing something cheap or free(Shakespeare on the Common, the Pops playing the Esplanade, etc) I do my best to make that as well. I also probably make it to a museum 5-10 times a year, depending on how much travelling I'm doing. And then there are little local things like open studios, mini film and art festivals, and so on that I'll go to randomly as the whim hits me. I figure as I get older and learn/earn more, I'll start gradually attending more professional/formal stuff.
how much are the arts part of your life?
I like to think they are a big part and I support them.
Do you attend the theatre?
Only about once or twice a year and that's only because we are friends with the two people running the theater dept. They clue us into the good shows worth going to.
Go to museums?
Yeah, probably every other month since fiona was born. Before, probably once every six months.
Concerts such as symphonic music, jazz ensembles, choral groups? Dance? Ballet?
Symphonies put me to sleep. Ditto Choral and Ballet. I love jazz and if there were good acts here in the PNW, I might see a jazz show once a month like I did in LA years ago.
I've only gone to one modern dance thing (mark morris group) and that was only because I watched So You Think You Can Dance last summer and loved the modern/lyrical stuff. I hope to see at least one modern dance show a year from here out.
Oh, and after we attended the modern dance thing at the local university, we considered signing up for the next year's season because we learned the way tickets are doled out is a scam that lets season pass holders get the first dibs.
I bought my tickets 8 months before the show, and I was in the second to last row in the back.
how much are the arts part of your life?
I'm more into the local arts here -- school plays, local bands -- and then I am a heavy art consumer when I'm in cities.
Do you attend the theatre?
I went last month for the first time in several years and it was a mistake. The whole yelling = intesity thing really rubs me the wrong way. I need to find a better theater but there's only one real one within 30-40 miles or so.
Go to museums?
All the time, as much as I can. We have a lot of small museums around here and I've just gotten to the point cash-wise where I feel that spending $8 on a teeny museum is actually a good use of money instead of more of a bad budgeting move. When I go to other cities I always check out the downtown library and whatever the local art museums are.
Concerts such as symphonic music, jazz ensembles, choral groups? Dance? Ballet
Only if I know someone in them. Aquariums? Definitely.
I'm not much of an arts goer these days. The last theatre I went to was a San Jose Rep performance back before Christmas.
Cyn and my schedule make it hard to get up to museums up in the City, so we haven't been to the new DeYoung.
the arts used to be a huge part of my life, growing up and into early adulthood, but is less so these days. Playing instruments and being part of high school band and plays. My parents took us to popular theatre (Andrew Lloyd Weber plays largely) at least annually, and still do occasionally.
Lately though, not really. I'm mostly just a homebody. I still enjoy the occasion nights out, but they're uncommon.
visual art: lots & lots. minimum 2x/month to a museum or gallery. member of sfmoma & sometimes other museums (cartoon art museum, jewish museum, etc)
chamber/symphonic music: probably 1x/month or 1x/2 months (occasional subscriber to sf performances and/or cal performances)
opera: 1x/year though it would be way more if i could afford more
contemporary dance (rarely ballet): 4x/year (would be more if there was more i wanted to see - i saw more when i lived in nyc)
plays: um. i'll confess. pretty much never. i've seen one in the past year.
how much are the arts part of your life?
Depending mainly on the amount of time that I have, I try to take in one concert/exhibition/performance once a month.
Do you attend the theatre?
Yes, ranging from regional theatre (mainly plays) to neighborhood works. I probably do this about three or four times a year, though regional performances less so because of the expense.
Go to museums?
Yes, and though the CMA is closed for expansion presently, I go there twice a year. Botanical gardens (if they count) about once a month during the summer, and once in the winter.
Concerts such as symphonic music, jazz ensembles, choral groups? Dance? Ballet?
These I attend most often. Hit the Cleveland Orchestra at least once a year. Small baroque ensembles three times a year. Jazz, not very much, and modern dance once a year- more often if a group like Alvin Ailey's is in town.
Are you a member or season ticket holder to any of these sorts of institutions? Or do you pick and choose?
Pick and choose, though if I had my druthers, I'd choose the orchestra. If art film counts, I have a membership to the local non-profit film society, and I see at least one non-mainstream flick a month (where non-mainstream includes stuff that is in very, very limited release or is more than 20 years old).
Well, you know my situation being in the Bush and off the road system, which does tend to limit cultural opportunities.
Nonetheless, I am a member of our local arts council, which brings about 4-5 performances (chamber music, rock, Shakespeare, lots of acoustic performers, dance, large choral ensemble, mime; workshops in stuff like watercolor or bookmaking) plus hosts a 2-day performance-and-workshop annual folk music festival. Thanks to state arts council grants that, in part, focus on providing arts to awkward Bush locations, we can keep admission down to the $15-ish range which is nice in a poverty-majority community. We also have a local house concert series put on by a B&B, and I trade webservices to them for free attendance. That means that I attend something about every 2 months in the winter and every few weeks in the summer, plus devoting a fair amount of time in the production aspects.
That works out well for my personal economic situation, since going to Anchorage means, even after flying across the bay and driving 200 miles and paying for hotel rooms, a $50-100 ticket and that just is beyond my means. In fact, just getting across to Homer, where there's a lot of stuff going on, is still $150-200 for even a cheap (under $50) event when you factor in transportation, which again puts it out of my budget. The local Chamber of Commerce/fundie church is trying to kill the arts council and take over local programming in favor of things they prefer, like chainsaw carving contests and revival meetings, so that might shift my interest in going to fewer and more expensive events elsewhere (which would put me in the "pick and choose" category).
There aren't many museums beyond local small efforts in this state and once you've made the rounds, that's it: there isn't much change outside the occasional interesting new exhibits at the big museum in Anchorage. But when I'm traveling Outside, I spend a fair amount on museums/gardens of all sorts. I don't typically hit big concerts, but will keep an eye out for small or free events just because that's, again, where our budget fits.
The arts are in my life intermittently.
I go to a play or one-(wo)man show probably once or twice a year (Brian Copeland's one-man show "Not a Genuine Black Man" at San Francisco's The Marsh in February '06; Everyday Theatre's revival of "The Bright River" at Oakland's Metro Opera Theater in March '05; Oakland Opera Theater's production of Phillip Glass' "Akhenaten" at the Oakland Metro in September '04 and Dael Orlandersmith's Berkeley Rep production of "Yellowman" in January '04).
I hit the Oakland Museum of California in March for that Edward Weston exhibit with a Flickr meet-up group. Before that, I think trips to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (for that King Tut exhibit) and a Basquiat exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in July '05. I still haven't made it to MoAD or the DeYoung yet.
Nosebleed seats to see "Doctor Atomic" was as close as I got to symphonic music and/or opera. I've gotten to Yoshi's every few months or so to catch jazz acts. I haven't done any choral or dance groups or ballets.
I pick and choose when it comes to institutions. I'm no member or season-ticket holder.