Arts participation: Comparing the elderly and non-elderly

Abstract

From this brief examination of the leisure activities of older Americans, several previous findings have been validated with national, representative data and a few surprises have been discovered in arts participation. As expected, those younger than 65 years of age were more active than seniors in nearly all of the leisure activities tested. In addition, the elderly were more likely to participate in in-home rather than out-of-home activities. The most intriguing finding concern the elderly's arts participation. While leisure activities decline as one grows older, participation in passive arts activities in the home and out of the home decline far less than for leisure activities and more participatory arts activities. Unlike other activities discussed, few significant difference existed between the younger and older groups in the away from home art activities. Those 65 and older were more willing to attend fine arts performances, such as opera, musical plays, stage plays, and ballet. It is also notable that the differences in frequency of the away from home arts activities are in not great between the older and younger groups. Finally, this study does dispel somewhat the idea that the elderly prefer “solitary” activities. The elderly are a diverse and widely varying group of citizens who in some cases maintain their patronage of the arts while other leisure activities decline.