Motivational and Demographic Factors for Performing Arts Attendance Across Place and Form

Abstract

Previous research seeking to explain why people attend live performing arts events has focused primarily on demographic explanations, such as the age or income of patrons. Recent research reinvigorates an old debate regarding the veracity of psychological motivations for attendance, such as an appreciation for beauty or the opportunity to socialize with others. We add to this line of inquiry by investigating how demographic and motivation explanations fare across three cities, and for three different art forms. We find that demographic variables fare better overall than psychological motivations across place and form. Despite evidence of strong consistency of the magnitude of variable coefficients across place and form, we conclude with warnings that inconsistencies of significant effects between place and form should cause us to question whether results in one or several sites can provide stable and useful generalizations for managers and arts marketers.