Expanding the Capacity to Increase Cultural Participation Research Proposal The proposed project described in this document aims at generating new perspectives for looking at the relationships between arts and communities in which it explores the cultural participation in the context of people’s daily lives. The results of the study can contribute to policy-making based on a solid research foundation. The centerpiece of this study is to capture the complex factors affecting individual’s participation. By gaining a better understanding of such factors, the study will suggest how arts organizations can develop more targeted and, therefore, more effective strategies for encouraging participation (Kevin McCarthy and Kimberly Jinnett 2001).

2010

Saad Aqeel Alzarooni SCAD

1/1/2010

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Contents Introduction 3

The context 3

Purpose of the study 3

Research questions 3

Literature review 4

Concept of Participation 4

Research Design Strategy 5

Research Methods 6

Sampling and Recruitment 7

Analysis Framework 7

Methodological Limitations 7

Phases of the Research Implementation 8

References 10

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Introduction The proposed project described in this document aims at generating new perspectives for looking at the relationships between arts and communities in which it explores the cultural participation in the context of people’s daily lives. The theme of the research supports “democratic cultural policy” by better understanding of how people connect with arts and culture. Findings from the research can be helpful in suggesting initiatives that complement the existing arts and cultural infrastructure. The research will address different issues affecting the individual’s participation counting the following aspects:

1. Background, including socio-demographic and socio-cultural factors and past experience; 2. Perceptual, including personal beliefs and perceptions toward arts participation; 3. Practical, including factors that affect an individual’s intention or decision to participate; 4. Experience, including an individual’s actual participation and reaction to the experience.

The context In response to broad social, economic, and technological trends that have affected the arts environment, arts organizations are increasingly reaching out to the communities they serve and encouraging individuals to participate in their programs (Kevin McCarthy et al., 2001). These trends include:

Changing demographics and growing ethnic diversity in UAE society.

Technological advances that make the recorded and broadcast arts an increasingly attractive alternative to the live arts.

Greater recognition of the role of the arts in building communities. To sustain and develop their audiences in the face of these trends, arts organizations have become more strategic in their operations. They understand that it is not enough to offer excellent programs and wait for the public to walk through their doors. To successfully increase participation, they must understand the potential users and design programs and marketing approaches that will appeal to them (Kevin McCarthy et al., 2001).

Purpose of the study The purpose is to achieve deep understanding and think inclusively about how to maximize the community’s capacity for cultural participation among multicultural groups, and to understand how to measure and identify participation trends, and how organizations can best influence people to make the arts a part of their lives. In view of that, the study will aim toward envisioning the opportunities for innovation and develop the appropriate strategies for design solutions and policy recommendations.

Research questions The study will be guided by the following broad research questions:

1. How people from different multicultural groups use the arts and other forms of creative effort to express their attachment to places?

2. What are the motivations behind individuals’ involvement in the arts? 3. Why some forms of participation are more popular than others? 4. Why do they participate in different ways? And why do they choose specific types of arts? 5. What are the community’s cultural resources and assets? 6. What shared cultural values support that community and its way of life?

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Literature review The arts participation literature can be classified into three categories:

1. Empirical literature - studies of participation trends based on national survey data, institutional data, and administrative data.

2. Theoretical literature – studies that focus on why people decide to participate in the arts. 3. Practitioner literature – books and articles written for arts practitioners to help them improve

their participation-building strategies. The empirical literature consists basically of information from national survey and administrative data on attendance patterns. In these studies, participation is defined and measured in different ways. Although it is sometimes equated with attendance at live performances, it can in fact take many forms, including participation through the media and “hand on” participation in the arts. Although most empirical studies of participation examine participation patterns in the population at large, individuals can be sorted into three general groups according to their levels of participation: those who rarely if ever participate, those who occasionally participate, and those who participate frequently. It is important to distinguish which of these groups are included in a particular study, since the conclusions drawn about participation patterns will differ accordingly (Kevin McCarthy et al., 2001). The theoretical literature on participation in the arts consists of work from economics and a wide variety of the social sciences. Economists typically approach the arts participation decision within the framework of a general theory of consumer choice in which individuals are viewed as choosing the level of arts participation that satisfies their preferences for the arts, subject to constraints of income and price. As incomes increase, participation will rise; conversely, as the price of participation rises (relative to other leisure activities), participation will fall. The third category of participation literature, participation literature, is specifically designed to address practitioners’ concerns. This literature focuses on organizational strategies for building participation for specific artistic disciplines. Despite providing a variety of information about participation and its dynamic, the participation literature is unlikely to provide adequate guidance for arts organizations interested in building participation as it does not capture the complexity of the participation behavior of the people (Kevin McCarthy et al., 2001).

Concept of Participation When studying potential of participation in any communities, it is important to understand what is meant by participation (Coalter, F. 2001). In the following, I will touch upon three definitional issues related to the concept of participation: what types of activities constitute participation, what arts disciplines are included, and how the population is defined.

Modes of Participation. Although participation in the arts in sometimes equated only with attending a performance or visiting a museum, people actually participate in the arts in many different ways. For some individuals, for example, participation means being directly involved in the arts in a hands-on way, such as playing an instrument, singing in a choir, painting a picture, or writing a poem. For others, participation means attending a live performance, visiting an art gallery. For others, participation means listening to a recording or watching a televised play or a program about work of art. Overall, participation may mean doing, attending, or participating through the media. These distinctions are important because they

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influence the conclusions that can be drawn about how people participate and the characteristics of those participants (Kevin McCarthy et al., 2001).

Disciplines There are two dimensions to be considered in determining the disciplines included in comparisons of participation rates. The first concerns how the arts are define and the second concerns the differences among participation rates for various disciplines. These differences are particularly pronounced when comparing attendance patterns (Kevin McCarthy et al., 2001).

Populations The population of participation rates can be sorted into three general categories: those who rarely participate, those who participate occasionally, and those who participate frequently (McCarthy et al., 2001). It is important to distinguish which groups are likely to be represented in the comparisons of participation patterns and the degree to which they are represented (Schuster, 1991).

Research Design Strategy The proposed project is an investigation from which understanding and findings will emerge. The study will mix qualitative research with quantitative. In order to achieve a deep understanding of the phenomenon, the approach will move toward qualitative research as the basis for the direct experience of the context. In conducting the research project, the process will look at four directions:

1. Looking backwards – to have a historical perspective in arts and cultural participation. 2. Looking sideways – to understand what else is happing based on other practices, so to have a

broader perspective and to identify the forces that affect the research themes. 3. Looking at people – to better know the user, and to capture attitudes, needs, and desires. 4. Looking ahead – to create future scenarios and explore the possible design opportunities and

solutions for program planning.

The following methodological framework gives a general structure of the information processing for conducting study. The diagram below shows the way information is transformed in knowledge, and how knowledge is transformed into opportunities for design solutions (Charles Bezerra 2005).

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Research the context and the

users

Analysis and assessing needs

Strategy and envisioning

opportunities

Synthesis and prescribing solutions

Understanding

Innovating

Information into knowledge

Knowledge into design

opportunities

Opportunities into solutions

Figure 1. Research Development Framework –Adapted from Charles Bezerra (2005) .Building

Innovative Competencies.

Research Methods The followings are the qualitative methods that will be used in conducting the study:

1. Direct Observation: this method suggests a more detached perspective and more focused. In using this method, the researcher is observing certain sampled situations or people rather than trying to become immersed in the context.

2. In-depth Interviews: include both individual interviews as well as group interviews. 3. Secondary Research: Analysis of the existing manuscripts, including newspapers, books,

websites, and annual reports. Usually, written documents are analyzed with some form of content analysis.

Likewise, a number of techniques will be used to collect the research data. The main are as follows: 1. Photo/video ethnography – consists of video tapping or photographing specific activities in the

user’s life. 2. Photo Journals – consists of giving disposable camera to users and asking them to photograph

specific events of their daily activities. 3. Social/cultural trends – to look for social and cultural indicators that could support assumptions

about future scenarios. 4. Web survey – web-based survey instrument such as Zoomerang.

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Sampling and Recruitment Qualitative sampling is concerned with information richness. There is no fixed number of participants is necessary to conduct sound qualitative research, however, sufficient depth of information needs to be gathered to fully described the phenomena being studied. To enhance the appropriateness of sampling a snowball sampling strategy will be used, in which participants indentify others with direct knowledge relevant to the investigation being conducted. This strategy may be used when the people being studied are difficult to access. However, it relies on the quality of participants’ social networks and tends to result in a homogenous sample (William Trochim, 2007).

Analysis Framework Qualitative analysis is a process of reviewing, synthesizing and interpreting data to describe and explain the phenomena being studied. The following diagram represents a model for analyzing and making the connection between people, culture and environment. The framework progresses from the concrete to the abstract and back again. It has two elements: the first is about moving forward to what’s out there up to structures that make sense of it. The second is moving from structures to new things (Robinson, 1994).

Abstract

Concrete

ExistingImplicit

NewExplicit

Situations

Particulars

Patterns

Structures

Conceptual Models

Design Concepts

Prototypes

Processes

Field Research

Deliverables

Rick E. Robinson (1994). The Origin of Cool Things

Methodological Limitations The most important limitation of qualitative research is that the findings cannot be directly generalized to the larger population being studied. The reason for this constraint is mainly because the number of participation in a typical qualitative research study is too small to be representative of the population. And because qualitative research does not collect numeric data from a representative sample of the target audience, this type of research cannot be subjected to statistical analysis to estimate to what extent opinions expressed by participants reflect the opinions of the population studied (Michael Patton, 2002).

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Other methodological challenges can occur in conducting qualitative research that can threaten the dependability of the data. The following four pitfalls are considered to be main issues affecting the soundness of the proposed study with respect to the external reality (William Trochim, 2007):

1. Credibility: this involves establishing that the results of the study are believable from the perspective of the participant in the research. From this perspective, the purpose of the qualitative research is to understand the phenomena of interest from the participant’s eyes; the participants are the ones who can legitimately judge the credibility of the results.

2. Transferability: this refers to the degree to which the results of the research can be generalized

or transferred to other context or settings. This can be enhanced by doing a thorough description of the research context and the assumptions that are central to the research.

3. Dependability: in the traditional quantitative view of reliability is based on the assumption of

repeatability that is concerned with whether we would obtain the same results if we could observe the same things twice. The idea of dependability, on the other hand, pays attention to the need for the researcher to account for the ever-changing context within which research occurs. This can be enhanced by describing the changes that occur in the setting and how these changes affected the way the research approached the study.

4. Confirmability: this refers to the degree to which the results could be confirmed or corroborated

by others. One of the strategies for enhancing confirmability is by documenting the procedures for checking and rechecking the data throughout the study. This will help examining the data collection and analysis procedures and makes judgments about the potential for misrepresentation.

Phases of the Research Implementation The proposed research is divided into five stages with each consecutive stage designed to inform the directions and content of subsequent stages:

Stage I: Review of Existing Background Information (September, 2009) This stage involves the collection of initial background information needed for the study that will look at relevant policies and practices that affect cultural participation from a local and global perspective. This stage also entails a literature review based on information gathered from previously conducted studies.

Stage II: Preliminary Data Collection (January, 2010) This is a core data collection in which information from research participants will be gathered. During this stage, a contextual inquiry involving interviews and observations notes targeted at understanding the end user. This stage will allow a deeper understanding of the issues under investigation by looking at how people live in places and communities and with the ways in which they use the arts and cultural efforts to express their attachment to places. The results of these qualitative research methods will also help to inform the content of the third stage, which is a web survey of cultural organizations.

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Stage III: Web Survey of Arts and Cultural Organization (April, 2010) As a final stage of information gathering, it is proposed that an online survey to be distributed to individuals who are in key positions to identify current issues facing arts and cultural organizations. Questions will be structured around how to maximize the participation in arts and cultural activities.

Stage IV: Data Analysis and Preliminary Findings (June, 2010) Once the full data have been collected, preliminary data analysis will be conducted in developing design solutions to issues that are identified in stages I, II, and III. In this stage, the data will be transformed into a broader perspective knowledge that will able us to identify patterns.

Stage V: Final Report and Feedback Presentations (November, 2010) A final report will be prepared and will include a set of recommendations that emerge from the study. Final report will also includes a plan for presenting research results to arts and cultural organizations, discussing the research findings and implications for practice.

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References

Charles Bezerra (2005) .Building Innovative Competencies. [Online]. Available at: www.cden.ca/2005/2ndCDEN-conference/data/10161.pdf Coalter, F. (2001), Realizing the potential of cultural services: the case for the arts. Centre for Leisure Research at the University of Edinburgh. Guetzkow, Joshua. (2002), How the arts impacts communities. Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Princeton University. [Online]. Kevin McCarthy, Elizabeth H. Ondaatje and Laura Zakaras (2001). Guide to the Literature on Participation on the Arts, Santa Monica, CA: RAND,DRU-2308-WRDF.

Kevin McCarthy and Kimberly Jinnett (2001). A New Framework for Building Participation in the Arts, Santa Monica, CA: RAND. MR-1323-WRDF, 2001 Rick E. Robinson (1994). The Origin of Cool Things. In Design that packs a wallop: understanding the power of strategic design. American Center for Design. New York: American Center for Design. Robinson, john, et al., “A Review: Survey Organization Differences in Estimating Public participation in the Arts,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol.52, No,3, 1989. Schuster, J., and Mark Davidson, The Audience for American Art Museums, Washington, DC.: National Endowment for the Arts, Report No. 23, 1991. William M.K. Trochim (2007) Research Methods: The Concise Knowledge Base. Cornell University. Atomic Dog Publishing. Michael Quinn Patton (2002).Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Sega Publications Inc. London, UK.

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