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Utahns go to arts events — plays, concerts, dance performances, gallery exhibits and movies — more than people anywhere else in the nation, according to new data compiled by the National Endowment for the Arts.
An estimated 84.5 percent of adults in Utah attended visual or performing arts events or went to the movies in 2015, according to a pair of "arts data profiles" issued Tuesday by the NEA. That's the highest level of any state in the country, and well above the national average of 66.2 percent.
The NEA has been issuing results about how Americans take part in the arts, the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, periodically since 1982. That survey has been augmented by the Annual Arts Basic Survey, launched three years ago.
This is the first time the data in the two surveys — gleaned from U.S. Census figures and other research — have been broken down for a state-by-state comparison, said Sunil Iyengar, the NEA's director of research and analysis.
Iyengar said the data found Western states had among the highest rates of arts participation, a finding at odds with the stereotypes of where culture is concentrated.
"It's common to think the large cities and big states are the ones where arts participation is at its peak," Iyengar said.
The state's great outdoors and the influence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are two factors that may influence Utahns' arts consumption, said Crystal Young-Otterstrom, executive director of the Utah Cultural Alliance.
"Utahns, no matter their background, are the kind of people who are more interested in going outside and experiencing more things, versus just watching TV on their couch for their entertainment most of the time," Young-Otterstrom said.
As for the LDS Church's impact, Young-Otterstrom said, "We all know the famous story that Brigham Young built a theater before he built anything else.… Support for arts and culture and the humanities has been a big part of Mormon culture since the pioneers came here to Utah."
Jerry Rapier, artistic director of Salt Lake City's Plan-B Theatre Company, also credited the LDS influence on investment in and support of the arts.
"The 'share-your-talents' component of Mormon culture is what makes it possible for those of us who create art to do so," Rapier said.
Rapier said that when someone has a good time at an arts event, "it energizes them to seek out another arts experience.… The more positive experiences people have, the more people will want to seek them out."
The NEA numbers say Utah leads the nation in attending live music, theater or dance performances in 2015, at a level of 51 percent, compared to the national average of 31.6 percent.
Utah also leads in moviegoing, with 76.2 percent of Utah adults seeing a movie in 2015 — far above the national average of 58.4 percent.
The Beehive State came in second, behind Vermont, in attending arts exhibits in 2015, at a level of 33.9 percent of Utahns, compared to 18.7 percent nationally.
In other areas, Utah scores closer to the national average, though still above it. The state ranked fifth in 2015 in reading literature (plays, poetry, short stories and novels), at 57 percent. Utah was eighth in 2015 for visiting sites for historic or design value, at 35.6 percent. Utah came in 11th in 2014 for adults creating or performing their own artworks, at 53.6 percent.
According to 2012 figures, 62 percent of Utahns used TV, radio and/or the internet to consume arts programming — 27th in the nation, and just barely over the national average of 61.4 percent.
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