Zócalo Public Square

Some studies consistently have shown that attendance is declining for “benchmark” arts events, the kind that take place in concert halls and formal theaters and don’t ask audiences to do much more than show up, watch and listen, and applaud on cue. But, at the same time, a profusion of relatively inexpensive DIY digital technology is allowing millions of people to participate in the arts in new ways, by creating and curating their own cultural experiences. Will the net result encourage arts engagement or hinder it in the long run? Those and other questions were taken up by Steven Tepper dean of Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and the author of Not Here, Not Now, Not That! Protest Over Art and Culture in America, during a Zócalo Public Sauare Conference titled “What Can the World Teach California About Arts Engagement?” on June 25, 2017 in downtown Los Angeles.