Audience = Participants: The Arts’ Search for Relevance and How Choruses Can Help

With arts researchers, funders, and institutions alike beginning to reconsider the role of the audience in the arts, where does choral singing—arguably the most common “participatory” arts activity—fit in? How can choruses translate their success in engaging a broad cross-section of the population in the arts into more formal recognition for their demonstrated community relevance?  What are the respective roles of amateur, professional, semi-pro, and youth choruses in this conversation? And what does all of this mean for the age-old question of who gets to call themselves an artist?