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National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Announces
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March 2, 2005
Washington, DC - Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America will be discussed at several venues by National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) senior staff in 2005. With more than 800 articles on this survey in the mainstream media in 2004 alone, and overwhelming public interest in the study, NEA Chairman Dana Gioia and other senior NEA staff are presenting the survey's findings to a number of national and professional organizations. According to the results of Reading at Risk, literary reading is in dramatic decline, with less than half of American adults now reading literature. This landmark study describes national trends in literary reading, based on a sample size of more than 17,000 adults and providing statistical measurement by age, gender, education, income, region, race, and ethnicity.
Each of the 2005 Reading at Risk Forums will last approximately two hours, and will have three components: an opening presentation, conducted by a senior staff member of the NEA, with a detailed history of the methodology, results, and implications of the survey; a discussion by a small panel of experts on the cultural and social implications of the findings; and a session for questions to be taken from the audience.
Through these presentations and discussions the NEA hopes to inspire leaders to take action to arrest and reverse this decline in literary reading.
March 30 -- AWP Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia
Presenter: Cliff Becker, NEA Director of Literature
For more information: http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2005awpconf.htm
April 4 -- Shimer College, Chicago, IL
Presenter: Mark Bauerlein, NEA Director of Research & Analysis
For more information: http://www.shimer.edu/
April 5 -- Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL
Presenter: Dana Gioia, NEA Chairman
For more information: http://www.chipublib.org/
April 6 -- Nevada Arts Council, Carson City, NV
Presenter: Mark Bauerlein, NEA Director of Research & Analysis
For more information: http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/arts/
April 8 -- Mississippi Book Festival, Oxford, MS
Presenter: Jon Peede, Counselor to the NEA Chairman
For more information: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/events/
April 8 -- Association of Core Texts and Courses Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia
Presenter: David Steiner, NEA Director of Arts Education
For more information: http://www.coretexts.org/11th_annual_conf_agenda.htm
Reading at Risk presents the results from the literature segment of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, designed by the NEA and conducted by the Census Bureau in 2002. The survey asked respondents if - during the previous 12 months - they had read any novels, short stories, poetry, or plays in their leisure time. The report extrapolates and interprets data on literary reading and compares them with results from similar surveys carried out in 1982 and 1992.
The study finds an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002, representing a loss of 20 million potential readers. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade.
"This report documents a national crisis," Gioia said. "Reading develops a capacity for focused attention and imaginative growth that enriches both private and public life. The decline in reading among every segment of the adult population reflects a general collapse in advanced literacy. To lose this human capacity - and all the diverse benefits it fosters - impoverishes both cultural and civic life."
For an electronic (PDF) copy of the complete report, please visit http://www.arts.gov/pub/ReadingAtRisk.pdf
For more information, please contact the NEA Office of Communications at 202-682-5570.
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