Yes, we’re going through a recession … and some things, by necessity, will need to be left by the roadside. However, I was thrilled to read about Michelle Obama’s Jazz Series at the White House …for young jazz students.

It’s only by participating in the arts, or becoming an avid fan, that we teach our citizens the value of what we artists-performers-musicians-dancers-songwriters-playwrights-actors-directors-producers do for a living.

And if you wonder about where your audience has gone, take a look at this SURVEY OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE ARTS by the NEA (Nat’l Endowment for the Arts), for 2008 — showing why we, Americans, should be concerned.

Recap COMMENTS from Nate Chinen on NPR:

— Jazz Concertgoing Is Down: And other life-affirming news from the NEA, which released its Survey of Public Participation in the Arts on Monday. A PDF document has the quick breakdown.

Among the jazz highlights: only 7.8% of Americans saw a jazz show in 2008, down from 10.8% in 2002 and 9.6% in 1982; the median age of the jazz audience is now 46, a steady increase from from 29 (!) in 1982; the college-educated jazz audience has dropped 29% since 2002; 14.2% of Americans listened to jazz records or watched/listened to a jazz broadcast last year.

Of course, any downward trends can be in large part accounted for by the recession and the decline of fine and performing arts attendance at large (less than 37% of Americans attended an arts museum or arts performance in 2008, a statistic that seems incredibly low to me). And the net, inflation-adjusted amount of money being spent on arts admissions is still rising — the U.S. population is growing. But it’s also a poor sign that jazz attendance is dropping, most markedly among 18-24 year olds, 17.5% of whom saw a jazz show in 1982 (really?) and 7.3% of whom went in 2008. Dear peers: peace to the 7.3% nation of gods and earths, but we can’t do it alone, you know.

[“As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.” Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD) ]