What does informal mean in art

The report also includes a survey questionnaire completed by of the case study participants, as well as a variety of secondary source data including newspaper articles and the U.

In the study, "informal" refers to the "process and the context of art-making, not, as a threshold matter, to the product of the activity, nor the characteristics of the artist's training.

Indeed, a primary finding of the study focuses on how activities at the informal end of the arts continuum strengthen the entire arts sector. The study's two other categories of findings, "Bridging Differences" and "Building Capacity," address the role of the informal arts in nurturing civic engagement and strengthening communities. Briefly summarized, researchers discovered that through informal arts participation, people come together across such boundaries as social and economic status, ethnicity, race, age, and geography and in the course of participation, develop social skills important to civic renewal.

This focus can help guide programmatic activities, marketing efforts, and infrastructure investments. Artspace's work focuses on the creation of arts infrastructure facilities. This work requires investment from both the public and private sectors. Investment is much easier to justify when associated with a well-thought-out district strategy. So what do you think? What type of district is most successful in your eyes?

Americans for the Arts serves, advances, and leads the network of organizations and individuals who cultivate, promote, sustain, and support the arts in America. Excerpted from "Informal Arts," , edited by Crystal Wallis to show highlighted areas, As you can see from comparing the two, informal arts activities were actually happening in many areas of the city, not just primarily in affluent areas, as the map of media reports would have suggested. Researchers found no widespread recognition of informal arts practice as a concept within the informal arts world.

Recommendations The study recommends several policy interventions to assist the informal arts in conveying their benefits to more individuals and institutions. With its case study approach and in-depth qualitative research, this study was a landmark seven years ago and its findings are still startling and incredibly intriguing today. The methodology of the report is primarily qualitative ethnographic research balanced by quantitative evidence from a survey.

Their written observations which form part of a page appendix to the study combined with interview transcripts were entered into a qualitative database management system. By exploring in-depth the dynamics of a relatively small set of groups, they were able to reveal the complex relationships among different participants, study sites, and arts institutions. Research and findings pertaining to the first two questions are susceptible to expectation bias: that is, researchers may expect a certain outcome i.

But even those methods may suffer from response bias, which happens when a respondent provides the answers to questions that they think the questioner would find desirable. Observation is in turn meant to correct this bias by confirming what participants say with what they do. However, questions about past events e. In general, proving causation especially when dealing with personal motivations is very difficult. However, proof is a little easier when you have a control group. The report states that informal arts participation imbues skills in the participants such as collaborative work habits, consensus building skills, and the ability to imagine and foment social change.

Without a control group, however, Wali et al. Even looking at this report with the most skeptical eye, however, there are findings that stand out. Two years later, Chris Anderson came out with The Long Tail , about how the internet has increased consumer choice to the point that public interest is shifting to the long tail of niche interests.

More and more, people are participating in the arts virtually instead of in person. The internet has become another public space in which people participate in arts activities. In this case, access to technology and the web becomes another barrier to be lowered in order to enable arts participation. The researchers make the argument and I am inclined to agree with them that the study of informal arts participation is beneficial to the sector as a whole because it illustrates how arts practice creates value in individual and civic contexts, not just economic impact.

However, in informal settings, the performers wear something comfortable, because they do not always get a comfortable spot. Also they perform for a long period of time. So, something comfortable is suitable for informal occasions. This can be applied to exhibits.

In formal settings, the art works are well-framed. Sometimes, there are decorations to make them look pretty. On the other hand, in informal settings, the art works are rather neglected.

Most of formal performances are paid, and some of them are very expensive. This relates to reason no. The audience wants to make the performance worthwhile. Thus, they do their homework beforehand. However, informal settings are mostly free. You can always pay if you wish to. Since they are free, they are disregardful often.

If a performance is expensive, people value it more. That is why people often disregard informal performances. Informal performances are always unexpected. Since the schedule is not fixed, there are different performers in the same station everyday. It gives them an opportunity to get exposed to different types of music. In formal settings, performance are almost perfect. They are well-rehearsed. Informal performance, like many subway musicians said, is a practice for the performance.

It is a great place to practice, because they can obtain concentration caapacity. Formal performances generally have a large audience. For instance, think of the Metropolitan Opera House. It can have people at once.