By The Presser Foundation Staff
What does it take to break down barriers to music access? For music educating, performing, and presenting organizations, there are no quick fixes, and few challenges can be solved by one organization alone.
As The Presser Foundation enters its second century of service, we set out to build a contemporary understanding of music access: What keeps students from progressing in their studies, audiences from making it to the next performance, and musicians from building sustainable careers?
Last fall, Strategy Director Kate Houstoun and Graduate Research Fellow Erica Breitbarth took on that question, surveying 168 general operating support grantees, conducting interviews with music organization executives and funders, reviewing grantee documents and reports, and analyzing national research on music access and engagement.
In March, they brought those findings back to the field at a Next Movement Idea Forum. Fifty grantees and trustees joined us for the conversation.
The research identified five primary categories of barriers to access music: individual cost and time, education and professional pipelines, geography and transportation, cultural resonance, and organizational capacity. When grantees were asked what most limits their ability to expand or sustain access, funding limitations and staffing capacity ranked at the top. The constraints, the research found, are largely about resources, not values or commitment.
Simply stated, barrier removal is not free and never finished. Every sliding scale, every transit pass, every community-based classroom represents a financial choice an organization has made and will make again. That burden exists, in large part, because the systems that should provide these foundations–arts education in schools, reliable public transit, living wages–are falling short. When those systems fail, the costs land on the balance sheets of nonprofits.
Next Movement participants recognized that picture immediately. Grantees chimed in with their own specifics. Transportation remains a stubborn obstacle: one participant noted that neighborhood residents want to attend concerts but simply don’t have reliable ways to get there. Community rehearsal space costs had tripled for one organization. Turnover among key staff and music teachers–many of whom perform, teach, and hold other jobs simultaneously–means that progress in building relationships with students and communities can disappear overnight. And administrative costs that come with organizational growth, from audits to insurance to postage, put even greater pressure on decision-making.
But participants brough solutions, too. Chamber Music Lehigh Valley is redirecting its mission toward younger audiences, bringing Juilliard and Curtis musicians to libraries, community music schools, and retirement communities to chip away at the perception classical music is not for them. The Lehigh Valley Chorale uses sliding scales for both ticket sales and membership. The Delaware Symphony Orchestra highlighted Art-Reach’s $2 ticket program for ACCESS/EBT cardholders, and the Symphony distributes complimentary tickets to social service organizations and college students across the Brandywine Valley as well. Community Music School Lehigh Valley & Berks recently launched “Free to Be,” a half-hour performance opportunity designed to be sensory-friendly–bean bag chairs, low lighting, no professional videography–with the goal of making students feel comfortable sharing music with their families and communities.
The discussion also surfaced what grantees want next. Several asked for smaller convenings organized by organization type–performing, presenting, and educating–where peers can go deeper on shared challenges. Others asked for best practices, case studies, and examples concrete enough to bring to a board or use to make an internal case for sustaining access efforts. The case for music access has to be made, and the know-how shared continuously with teams, boards, and funders in order for it to be sustained.
We are grateful to the grantees and organizations who contributed to this research through surveys, interviews, and the conversation at Next Movement. These findings continue to inform our strategy and reaffirm our belief that equitable access to all musical experiences transforms communities and fosters connection, well-being, and joy. If you have more to share, we’d welcome hearing from you and look forward to continuing the conversation.