Artistic culture has a role to play in society, historically. Whether it was art, plays (e.g. Shakespeare), or music, the function of art was to lift the souls or lighten the hearts not just of the well-to-do but also the common man. And so, until recent times, there were always a decent number of affordable tickets for the common man for such events/venues.
But no more. For example, if we look at Broadway—a popular culture destination—in 1970, the top price for tickets was $15, with starting prices around $6, including standing room tickets. Now that sounds unbelievably cheap, but when you account for inflation since 1970, the current top price would be $122; the $6 ticket would be $49.
What are current ticket prices? Currently, the top shows—the ones in greatest demand—have top ticket prices of over $900! Those shows not in significant demand have a top ticket price of around $200, with many shows somewhere in the middle. The difference is that starting in the 2000s, Broadway adopted the dynamic pricing strategy of airlines and hotels, with prices going up with demand. But even the $200 top ticket is considerably more than the $122 inflation adjusted figure.
The cheapest ticket is inline with inflation, however for top shows that price is only available by lottery or a student rush. More importantly, while the price is inline with inflation, the average person's income has not risen inline with inflation. For the American middle class worker, their wages have mostly stagnated since 1970, so $48 is a much greater share of their income today than $6 would have been in 1970. And so they cannot even afford the cheapest tickets.
While the examples I am using are from Broadway, the same basic point can be made about orchestras, the opera, and even museums. Most museums today, not just in places like New York City, charge $20-25 for entrance, and for many that is a flat fee, rather than a suggested fee with a "pay-what-you-will" policy. So a family of 4 would pay $80-100 for entrance. That's a lot of money for a middle-class working family.
And so as a result of this escalation in pricing, the average person, the common man, has been priced out of cultural events and venues. For example, the average income of Broadway theater goers currently is $276,000, while the average household income in New York City is $122,000. Tourists make up the bulk of Broadway ticket buyers (65%).
If the average person no longer can afford to attend arts cultural events or venues, are cultural organizations fulfilling their mission? The answer should be, "no." However, if you look at their mission statements, they typically say nothing about accessibility regardless of income level. The purpose of art has morphed in our society to something to be enjoyed by people of means.
Arts organizations will sometimes attempt to serve the broader public by taking performances to neighborhood streets during the summer. But while this certainly has some value, it barely scratches the surface of need out there and does not open the hallowed halls of theaters and orchestras to the common man to experience art together with the rest of society.
The problem with arts cultural organizations today is similar to that of business corporations in that they have lost sight of their function in society. Their function is not just to produce great product, but to benefit the common good. For a cultural organization, it benefits the good by being accessible to a large section of the public.
Any organization that is created by government registration (and by being incorporated, it is) should through its mission statement and goals serve the public goals for which the government gave them permission to exist as a corporation or nonprofit, That is not currently the law, but it should be. Even without it being compelled legally, any serious cultural arts organization should have this commitment as part of its mission.
