Not Everyone Is Invited: Designing Access to the Arts in Rural Communities

Creative ecosystems do not automatically include everyone. When access is assumed instead of

designed, participation narrows.

For generations, arts participation in America has followed resources and infrastructure. Time. Transportation. Disposable income. Cultural familiarity. In rural communities, those barriers are often more visible and more amplified.

We see it in the quiet exodus of creatives from rural areas. We see it when significant artistic work is concentrated in urban centers, housed in institutions that require travel, admission costs and networks of familiarity. Geography alone can become a barrier.

Here in Ely, many of the people we serve live on fixed or limited incomes. We are also a remote region. Even when interest is strong, distance and cost can quietly narrow participation.

Participation is shaped long before anyone walks through the door.

Here in Ely, we see how easily participation can narrow when access is not intentionally designed.

National arts participation research confirms this reality. Access is shaped by systems, cost, distance, time and familiarity, not simply by desire.¹

For us at NLAA, this informs daily decisions. Scholarships. Sliding scale classes. Pay What You Can performances. Conversations with families. Adjustments based on community feedback. This year, our Pay What You Can offerings have doubled and are sponsored by the Vermilion Campus Foundation.

If we had unlimited time, funding and capacity, we would remove every barrier. The reality is that we rarely have all three. Leadership becomes the discipline of deciding where access matters most and building accordingly.

Access is not a value statement. It is a design decision.

Designing Access to the Arts Intentionally

If participation is shaped by systems, then access must be designed systemically.

Access is not created through a single program. It is built through structure. When someone enters through one doorway, the organization must make it easy to move to another.

Our internal data reflects this pattern. Participants who begin in educational programming at the Northern Lakes Arts Academy move into community events, mainstage productions or continued classes. Families who attend a free summer concert return for performances. Artists who

participate in productions engage more deeply through teaching or community programming. The movement is cyclical.

We designed it that way.

Research shows that informal, community based and repeated engagement broadens

participation, particularly outside major metropolitan areas.² When engagement opportunities are layered and connected, participation grows more sustainably.

Our free summer concerts draw around eighty community members each week. More than 150 youth have participated in camps and educational programs. This year, we launched our first adult acting class with six participants. Last year, we awarded over $1,500 in youth scholarships.

Approximately 85 percent of our volunteers return season after season.

This is not accidental growth. It is intentional structure.

“NLAA puts so many opportunities within reach in our community. At this point, the only thing holding me back is not programming. It is time.” - NLAA Member

Access is not a charitable add on. It is the architecture of the organization.

Having grown up in Ely and returned, I often ask a simple question: What was missing? What would have made creative life more visible and more expansive? That question informs the work today.

Leadership, in this context, means building the structures that allow the next generation to stay and grow.

Addressing Barriers Directly

The obstacles are clear: cost, distance, time and awareness.

When barriers are predictable, the response must be intentional.

We established a Youth Arts Scholarship Fund so that no child is turned away due to financial hardship.

For our classes, we introduced a sliding scale model. Approximately 70 percent select the standard rate, 20 percent choose the supporting rate and 10 percent select the supported rate. It is community supporting community.

Every ticketed production includes a Pay What You Can performance. Last season, we offered six. This year, we have doubled that number.

“It has given me the opportunity to introduce my kids to the arts in a way that feels possible here.” - NLAA Program Participant

Many organizations our size do not offer this structure. We built it in because access cannot be an afterthought.

We have also addressed time and awareness. Seasons are now planned 16 to 18 months in advance to allow earlier promotion and clearer scheduling. When events conflict, we meet with fellow organizations and coordinate. In a region of roughly 6,600 residents, collaboration is necessary.

“I never knew so much was happening here.” - Audience Member

Access oriented design is not charity. It is a structural response to documented participation barriers.¹

Participation Builds Belonging

Participation does more than increase attendance. It builds civic life.

National Endowment for the Arts research shows that adults who attend arts events are significantly more likely to volunteer, attend community meetings and vote than adults who do not. More than half of live arts attendees reported volunteering within a twelve month period, compared to roughly one third of U.S. adults overall.³ Even after accounting for education and demographic differences, arts participation remains strongly associated with civic involvement.

Attendance becomes contribution.

Youth return. Volunteers return. Families return.

Belonging forms through repetition.

“NLAA makes everyone feel welcome not only to watch, but to join.” - Community Member

In a rural community, where social infrastructure is limited and distances are greater, shared creative spaces matter. Participation becomes part of civic identity.

Access Is Ongoing

Access is never finished. It must be redesigned as communities evolve.

Needs change. Economic pressures shift. Demographics move. What felt accessible five years ago may not feel accessible today. Responsible leadership requires attention and adjustment.

We have expanded Pay What You Can offerings. We have adjusted scheduling windows. We have added new program tiers. Each change reflects listening.

There are still gaps.

Access work requires humility, collaboration and persistence.

Iteration is stewardship.

In the last blog, we explored how place shapes creative life. Here, we recognize that access shapes who is able to participate in it.

Creative ecosystems are strongest when participation is designed, not presumed.

Art lives here when individuals feel invited and equipped to return.

Creative communities are sustained not simply by programming, but by structures that make belonging possible.

If you believe access to the arts matters in rural communities, participate with us. Attend. Volunteer. Enroll. Invite someone new. Access only works when people walk through the door.

---

Notes

1. National Endowment for the Arts. When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance. January 2015; National Endowment for the Arts. U.S. Patterns of Arts Participation: A Full Report from the 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. September 2023.

2. Iyengar, Sunil. Come As You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities. NEA Research Note no. 100. June 2010.

3. National Endowment for the Arts. Art-Goers in Their Communities: Patterns of Civic and Social Engagement. 2009.