Cultivating the Eye: Aesthetic Education and Cultural Consumption

• In Event: 383 - Section on Consumers and Consumption Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. High Culture and Inequality

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between aesthetic education (education in the arts) and breadth of cultural consumption. Using survey data on cultural participation, I compare the consumption patterns of students who received different forms of aesthetic education (Art History, Art Instruction, Music Appreciation, and Music Instruction). Dividing courses into Instruction and History/Appreciation, I examine two commonly theorized functions of education—Code and Canon. Results indicate that these categories vary in their effects, with instruction (code) being associated with a wider breadth of consumption than Appreciation (canon). This association between aesthetic education and consumption is shown to extend beyond those mediums specifically studied. For several consumption categories, aesthetic education is shown to be a better predictor of broad consumption than is general education. When aesthetic education is included in models for music and book tastes, the relationship between general education and breadth of consumption all but disappears.

Author

• Jacob Alden Miller, Indiana University