Barriers and Motivations

The editors of the Reader received a letter from Deborah Obalil, author of Barriers and Motivations to Increased Arts Usage among Medium and Light Users. This study was discussed in "Readings in Cultural Participation" by Frances Phillips, published on page 18 in the autumn 1999 issue of GIA's Newsletter (now the Reader). In her letter, Obalil pointed out that the Newsletter article misrepresented Barriers and Motivations in a few key ways. She wrote, "The Barriers and Motivations study was a qualitative study conducted across the years 1997 and 1998, not quantitative. I believe the quantitative study to which Phillips refers is Expanding the Market for the Arts in Metro Chicago, conducted in 1994 and published in 1996. I frequently cite this earlier study within the Barriers and Motivations report, as the classification of user groups was determined by this quantitative study."

In a letter of apology, Phillips responded that her error was based on a misunderstanding of the connection between the two studies. "I believed they were two phases of the same research process," she wrote. "This left me hungry for more information about the quantitative research conducted on behalf of the earlier report." She continued, "I found Barriers and Motivations to be valuable because of the attention you give to distinguishing between the behaviors of moderate and light users of the arts and your care in analyzing responses by art form. I hope others will find your work as illuminating as I did."