Arts and culture activities are valued by an overwhelming majority of residents of southeastern Wisconsin who see them as bene?cial to the economic health of the area and important to their children's development, according to 92% of those who were surveyed. Eighty-seven percent said a robust arts and culture sector attracted tourists to metro Milwaukee, and a nearly equal number said it made the area an attractive place for people to live.

Yet the study also indicated that more than half of those responding had not attended a performing arts event of any kind in the last two years. Forty-three percent reported attending a live musical performance, thirty-two percent a theater production and eighteen percent a dance performance. They had chosen other cultural venues in greater numbers, however. Nearly 70 percent said they had been to the Milwaukee County Zoo and 53 percent had visited the Milwaukee Public Museum during the same time period. And nearly half of the respondents had seen an IMAX show or gone to the Milwaukee Art Museum.