Community, Culture, and QOL

Over the past several decades, scholars and policymakers have become interested in understanding and promoting quality of life (QOL), and while QOL is in many respects subjective and thus difficult to measure, there exist instruments for its analysis and assessment. Among those is the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index that annually asks how Americans perceive their lives and experiences through five interrelated domains: purpose, social, financial, community, and physical. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly in light of the zeitgeist, the latest Gallup-Sharecare data indicate wide and significant declines of well-being in the United States.

To reverse that troubling trend will be difficult. Yet as an initial step, I invite us to contemplate the results of a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, which found that most Americans (notwithstanding differences across demographic groups) are satisfied with the quality of life in their local community, and for some an important element of satisfaction is access to art, music, and theatre. To my way of thinking, this suggests a promising building block to improve well-being, for as Robert Lynch has argued, cultural capital can often “help transform American communities” through the rippling impact of positive individual, social, and economic effects.

The challenge for localities is to cultivate cultural capital. This undertaking typically requires philanthropic and/or governmental backing; however, equally crucial are the investments that we residents make in the creative capacity of our communities, since to survive and thrive, organizations and institutions need us to attend events as well as volunteer time and expertise. With well-being and quality of life as the prize, I recommend that we all step forward to play our part for the arts.