Even as attendance rates for many events and performances are falling, Californians are participating in arts and cultural activities in new ways and at new venues, a study commissioned by James Irvine Foundation and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago finds. The report, The Cultural Lives of Californians: Insights From the California Survey of Arts & Cultural Participation (70 pages, PDF), found that demand for hands-on opportunities to learn and practice the creation of art is high, and that changing cultural norms and new technology are enabling Californians to participate in the arts in non-traditional settings. At the same time, the study found disparities in arts engagement among population groups, with lower participation levels for some of California's large and growing immigrant populations. Latinos overall, for instance, report below-average participation levels, while Asians have higher-than-average attendance rates but lower-than-average art-making rates. According to the report, developing new ways to measure cultural participation, such as looking beyond typical benchmarks, could elucidate how various forms of art and artistic expression and engagement are linked to community health and local economic development.