I’m also a theatre artist: playwright/director/actor and someone who is very adaptable to whatever today brings. I use twitter, Facebook, google+, text messaging, Tango, Skype, and write my own blog.

Whoever comes out with the different categories we have for each generation would think that yes, based on the results, I am a Millennail but according to the demographic labels I’m part of Generation X (which I just found out about). Do I care if I’m part of one of the other? No, I don’t. It makes no difference. What matters to me is the fact that I, personally, like to adapt and learn about knew things, and be free to decide for my own, and do as I please and express myself as much as I can without harming others.

In my own personal opinion, these are the days of technology and if I want to keep up, I need to learn how to use them and adapt to them because that is what is happening now. If that makes me a Millennial, so be it. I don’t care. I’m actually trying to keep up afloat with the new generations so when my nephews and nieces and my students used words like, “Yolo.” I know exactly what they are talking about… Now, if they could only do the same in reverse so when I mention a movie from 1980 (which is the first year of the Millennails) they know what the hell I’m talking about.

And here’s what we learned about the traditional “dollars and cents” economic impact case: “traditional economic messages end up competing with other (usually more compelling) ideas about how to bolster an economy”.

That is, people may nod along, but when this is the primary reason we offer for public investment, we lose out as people begin to think about other sectors that they believe are a better bet for return on public investment.

However, the broad public (and this was our target — people who go, and people who don’t think of themselves as goers) already believes that the arts create a ripple effect of benefits including vibrant, thriving places; neighborhoods are more lively, communities are revitalized, tourists and residents are attracted to the area, etc. Paint a picture, show an image — and the people are with us. They already get it.

But when we try to put in terms of ROI, we are losing when we start the story there.

We also learned that the other benefit people already believe the arts create, and which they really value, is the way the arts create a a more connected population: diverse groups share common experiences, hear new perspectives, understand each other better, etc.

Unfortunately, for most people — even people who are goers and lovers of the arts — the transcendent experience, the beauty of art, and educational value are not compelling as reasons for PUBLIC support of the arts. The public sees these individual experiences as something we are all personally responsible for obtaining: “It’s fine if you want to do that, but our TAX dollars shouldn’t have to support it.”

Toward the end of our full research report, we list a few additional ideas that failed in our testing: civic inspiration, great cities, health and science, broadening our horizons, human universal, innovation, works of beauty, art and kids. It’s a most interesting (if depressing) section of the findings.

Of course, any of these ideas can work in an individual conversation — and may also work as a secondary proposition. But if we are looking for a big idea that has broad appeal, an idea that moves people to see the arts as matter of PUBLIC (not private) concern — then we should all be talking about and sharing images of the community benefits of vibrant, lively places and a connected population.