A 2010 article in the Huffington Post outlined the disproportionate amount of public funding going to arts organizations that cater to wealthy, white audiences. Only 2% of 501(c)3 arts organizations have annual budgets over 5 million dollars, but that 2% receives 55% of the funding. These are the companies you might suspect, the ballet, the orchestra and high end theater companies. Clayton Lord, the vice president of “Local Arts Advancement for Americans for the Arts” (yeah that’s a thing) explored diversity in theater audiences and found that 80% of theater goers in the San Francisco Bay Area are white. This number holds steady even in the most diverse counties. What we see is that even when these institutions are planted in diverse communities they fail to attract a diverse audience.

The lack of diversity among non profit theater goers is mirrored on stage by a shocking lack of diversity among actors, directors and playwrights. Last year the Asian American Performers Action Coalition produced a report on diversity among performers on Broadway and at the 16 largest New York City non profit theater companies. Only 19% of the non profits’ actors were minorities. That’s a number that makes the Republican party look like a Benetton ad. Meanwhile, the commercial Broadway shows had a minority inclusion rate of 27%, still not enough, but demonstrably better than their non profit counterparts.

These numbers, though they may seem counterintuitive given the mission of the non profit sector, should not surprise us. Diversity in the arts has always come by way of the free market rather than social engineering. Black music and Jewish comedy didn’t succeed because a board of directors somewhere decided to diversify their product, they succeeded because people wanted it. They succeeded because there was a market for it. A level economic playing field provides much more opportunity for minority artists because it doesn’t require the largesse of the wealthy, white funding community. One need look no further than the Urban Theater Circuit, once known as the Chitlin Circuit to see for profit theater thriving in the black community. These morality plays, often with religious themes not only launched the careers of stars like Tyler Perry, they also make a lot of money.