People participate in arts and culture by attending events, encouraging their children to participate, making or performing art as amateurs, or supporting the arts through donations of time and money. This policy brief shows that the more ways people participate--and the more often--the more likely they are to engage in other activities that support community life. Encouraging people to advance along a "ladder of increasing commitment" within these four types of cultural participation will benefit both artistic institutions and civic and community organizations, thereby helping strengthen communities.