AusCo National Arts Participation Survey 2020
Creating Our Future: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey, Australia Council for the Arts, September 2020
Creating Our Future: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey is the fourth study in the landmark research series that explores Australians’ engagement with and attitudes towards the arts.
Click image to download a PDF of the report.
The National Arts Participation Survey asks how Australians are engaging with arts and creativity in our daily lives. How do Australians feel about arts and creativity? How is our arts engagement changing? Do we recognise the impacts of arts and creativity in our lives and communities? How do Australians feel about public funding for the arts?
The survey was conducted in late 2019, not long before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our world, lives, and the cultural and creative industries. The survey results provide a benchmark of Australians’ arts engagement before the impacts of the pandemic, providing much needed information as doors reopen, audiences are rebuilt and the cultural and creative industries are re-ignited.
The report provides vital new evidence about the essential role arts and creativity play in Australian communities, showing the arts are a public good infused and embedded in the fabric of our daily lives.
In 2019, targeted methods were used to ensure better representation of young Australians; regional and remote First Nations communities; communities for whom language might be a barrier to participation in the survey; and Australians with intellectual disability.
We continue to capture and grow our understanding of how people from diverse backgrounds understand, participate in, and value the arts.
‘As our families, communities, and nation come to terms with the uncertainty, isolation and social and economic disruption of the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the power of the arts and creativity to connect and uplift us, to reduce expenditure across health and social services and to stimulate tourism and local economies, has never been more important.’
– Dr Wendy Were, Executive Director Advocacy and Development