Boost in live arts attendance, but regular engagement declines

More adults in England reported attending an arts event in 2023/2024 than in the previous year, research from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has found. 

However, during the same period, the number of people who engaged with the arts every week in person dropped, as did the proportion of people who took part in creative activities at home.

The findings from DCMS’s lastest Participation Survey for 2023/24 show that audience appetite for attending live experiences – including theatre, visual arts and live music – is rising. 

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• Frequent engagement with the arts decreasing
• More than half of arts audiences are first-time bookers

Questioned between January and March 2024, the number of respondents who reported attending at least one arts event in the last 12 months increased by three percentage points to 77% compared with the same period in 2023.

The number of people visiting the theatre, opera or ballet grew by seven percentage points to 41%, while the figures for visiting an exhibition were up four points to 26%. Live music attendance was up five percentage points to 39%.

The survey showed that during the same period, the proportion of people visiting a public library at least once also increased by six percentage points to 26%.

Engagement and activities

The data also showed a rise in the number of people who had engaged with the arts physically and digitally at least once in the previous 12 months, increasing from 26% to 35%, while online there has been a total increase in arts sector engagement of eight percentage points to 35%.

While there is a slight increase in physical engagement with the arts on a monthly basis, weekly engagement is down 10 percentage points to 60%. 

Annually, physical participation in arts activities remained stable at 79%, but the number of people partaking in arts, crafts or creative activities at home was down three percentage points to just 1%.

Commissioned in partnership with Arts Council England, the Participation Survey aims to gauge levels of virtual and physical participation, engagement, and attendance in arts and culture by polling more than 170,000 adults across England, with findings presented quarterly.

Campaign for the Arts director Jack Gamble recently described UK engagement in the arts sector as a "cause for hope" amid challenges in the sector related to national and local funding, conditions of employment and education.

Speaking at the House of Lords on July 22, Gamble said: "Engagement is a cause for hope. People love the arts in this country. Tens of millions of us engage with the arts each and every year.

"But on literally every other metric, we are failing as a nation."