Study highlights link between cultural engagement and workforce levels

English local authorities with higher numbers of people working in arts, culture and heritage have greater rates of engagement in most forms of arts and culture, according to a new study from the Creative Industries Policy and Education Centre Creative PEC).

Published yesterday (7 May), the centre’s latest State of the Nation report analysed recent trends in arts, culture and heritage engagement in England and the sector’s UK workforce, using figures from DCMS’s Participation Survey 2023–24 and the Office of National Statistics Quarterly Labour Force Survey up to September 2024.

The report found the strongest relationship between culture and heritage occupations and participation was related to art gallery attendance, followed by literary events and live dance.

Of the 10 English local authorities with the largest percentage of people working in arts, culture and heritage occupations, the report found six also ranked among the 10 with the largest percentage of people having visited an art exhibition.

The areas with the strongest correlation were mainly London boroughs, with the next highest areas outside the capital being Cambridge, Brighton and Hove, Oxford, Bristol and Waverley.

However, the report noted individual local authorities representing exceptions, such as Stoke-on-Trent, Milton Keynes and Harborough, which had particularly high participation in choreography and dance, while York, Norwich and Malvern Hills had high rates of writing stories or plays.

Focusing solely on participation, the report showed there are only 13 English local authorities where over half the population attended an art exhibition in the last twelve months, all of which were in London.

Head of policy at Creative PEC Bernard Hay said this possible relationship between higher rates of cultural engagement and a higher proportion of people working in the sector “adds further weight” to the idea that locally responsive culture and heritage strategies should aim “beyond solely boosting engagement for local communities”.

He added they should also consider how opportunities in the local arts, culture, and heritage workforce can be “nurtured and sustained as part of a more holistic approach”.

Widening participation inequalities

While Creative PEC concluded there had been no significant changes in metrics across the arts, culture and heritage workforce in 2023/2024 compared with 2022/2023, it found recovery in participation since the pandemic indicated increasing inequalities with respect to socio-economic background and ethnicity.

Between 2022/23 and 2023/24, the report found a 9% increase in the gap between middle-class and working-class people attending a live music performance and a 7% increase in the gap for attending an art exhibition.

The class differences were greatest for museums and galleries, with 54% of managerial or professional people visiting in the last 12 months compared with 31% of semi-routine and working-class people.

In nearly all cases the figures showed that Black and Asian people were less likely than people in other ethnic groups to have engaged in the DCMS categorised arts, culture and heritage activities. For example 23% of Black people and 19% of Asian people had attended live music, compared with 42% of white people.

The report’s lead author, Dr Mark Taylor, University of Sheffield, said in some respects, the research “points to good news,” with overall rates of participation and attendance in arts and culture significantly increasing between 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.

“However, this post-pandemic recovery has not been experienced equally,” he said.

“The increases have been smaller among people in working-class households, and among Black people, meaning some inequalities have become wider. This shows the scale of the challenge for policymakers interested in addressing cultural inequalities between places across the country and between different groups.”

Alongside the report, Creative PEC has also published a series of dashboards aimed at local authority policy makers on arts, culture, economic growth and regeneration. These dashboards show how engagement with different forms of arts, culture, and heritage varies by characteristics and how it has changed across English local authorities between the survey years.