Changed working habits may trigger a surge in localness
September 2021
Cultural Participation Monitor
Wave 4 | Autumn 2021
This research is from The Audience Agency's nationwide longitudinal (ongoing) panel survey of changing views about participating in creative and cultural activities through the recent and ongoing crises, and beyond, the Cultural Participation Monitor.
Contents
Themes
Most people who have worked at home for some or all of the pandemic expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable. As these tend to be high cultural engagers, they may drive increased local attendance in future.
Working From Home Profiles
Those who have worked from home [WFH] differ from the overall population, in that:
They are more likely to:
| They are more likely to have:
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They are also likely to continue WFH in future — 90% of people who WFH ‘all the time’ during the pandemic expect to WFH ‘all the time’ or ‘mostly’ in the next 3 months and 81% feel the same in a time with no threat of Covid.
Local Intentions
This has implications for where these highly engaged audiences are likely to attend in the future, with more attendances where they live and work, rather than where they used to work.
In fact, audiences in general intend to engage in all activities more locally, suggesting that previous indications are becoming a more established expectation.
Other findings from Wave 4 | Autumn 2021
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Increased wellbeing is offset by continued worry
While people's sense of wellbeing continues to slowly improve, the same audiences' concern about falling ill with Covid-19 is growing, and most expect further lockdowns both this year and next.
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A lot of people still don't feel safe to attend
Willingness to attend has not increased since June and people remain worried about others' behaviour, though they don't appear to think there is much more organisations themselves should be doing to make them feel safe.
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Engagement is set to decline and pantos may struggle
People expect to engage less in general with arts, culture and heritage in the coming months, with a particular decline in interest in festive shows potentially signalling a bleak midwinter for venues.
