Everyday creative participation

Only 10% of people ‘strongly agree’ that going to arts and culture is one of their main interests, but a further 30% ‘agree’. And, beyond that, 41% profess personal creative pursuits to be among their key interests.

A strong 41% ‘agree’ (26%) or ‘strongly agree’ (15%) that creative hobbies are a main interest of theirs.

• Both of these skew towards younger people, with creative hobbies also higher among women (48% ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’, cf. 34% for men).
• A 57% majority of 16-19 year olds ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that creative hobbies are a main interest of theirs. As Figure 1. shows, those aged 16-24 participate a lot more compared to older age groups in categories like 'Fashion and style', 'Gaming' and writing.

Taking part in creative activities rose compared to before the pandemic, with 85% saying they had taken part in any of the options in the last 12 months, compared to 80% in the year before the pandemic.

• The largest increase was for creating with the natural world (41% in the last year cf. 31% pre-pandemic) and making food (66% cf. 59%), which were also the two most popular activities overall.
• Kaleidoscope Creativity were more likely to have taken part in an activity (91%) and Home and Heritage and Commuterland Culturebuffs were the least likely (79% for both).
• Women were also more likely to have taken part (89% cf. men 81%).
• Younger people were a lot more likely (96% of 16-24 year olds) with particularly higher than average participation in fashion and style activities (65% cf. 29% overall), gaming (67% cf. 34%) and visual arts (58% cf. 27%).
• At 76%, younger people were, though, less likely to have read for pleasure in the last year, whilst 87% of 65s and older had done so.
• Families were also more likely to have taken part in independent creative pursuits (88%).

Lower costs, ideas and inspiration, and help with skills/training were the top three things that respondents said would help to support their creative activities (47%, 38%, 31% respectively).

• Visual arts, crafts and fashion tended to want support with materials and resources.
• Film and audio and performing arts tended to want more help with spaces to do their activity, as well as access to technology.
• Earning money or turning the activity into a career was more often picked by those who did writing or visual arts.
• People doing dancing and discussions around arts and culture tended to want more support with finding peers.

• A majority of activities were most often done alone, most prominently craft and writing.
• Making food, discussing arts, and performing arts, though, were all done mostly with others from the same household.
• All activities were most done at home, although a few had higher proportions than others doing them outside the home: dance, performing arts, and discussions about arts and culture.
• Many of the activities (but not all) had a majority saying that they would like to do it more, and better, but not differently.

If Everyday Creativity is an area of interest for you, we'll be delving more into what the data tells us about this topic in our free online TEA Break on Nov 9th.