Increased wellbeing is offset by continued worry
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.
Themes
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.
Wellbeing has improved a little and is returning towards normal, although there's still a way to go:
- 70% rating 'satisfaction with your life at the moment' as 6+ out of 10, compared with 67% back in June,
- Only 15% said that they were 'less' satisfied with their life now than before Covid, compared with 20% in June.
Not all opinions are moving in a positive direction though:
- This increase to wellbeing is despite people being more 'worried about falling ill with COVID' (57% vs 52% Strongly Agree or Agree, compared with June).
- And most people still expect further lockdowns, both this year (20% v likely, 47% quite likely, by Christmas) and next year (18% and 47%), though it drops off for 2023 (14% and 28%).
Other findings from Wave 4 | Autumn 2021
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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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Changed working habits may trigger a surge in localness
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.
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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.
