Cultural Participation Monitor

Wave 6 | Spring 2022

April 2022 | 3,197 responses

Findings from the April 2022 wave of our Cultural Participation Monitor look at how attitudes towards audience safety, home working, local attendance, and the impact of the cost of living crisis are shifting as the pandemic moves into its latest phase.

Key Findings

• Willingness to attend events, especially outdoors, is rising

  Overall there is much increased willingness to attend events and optimism about future attendance, though some groups continue to be especially concerned, with disabled people less likely to be willing or able to attend.

  

• Nearly half of people engaged with arts and culture digitally during the pandemic

  Nearly half of people say that they engaged with arts and culture online in some form during the pandemic, weighted towards audiences who are younger, typically high cultural engagers anyway, or disabled.

  

• Support for Covid-19 safety measures is starting to ebb

  Safety measures are rated as less important than they have been previously, but desire for them continues, with half of audiences still saying that they would not attend if precautions were removed all together.

  

• The cost-of-living crisis is starting to impact people's willingness or ability to spend on arts and culture

  The cost of living crisis is emerging as a predictable barrier to engagement, and is particularly likely to affect frequency of attendance (more than spend per attendance - though increased prices would act as a further deterrent).

  

• Working from home is here to stay

  Working from home is still prevalent, preferred and expected to continue in to some degree for most, which is likely a contributor to the widespread intention to attend more locally in future than before the pandemic.