Taking part proves degrees have influence

New  research released today by the Scottish Arts Council has shown, for the first time, the significance of higher education on those attending or taking part in the arts.

Where previously factors such as socio-economic class, postcode or age were considered to have a greater impact on the general population’s attitude to the arts, either as audiences or participants, this analysis confirms that those who have a degree or other higher education qualification are 10% more likely to attend or participate in arts or culture events than the general population.

Comparing attendance and participation across different parts of the general population, the Taking Part research shows that while 74% of those without a qualification will attend or participate in the arts, the percentage will rise to 97% if that person has a degree.  Similar rises are shown when the question is asked of those with a disability; a disabled audience member is 100% likely to attend or participate in the arts if they also hold a degree, whereas the figure is 71% for those without any qualifications.

Jim Tough, Chief Executive, Scottish Arts Council, welcomed the findings and added: ‘These results are remarkable in showing the power that education has on attitudes to the arts.  Taking Part confirms that, regardless of your personal background or circumstances, you are more likely to enjoy the arts if you have also enjoyed higher education.’

For the first time in Scotland at a national level, the research has also uncovered new information about the influences behind peoples’ attitudes to the arts.  Using the Scottish population as a baseline, researchers identified new groupings of attitudes to the arts. These new groups include:

• Experienced seekers: this group frequently engage with the arts and are open to new experiences. Experienced seekers make up 14% of the population.
• Prudent purchasers: value-for-money has a significant influence on how this group spend their leisure time. Prudent purchasers comprise 17% of the population.
• Time poor: this group would spend more time engaging with the arts, but has other commitments that prevent that.  21% of the population identify themselves with this group.
• Free: this group has more time, income and freedom to enjoy the arts and are generally younger. This group is around 17% of the population.
• Restricted: people in this group face barriers to participating in the arts, whether through disability, lack of information, long-term illness or age.  Comprising 17% of the population, this group would like to enjoy the arts more frequently.
• Opting out: this group are more likely to identify themselves as feeling uncomfortable in a gallery, theatre or arts centre and are less likely than any section of the population to attend or participate in the arts. Fourteen percent of the population identify themselves as ‘opting out’.

This new analysis, or segmentation, supports the overall findings of Taking Part that 90% of the Scottish population have either participated in, or attended an arts event in the last 12 months.  While there has been a small decline in participation since the last survey in 2006, both attendance and participation have increased since 2004.  When asked, 64% of the Scottish population said they would like to attend different arts or cultural events in future.

Commenting on the new analysis, Jim Tough said: ‘The new groups identified give us much more detailed information than was previously available.  Anecdotally, we knew that there was no such thing as a ‘typical’ arts audience and this helps us understand what lies behind people’s views of the arts.

‘Each group has particular preferences and attitudes; for example, we now know that we will have to work harder to convince those ‘opting out’ that they could and can enjoy the arts.’

Other findings in the research include a decline in buying and reading books (from 67% in 2006 to 61% in 2008) and that only 6% of older people in the population (compared to 49% of the general population) will use the internet to find out information about the arts or book tickets online.

In another first, the Scottish Arts Council will publish the statistical information gathered for the Taking Part survey online, to make it available to researchers worldwide under ‘open source’ conventions.

Notes to editors

1. The Scottish Arts Council is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) which was established by Royal Charter in 1994 and is also a Lottery distributor. The organisation serves the people of Scotland by fostering arts of excellence through investment, development, research and advocacy. Our corporate aims are: to support artists to fulfil their creative and business potential; to increase participation in the arts; and to place the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of learning. We invest £60m each year, including £15 million of National Lottery funding.
2. The Taking Part survey into attendance and participation in the arts has been conducted bi-annually for more 10 years. Since 2004, alterations to the questions asked means that some data cannot be compared on a ‘like for like’ basis.
3. The full report and Summary of key findings can be found here
   
   1. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 – Full Report (pdf )
   2. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 - Summary of Key Findings (pdf)
       
4. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 report results displayed using PowerPoint
   
   1. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 – Summary using graphs (PowerPoint file - 2.7 MB )
   2. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 – Results of Multivariate analysis (PowerPoint file - 876 KB)
   3. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 – Results of Segmentation analysis (PowerPoint file - 1.01 MB)
       
5. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 – data tables and chart using Excel
   1. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 – data tables and chart (Excel - 2.53 MB)
   2. Taking Part in Scotland – guide to using Excel Viewer (Word - 544 KB)
       
6. Taking Part in Scotland 2008 - Full data set - SPSS file
   1. Taking part in Scotland 2008 - Full data set (SPSS file - 3.08 MB)
      (email research@scottisharts.org.uk with any technical queries about the research)

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council