Ireland/ 8.2 Cultural consumption and participation  

8.2.1 Trends and figures

The most recent comprehensive study on public participation in the arts was published in late 2006, updating the last comprehensive survey which took place in 1994. The Public and the Arts 2006 found that Irish people generally have very positive attitudes to the arts, in particular the importance of the arts in education, the value of investment in the arts generally and in arts amenities, the role of the arts in society and the importance of exposure to the arts from different cultures in an increasingly multi-cultural Ireland. The top priority for people in terms of arts spending is for spending targeted at children and young people, followed by local, amateur and community-based arts and programmes aimed at areas of social disadvantage. Overall attendance and participation levels between 1994 and 2006 are shown to be similar.  Over the previous 12 months, some 85% of people had attended at least one arts event (up from 83% in 1994) with some evidence of a movement in attendance from conventional or subsidised art forms and genres towards the more popular and commercial arts.

Table 7:     Attendance at arts activities, 2006 and 1994

Source:    The Public and the Arts, 2006. n/a = not applicable, normally because the question was not asked in 1994. Figures based on 1 210 responses in 2006 and 1 200 responses in 1994.

Some 19% of people say they participated in at least one type of arts activity in the last year. The attendance Table indicates a fall in attendance since 1994 in the less commercial arts, this despite reduced barriers (see also chapter 4.2.8).

Table 8:     Participation in the arts in previous 12 months, in %

Source:    The Public and the Arts, 2006. Figures based on 1 210 responses.

86% of people currently buy or have bought, items relating to the arts. The growth of new distribution channels for arts material is evident in that some 27% of people had downloaded arts-related material from the internet in the last year. There is a growing use of new media and the main artforms watched / listened to reflect the main types of artforms that people attend i.e. watching films on TV or DVD.

Table 9:     Purchasing behaviour and the art, currently or ever, in %, 2006 and 1994

Source:    The Public and the Arts, 2006. Figures based on 1 210 responses in 2006 and 1 200 in 1994.

A total of 17% of the population indicated that they experience difficulties in attending arts events while 83% said that they do not. This represents a significant change from 1994 when 73% of the population attested to experiencing difficulties. The change relates to the significant expenditure in capital infrastructure in the past decade as well as increased car ownership, better roads etc. The main source of information on arts events is the local press while there are indications of a growing diversity of information channels. Fourteen million people visit Ireland's public libraries each year. A 2003 survey puts the level of usage at 36%, with over two-thirds of the population having been a member of a public library at some point. In international terms book issues per capita, at 3.4, are very low in Ireland and lag well behind other European countries. The Public and the Arts 2006 indicates that 64% of people said that they had read a book for pleasure in the previous year with 36% saying that they had not read any literature in that period. Figures for occupational class and education show significant differences in the levels of reading and an exclusion from the activity of reading for leisure of a large part of the population. In 2011 Arts Audiences, using resources of the Target Group Index for Ireland, published information which quantifies arts attendances in 2010/11 and provides some demographic information on arts attenders. They found that 57% (2 million) of the population are arts attenders of which 44% (1.5 million) attended once p.a. or more often. Theatre attendance was up by 8% on 9/10 to 1.4 million and up by 11% for exhibitions. This work showed that arts attendance is remaining consistent despite the crisis although frequency of attendance remains an issue. The study provides a profile of attenders for each art form (http://artsaudiences.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Arts-Attendance-in-Ireland-final-November-2010.pdf

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