Audiences for Art - and how to engage them

Some of you may recall Grayson Perry's Reith lectures where he referenced audiences for the Arts. The one that stuck in my mind was "Fun, Fashion and Friends".

I've now discovered the document from which this came.  It's a report called "Arts audiences: insight". You can download the report for free:

• Arts audiences: insight 2011 [PDF 1.6 MB]
• Arts audiences: insight 2011 [Word 165.5 KB]

According to the Arts Council, it provides

an arts-based segmentation of English adults

Each of the market segments are analysed according to their behavioural habits and interest in the arts.

The market segments are listed below. The links in the titles are to the pages online where you can read more about them

Urban Arts Eclectic

Retired culture vulture

Highly engaged

• Urban arts eclectic  
• Traditional culture vultures     

Some engagement

• Fun, fashion and friends   
• Mature explorers                         
• Dinner and a show                       
• Family and community focused   
• Bedroom DJs       
• Mid-life hobbyists 
• Retired arts and crafts  

Retired arts and crafts 

Not currently engaged

• Time-poor dreamers 
• A quiet pint with the match 
• Older and home-bound 
• Limited means, nothing fancy

Looks like I'm a traditional culture vulture with significant elements of Mature explorer and leanings towards "Urban arts eclectic" and "retired arts and crafts"

Key findings

The analysis identified 13 distinct arts consumer segments among English adults. The percentages show the estimated proportion of English adults in each segment.

Highly engaged		Urban arts eclectic 3%	Traditional culture vultures 4%
Some engagement		Fun, fashion and friends 16%	Bedroom DJs 2%
		Mature explorers 11%	Mid-life hobbyists 4%
		Dinner and a show 20%	Retired arts and crafts 4%
		Family and community Focused 9%
Not Currently engaged		Time-poor dreamers 4%	Older and home-bound 11%
		A quiet pint with the match 9%	Limited means, nothing fancy 3%

Why not have a read (it's not long) and:

• check out  the audience likely to buy your art - and what they do, read, think, behave
• then work out what you are most like!

It certainly tells you something about where those you are most likely to buy your art might be looking for it!  It also tells both B&M art galleries how they should be targeting their market segments

The report indicates that

artists and arts organisations we have spoken to about this research so far have said that they might use it to:

• increase collective knowledge about how people in England engage with the arts – putting individual projects into context 

• develop potential new strategies for increasing arts engagement and expanding audiences 

• inform the marketing of existing arts opportunities

There is more information

If you want to know more about a particular segment, please go to www.artscouncil.org.uk/audienceinsight, where you can find: 

• online versions of the segment descriptions 

• tables with more detailed Taking Part survey data on the segment’s sociodemographic profile, arts attendance and participation patterns and engagement with other cultural sectors and sport sectors 

• suggestions on how this research might be used 

• a technical note with further information on the analytical methodology 

• a comprehensive question and answer section 

• an online quiz where you can identify which segment you fall into 

This is the link to the online quiz which tells you which group you actually belong to.