Regional Victorians might value the arts as importantly as their metropolitan peers, but those living outside of cities say distance, price and even an air of elitism are keeping them from taking part in creative ventures.
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An Australia Council survey of arts participation found 98 percent of both metropolitan and regional residents performed some sort of arts activity in the 12 months leading up to June last year, from listening to recorded music to attended attending an Indigenous exhibition.
Most also responded favourably when asked about the impact creative industries had on their lives, with two-thirds or more of people in regional Victoria finding the arts a useful form of expression and innovation.
But it was live arts attendance where city-dwellers moved ahead of their country cousins. In Victoria, 79 per cent of metropolitan respondents took in a live performance, eight points higher than among regional Victorians. Festival attendance was also significantly lower between city and regional populations.
Asked about potential barriers to access, cost and distance were both cited as obstacles for those outside of cities. As many as 50 per cent of people surveyed in regional Victoria also felt they needed specialised knowledge to fully understand art, while two in every four thought of arts audiences as pretentious or elitist.
But council data gathered last year indicates Bendigonians engagement with and attitudes towards the arts in might be above average, the city’s arts and culture co-ordinator, Maree Tonkin, said.
A municipal health and wellbeing survey conducted between December and April found as many as nine in every 10 Bendigonians took in a live performance last year, while ninety percent of respondents also reported mental health benefits because of their arts participation.
“Bendigo is such a vibrant, cultural city and we've always had a very high level or participation in arts,” Ms Tonkin said.
She also said the council was doing its best to make arts affordable, offering free events and hire subsidies for creative ventures.
Mark Kearney
Journalist. Traveller. Pop culture connoisseur. Mark is passionate about education, the arts and social justice, especially stories affecting the LGBTI community.
Journalist. Traveller. Pop culture connoisseur. Mark is passionate about education, the arts and social justice, especially stories affecting the LGBTI community.
