New Zealanders and the Arts - triennial survey published

New Zealanders believe the arts make their communities better places to live and agree they should be a part of everyone’s education.

The results are included in Creative New Zealand’s triennial survey, New Zealanders and the Arts: Attitudes, attendance and participation in 2017, which was launched by Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern, in Wellington last month.

Eight out of ten New Zealanders have participated in the arts or attended an arts event, or both, in the last 12 months resulting in a record high for arts engagement (80%).

“New Zealanders recognise the positive contribution the arts make to supporting strong, thriving communities and the development of happy, confident young New Zealanders,” said Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright.

In 2017 the research tested a range of statements including:

I feel proud when New Zealand artists succeed overseas (74% agree, 18% neutral)
the arts should reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity (67% agree, 25% neutral)
the arts should be part of the education of every New Zealander (61% agree, 26% neutral)
the arts contribute positively to our economy (59% agree, 30% neutral)
the arts help to improve New Zealand society (57% agree, 27% neutral)
my community would be poorer without the arts (50% agree, 29% neutral)
I learn about different cultures through the arts (64% agree, 22% neutral)

“While the majority of New Zealanders agree the arts contribute to their communities there is an opportunity and a challenge to encourage more New Zealanders to take the plunge to attend more arts events,” said Mr Wainwright.

Three in five New Zealanders (62%) agreed that while some arts events interested them they still did not attend much.

“We will be using the survey findings to provide intelligence to the arts sector and inform our own decisions about how we can best use our resources to engage more New Zealanders with the arts,” said Mr Wainwright.

About the survey

New Zealanders and the arts: Attitudes, Attendance and Participation in 2017 was an online survey conducted by Colmar Brunton consisting of more than 6,000 respondents with a margin of effort of +/- 1.3%. In 2017 the survey methodology changed from telephone to online which had an impact on the results. To allow the 2017 data to be compared with previous surveys a parallel “lite” telephone survey was conducted alongside the online survey. Findings from the previous telephone surveys have been re-weighted to an online equivalent.

A companion Audience Atlas New Zealand 2017 has also been published. It provides a detailed insight into New Zealanders’ relationship with arts, which arts and cultural organisations can use to increase audience engagement.