Outdoor arts: Key to increasing audience diversity

The latest ACE review of Equality, Diversion and Inclusion revealed the diversity of audiences is very low in comparison with the national population. Director of OutdoorArtsUK, Sho Shibata thinks lessons could be learned from this sector:

When Arts Council England released its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Review 2018-23 last month, I was initially thrilled to see improvements in the range of grant recipients and the workforce of core funded organisations. However, the drop in audience diversity was a cause for alarm.

It reported that the percentage of audiences who identify as non-white has decreased from 16% to 10%. It also initially reported that disabled audience members dropped from 12% to 10%, but this has since been revised as an increase from 9% to 10% after a review. But this is still way below 24% – the percentage of disabled people in the national population.

Participants at New Vic and Appetite Sensasian Family Fun Day. Photo Malcolm Hart

The review was published a week after Culture Minister Lisa Nandy’s announcement of the Hodge review into Arts Council England to explore “ACE’s role in supporting excellence across the country, ensuring that everyone is able to participate in and consume culture and creativity, regardless of their background or where they live”.

I understand that the way arts organisations collect audience data does not give an accurate picture, but a declining – or at best stagnant – trend in audience representation is surely not a good sign. Sorting out data collection is one solution, but how can the culture sector respond to turn this tide?

Read the full article on the OutdoorArtsUK website.