Places

In all UK nations and regions, the arts, culture and heritage sector has been faced with new challenges through the pandemic and now the evolving cost-of-living crisis, prompting organisations to adapt to new ways of working.

The Working From Home Effect
Levelling Up For Culture High Priority Places
Nations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales

Latest Key Insights

Working from home is here to stay and is likely to result in more people engaging locally with arts and culture:

1/3 people expect to attend closer to home then pre-pandemic,

This is many more than say they will travel further than they used to, and likely a result of work/life balances becoming more home oriented.
This trend towards increased local attendance and away from greater travel to cultural events holds across most art forms.
Nearly 30% of people say that they have discovered new cultural things to do in their local area that they didn’t know about before Covid-19, indicating that awareness about engaging with the arts locally (and therefore likelihood to do so) is very much on the rise.

More about the Working From Home effect

Levelling Up for Culture

The 109 target areas that ACE and DCMS have identified are largely 'Low Engaged' according to Audience Spectrum:

The correlation between the areas that the government's Levelling up for Culture initiative has identified as 'High Priority', and those dominated by currently Low Engaged Audience Spectrum segments is encouraging.

Notably, two subsegments particularly stand out as being especially present in the Levelling Up for Culture places designated as High Priority. These are:

Up Our Street – U2 | Older residents of terraces and flats in built up areas.
Frontline Families - F2 | Younger cash-strapped families & couples starting out.

About Levelling Up Locations by Audience Spectrum Profile

Nations

We're constantly examining the arts and cultural landscape of different places across the UK and gathering what we know so that you can better understand your situation:

Evidence | England

As in other areas of the UK, the arts, culture and heritage sector in England has been faced with unprecedented challenges this year, prompting organisations to adapt to new ways of working.

Evidence | Northern Ireland

As in other areas of the UK, the arts, culture and heritage sector in Northern Ireland has been faced with unprecedented challenges this year, prompting organisations to adapt to new ways of working.

Evidence | Scotland

As in other areas of the UK, the arts, culture and heritage sector in Scotland has been faced with unprecedented challenges this year, prompting organisations to adapt to new ways of working.

Evidence | Wales

As in other areas of the UK, the arts, culture and heritage sector in Wales is open for business again, having faced a series of unprecedented challenges since March 2020, prompting organisations to adapt to new ways of working.