ArtsFacts
How important are Arts & Culture to Canadians?
While it is widely accepted that they provide significant financial, philosophical and social benefits for all Canadians, the reality is it can be difficult to quantify the true direct and ancillary impact that these sectors represent. The following arts related research statistics have been compiled by a variety of leading organizations, and illustrate just how important it is for municipalities, including Meaford, to embrace culturalendeavours to raise awareness, increase tourism, and improve the overall quality of life for its residents.
Presenters in Canada
There are more than 1,400 performing arts presenting organizations in Canada. Annually, they present more than 80,000 performances by professional artists, and pay artistic fees estimated at more than $200 million.
Source: CAPACOA, Interim Report of Findings, The Value of Presenting, 2012. Presenting Networks
Public Funding of Arts Presentation
One of the main source of funding for live presentation at the federal level is the Canada Arts Presentation Fund. Each year, the CAPF supports approximately 600 professional arts festivals and performing arts series in more than 250 cities or communities across Canada.1 From 2013-14 to 2017-18, the program supported on average 38,210 performances per year with an average of 22.4 million attendees per year.2 Grants and contributions totalled $32.5 million in 2019-2020.3 For every dollar invested by the program, an average of $8.50 is directly spent in the Canadian economy.4
Sources:
1 Canada, Canada Arts Presentation Fund, accessed December 23, 2019.
2 Canada, Grouped Arts Evaluation: Canada Arts Presentation Fund, Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, and Canada Cultural Investment Fund 2013-14 to 2017-18, 2019.
3 Canada, 2019-20 Estimates.
As part of Canada’s Creative Export Strategy, CAPF was provided an additional $500,000 per year from 2017-2018 to 2022-2023. These Estimates do however not include supplemental funding of $16 million over two years from the 2019 federal budget.
4 Canada, Grouped Arts Evaluation: Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF), Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF), Canada Cultural Investment Fund (CCIF), 2014.
Attendance and Importance of the Performing Arts
Seven in ten Canadian (68%) attended a performing arts event or an artistic or cultural festival in 2016. This attendance rate is high across all demographic groups.(1)
86% of Canadians are accessing performing arts presentations via television, Internet or other media channels. Yet, they are twice as likely to ascribe a high importance to live performing arts attendance than to any media-based consumption
Sources:
(1) Statistics Canada, 2016 General Social Survey, as analyzed in Hill Strategies Research, Canadians’ Arts, Culture, and Heritage Participation in 2016, 2018.
(2) Source: EKOS Research Associates, Survey of the General Public, The Value of Presenting, 2012.
An Economic Driver
- The live performance domain contributed $2.7 billion to the Canadian Gross Domestic Product in 2016.(1)
- The live performance domain accounted for 65,000 jobs in 2016.(1)
- International visitors spent $220 million in direct spending for live performance events in Canada in 2016; more than for any other culture and sports sub- domains, including organized sports ($171 million) (2)
- The average Ontario arts and culture tourist spends twice as much per trip as does a typical tourist – $667 per trip versus $374. (3)
- 65% of businesses and skilled workers agree that a thriving arts and culture scene is a driving factor when considering relocation. (4)
Public Benefits and Social Impacts of the Performing Arts
- 95% of Canadians believe that arts experiences are a valuable way of bringing together people from different languages and cultural traditions.
- 95% of Canadians believe that arts are an important way of helping people think and work creatively.
- 94% of Canadians believe that arts and culture make a community a better place to live.
- Festival attendees are twice as likely as non-attendees to volunteer, even accounting for other factors.
- In general, arts goers have better health, higher volunteer rates, and stronger satisfaction with life.
- Adults who attend live arts performances, art museums or art galleries are far more likely than non- attendees to vote [38% more, in the case of live arts attendees], volunteer, or take part in community events.
- Participation in the arts, especially as audience, predicts civic engagement, tolerance and altruism.
Environics Research, Arts and Heritage Access and Availability Survey 2016-2017.
Hill Strategies, The Arts and Individual Well-Being in Canada, 2013.
Public Support for the Arts
- Canadians volunteered 107 million hours for arts and culture organizations in 2013 – equivalent to 56,000 full-time jobs.
- Those Canadians who volunteered gave on average more time for arts and culture than any other sector in 2013 (120 hours).
- The total donations and the number of donors have increase at a higher pace for arts and cultureorganization than for other not-for-profit organizations between 2007 and 2013 (respectively 46 vs. 16% and 34 vs. 6%).
- 9 in 10 Canadians (88%) agree with governments providing support for the arts and culture.
- 81% of Ontarians agree that the government should spend public dollars to support the arts.