While ARTNOW.NZ is an online platform designed to showcase outstanding contemporary art exhibitions, events and galleries throughout New Zealand, there are moments when something from overseas resonates with what we do.
ArtNow.NZ was developed in response to an urgent need to ensure that an art-interested public have easy and efficient access to the exhibitions and events that are on now. There are more than fifty galleries in New Zealand showing regular exhibitions of high-quality contemporary art, and prior to the launch of ArtNow.NZ in October 2018, there was no comprehensive, easy-access, publicly-engaging, digital listing site for good New Zealand contemporary art exhibitions.
As such, ArtNow.NZ is all about audiences for the visual arts. While we do not usually publish news that is not about NZ arts, the report 'Audiences for Visual Arts' recently published in England, caught our eye, and we believe that its contents has relevance to the arts in New Zealand.
Published by The Audience Agency in August 2019, 'Audiences for Visual Arts' states:
"The work of visual artists and curators can be critical in fostering dialogue and contributing to positive social change, in creating spaces where communities can face challenging ideas constructively. Visual Arts contribute to the creative economy, to originality across the creative industries, to the vitality of our towns and cities and, crucially, to tourism. Visit Britain data in fact indicates visiting galleries and heritage centres to be the no.1 intention of overseas tourists to the UK. This report tells an encouraging story of a Visual Arts audience that is socially varied, intellectually curious and increasingly dominated by a new generation, enthusiastic to engage.
The England-based Visual Arts galleries that contribute to this report vary in scale from micro-independent, to local authority managed public collections and larger nationally funded spaces. With the majority of galleries now offering free admission, the challenges they face from reduced funding and an audience that continues to demand relevance make it more important than ever to harness the power of data in influencing and informing programming. We must continue to find innovative and informed ways in which to grow support from gallery goers, funders and community partners."
The full report can be read by clicking here.
Some findings from the report which particularly resonated with ArtNow.NZ and how we think about visual arts include:
41% of Visual Arts audiences are aged 16-34, compared with 13% for most artforms. 41% of Museum audiences are over 65 years old.
Visual Arts audiences reflect the ethnic makeup of the English population more closely than most other artforms.
The Visual Arts not only offer us so much pleasurable experience and creative inspiration but are also central to our society and economy, engaged in their local communities and essential contributors to health, wellbeing, leisure and creative education.