Information

Facts & Figures

Visual art is ubiquitous in our daily lives - in the media, in our towns and streets, as well as in galleries and collections. We live in a compelling, complex and dynamic visual world. Try imagining a day with all the visual art and art related design around you blanked out. It would be very depleted.

Most art in galleries and museums is free to attend and enjoy.

The arts budget is less than 0.1% of total Treasury spend. The current level of funding for the arts costs less than 17p a week per person – less than half a pint of milk, or a daily newspaper.
71% of Londoners feel that it is important that taxpayers’ money continues to be invested in London’s culture during difficult economic times.

In 2008/9 in England: over three quarters - 76% - of English adults engaged in the arts; 45% of adults attended a museum, gallery or archive; 66.3% of 5-10 year olds attended a museum or gallery and over 97% engaged in the arts; 60% of 11-15 year old visited a museum or gallery and nearly 99% engaged in the arts.
In Scotland 38% of adults visited a museum or gallery and 78% took part in some kind of cultural activity in 2007/8.
5.2m people visited Tate Modern in 2006/7, making it the most visited modern art museum in the world. For 33% of these visitors it was their first visit to the gallery. In the same period the Tate website attracted 11.25 million visitors and currently attracts around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
The Banksy exhibition at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, 2009 attracted 3,859 visitors a day, was the 8th most popular contemporary art exhibition in the world and had an economic impact of £15m. The Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2009 attracted 3,604 visitors a day.
Liverpool Biennial 2008 had 451,000 visitors over 10 weeks and had an economic impact of £26.6m.

Pallant House Gallery has an economic impact of £2.7m.

The visual arts overall contribution to GVA is £1.9bn per annum.
The economic benefits of the UK’s major museums and galleries are estimated to be £1.5bn per annum.

Download full document with sections on popularity, economy, attitudes, references (updated 4.08.10) >>

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Related articles: Key Sources of Cultural and Sporting Data in England

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