Last July, we published a landmark report with the University of Warwick examining the state of the arts in the UK across five interconnected health metrics.
One year later, we’ve performed something of a ‘check-up’, revisiting each metric to see what’s changed – and what hasn’t. The result: 5 charts and 5 reactions from organisations on the frontline of each metric.
The charts don’t paint a comprehensive picture, or a universal one (two reflect data that is only available in or only applies to England). But they are vivid snapshots of a broader landscape, and together, they tell a striking story.
So let’s revisit our five health metrics – in no particular order:
1. Arts Engagement
A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which people from all communities and backgrounds are engaging with what’s on offer and participating in the arts.
Our updated analysis of official statistics found that…
📈 More adults in England are engaging with arts and culture
🚧 But engagement remains unequal
For some activities, this “engagement gap” between the most and least deprived people significantly widened – like going to the theatre, a concert or gig, and making music. For others, that gap closed slightly – like going to the cinema and taking photos as a hobby.
What hasn’t changed is the need for opportunities in all our everyday lives to engage with art – both to experience and to make it.
Nicky Goulder MBE – CEO of Create Arts, which runs the annual ‘Create Week’ celebrating creativity for everyone – said:
“We all need creativity to thrive, but opportunities to engage with the arts are still unequally distributed. That is why expanding access to creativity is crucial, and initiatives like Create Week matter.
We encourage everyone to stay involved now Create Week 2025 is over, and work towards a society in which all people, without exception, can benefit from the power of the creative arts.”
2. Arts Education
A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which high-quality arts education is valued and available to all, fostering creativity and developing the artists and audiences of the future.
Our updated analysis of official statistics found that…
📉 English state secondaries are spending even less time on arts subjects
🚜 And this is likely to be exacerbating inequalities across the cultural sphere
The figures we analysed only refer to state schools, and not independent ones. Looking at data about new arts facilities, artist-in-residence schemes, and academic strategies, one recent study found that over the same period, the arts have become more highly valued and integrated into the curriculum in private schools.
As a result, access to arts and cultural degrees and careers is highly skewed.
Sarah Kilpatrick – President of the National Education Union, which is coordinating the Arts and Minds Campaign – said:
“All students deserve a rich creative, artistic and cultural education of the kind that the wealthiest in our society take for granted. The arts make us who we are. Self-expression and shared experiences help us to define ourselves.
Private schools know the value of arts and creative subjects and the doors they open for children that study them. But too many state schools are constrained by underfunding and the curtailment of the curriculum which comes from the high-stakes accountability system we’ve had imposed upon them.
As a result, we have seen the status of these subjects plummet. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore the status of the arts in schools, and ensure that all children receive a rich education that allows them to thrive.”
3. Arts Provision
A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which there is an extensive and diverse cultural offering: places to go and things to do.
According to the latest analysis by the Music Venue Trust…
🚪 A net 25 UK Grassroots Music Venues shut their doors this year
🛟 A record 1 in 4 of those that are left now face existential threats to staying open
The threats faced by Grassroots Music Venues are grave – and unfortunately they aren’t unique. Nearly 40% of UK theatre buildings are at risk of closure. Only 41% of independent cinemas and mixed arts venues are confident their venue could survive the next three years without capital support. Over half of organisations funded by Arts Council England describe being in a “precarious financial position”.
Sophie Brownlee, External Affairs Manager at the Music Venue Trust, said:
“There is a very real crisis in the grassroots of our live music industry and the decreasing access to live music in our towns, cities and communities.
In 2024, the number of venues making a loss increased from 38.5% to 43.8%, with more venues seeking help from our Emergency Response Service year-on-year. Those venues that do manage to remain open, despite the financial challenges, are being forced to decrease their live music offer – running fewer shows at a higher cost.
Without dramatically improving the operating environment for grassroots music venues, and embracing the policy changes they need across planning, VAT, ownership and business rates, the result will be simple and stark: people will not be able to access live music in their local community, or the opportunities and experiences that come with it.”
4. Arts Funding
A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which there is robust and sustained funding, from both public and private sources, so arts initiatives can grow and flourish.
Our recent analysis of the June Spending Review found that…
🥉 Per-person spending on Culture, Media & Sport has fallen significantly since 2010, and is now projected to fall even further by the end of the decade
🥊 The impact of this is already being felt by artists and organisations, and the communities that they serve
Lizzie Crump & Clare Thurman, Co-Directors of What Next?, said:
“Public funding for the arts and culture is critical to the fabric of our society. Culture is part of a vital ecosystem that feeds the creative industries and contributes to growth – but is far more than the sum of these parts. The arts and culture are about joy, community, and the creation of new ideas and shared experiences.
It is a professional sector in its own right – one made up of large and small organisations, and powered by people (largely freelancers). It contributes strongly to many other agendas – from health to education – but is not defined by them.
The data provided by the Campaign for the Arts shows an erosion of funding that is deeply concerning. We have already seen the impact of years of retrenchment on people and organisations and on the communities that they serve; affecting jobs, buildings, the talent pipeline, innovation and opportunity.
There are holes in the fabric and we cannot afford for this to continue. Government has the ability and the mechanisms to turn this trajectory around: to fix these foundations, but also to be ambitious for our collective future. We need new ideas and models, risk and creativity. We need DCMS and the Treasury to listen and to act.”
5. Arts Employment
A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which people can sustain a decent living from their work creating or supporting art.
Our updated analysis of official statistics found that…
⛓️💥 Under 21s in the cultural sector are earning a fraction of the average for their age
🏏 This is likely to have a knock-on effect on who gets to contribute to the culture they live in
That’s if you earn a salary at all: the available data doesn’t consider the 47.9% of cultural sector workers who are self-employed. Artists Union England reported this month that 79% of their members did not earn enough from their art practice to live on.
And these figures hide other disparities: the gender pay gap closed slightly in 2024 after expanding year-on-year since 2021, but women still earn 83.1p for every £1 earned by men. The median wage in 2024 for workers across the cultural sector is over double in London versus the North East. DCMS doesn’t include ethnicity in this data.
So, the long-term, structured support for young people accessing cultural work provided by organisations such as Arts Emergency is essential to an equitable sector – and a representative culture.
Neil Griffiths, CEO of Arts Emergency, said:
“Creativity and culture don’t operate like typical sectors. They are not just industries; they are communities. Relationships and access to networks carry amplified influence on who gets in and gets on.
First-hand accounts from our community over the years reveal that many people earn a lot less than their peers in other sectors, and have to leave the industry or struggle to advance in it without having additional financial support.
Rather than fix ‘leaky pipelines’, we believe it’s vital we build a power-base for those on the outside to work together to change these industries profoundly and permanently – so that everyone can contribute to the culture they live in, in all kinds of valuable ways.”
Jack Gamble, Director of the Campaign for the Arts, said:
“One year on, the state of the arts in the UK remains a profound concern. Tens of millions of us engage with the arts – but threats to arts provision and funding continue to mount, arts teaching hours in English state secondary schools continue to fall, and access barriers and inequalities continue to blight our cultural landscape.
The arts are not a luxury, but an essential ingredient in a healthy society. For us to thrive, the arts must too. That’s why the Campaign for the Arts is working tirelessly to research, advocate and engage the public. Evidence-led and people-powered, we are striving to build a society in which the benefits of the arts and culture are valued and available to all.”
Like all our work, our research and analysis is funded almost entirely by small donations from our supporters, averaging £5.49 a month. If you found this valuable, please consider becoming a donor with £5 a month or whatever you can afford – we truly rely on supporters like you.
14 responses to “The State of the Arts: one year on”
The problem really isn’t the funding – the biggest problem is the lack of advertisement, promotion and real interest via TV and media outlets regarding the ARTS and culture – from learning an instrument at grassroots level in schools – our local secondary school head teacher actually made it clear that ARTS were not a priority subject for him and were not “real jobs”.
The amount of promotion for SPORTS in general – even more so with womens football becoming so current – is just incredible and that focus is, in my opinion, that “anyone can kick a ball so people are engaged because they can do the same, not at that level of course.
Playing a musical instrument takes a lot of skill, lots of time , lots of patience and certainly is not instant gratification, moreso for the listener! A better approach to getting people engaged with MUSIC, and long term interest, is needed.
Unless music has a proper allocation of time in state schools, taught by someone who has some musical training, playing an instrument, singing in a choir or making music with others will become the preserve of the better off who can pay for music lessons.
There is a real threat from the dominance of I.T. and the rise of artificial intelligence. As I.T. become more and more sophisticated , doing tasks previously undertaken by humans, thinking skills, reasoning debating, could be eroded and apparently superfluous. Hard won skills developed over a long period in vocal or instrumental music are less attractive compared to more instant results offered by I.T. where the hours of work in programming has been delegated to someone else (and paid accordingly!)
I suppose what I am saying is that a) we might all become lazier and b) probably more stupid!
(Refer to Financial Times magazine-Simon Kuper “Dumb is getting Dumber” July 12th 2025.)
This state of affairs might suit some governments: but with the problems we now face, we need invention, imagination, creativity and independent thought. As far as I know, during the 2nd W.W. the Spitfire, radar and Mulberry harbours all helped win the war, all produced by creative people with skills in their hands.
I admire the work that you do and am horrified to read about the lack of support and ignorance towards the arts and culture.
The report makes very worrying reading, and it was only to be expected that the new government would be harmful to the Arts in general. You do not mention the many thousands of singers who make up our choirs, and are all volunteers who also pay the costs of mounting the concerts. These amateur choirs and orchestras are a vital part of the country’s live music provision, and mainly perform in Churches and Cathedrals as most towns and villages have no other performance spaces. It was very revealing that during the Covid pandemic there were directives about “Professional choirs” although they are virtually non existant, other than the likes of “Voces 8” and “The Sixteen” and the BBC Singers, because all other choirs are unpaid.
I’d love to read about housing for artists and arts educators. Where do they live in relation to their work, under what kind of terms, does this impact on the kind of work roles they take up, etc. It’s great to hear about what it’s like for consumers of the arts, it would be great to hear about what it’s like for the producers and makers in the arts.
This is all very worrying. How do we redress the balance and make the arts more widespread and involving ?
My entire working lifetime was spent as a teacher and youth worker, immersed in the Arts. In retirement I write, teach creative writing and make leaded glass panels. Helping others – across all ages and abilities – find their voice is the passion that helped me find mine. I was a Take Art board member, rural touring promoter, and chair of our local arts group for over twenty years. My experiences have shown me time and time again that through the Arts, strong and vibrant Communities can flourish. The benefits to young people are tremendous. The trashing of the youth service was a tragedy for young people and society generally.
As long as the purpose of education is viewed as a means to the end of ‘getting a job’ then the arts will always be viewed by politicians and many parents and educators as a ‘nice’ extra. As a retired head, of a small rural primary school I always believed that the purpose of schools was to generate a love of learning leading to lifelong education.I shared my passion for the arts, and while I recognise that study of a musical instrument is costly in every way, all children can sing, all children can enjoy drawing/painting all children love to engage in drama etc etc. Engaging in creative arts builds confidence among children of all abilities and social background. Once upon a time children learned to sing by engaging in a daily collective act of worship!
I owe immense gratitude to the vision of both Kodaly and Karl Orff who believed in all children’s ability to engage in music making. These early beginnings in introducing the arts to children do not have to be costly. Once upon a time schools (and pupils ) benefitted from excellent BBC programmes such as ‘Singing Together’ and ‘Time and Tune’, both programmes which introduced children to musical notation from an early age.
In my early career I benefitted from intuitive and creative headteachers and colleagues who recognised the value of the arts in society. Consequently, in my own school we sought to give the children as much exposure to the arts as possible with visits to theatre, art galleries or orchestral workshops where possible. We took the children outdoors to record their reactions in drawing, paint and poetry. Children learned to look and to use their senses and this benefitted their studies in academic subject areas too.
Sadly, state schools will never compete financially with private schools, with parents who will pay extra fees to ensure their children will have opportunities to study music. we cannot compare and we have to accept that society will always encompass those who have and those who have not.
My father was a manual labourer, but yet he introduced me to theatre, opera and music and literature. My life has been enhanced and I am still learning, now in my 9th decade! Parents are teachers and encouragers too and have a huge part to play. Though I am not particularly skilled, I am grateful for the way the Arts have enriched my life.
This is an important and ongoing debate.
As a retired music teacher I am deeply concerned about the present decline in the available time allocated to the arts in state schools.
It is time the appalling National curriculum is ditched. In no way has it encouraged the importance for the arts and our children are being denied this which has exacerbated the rise of mental health.
We are notorious in Europe for thinking of maintaining the lack of the Arts.
Small venues are struggling because of the prohibitive prices of beer etc. Venues require concessions in utility prices and rebates for business rates. It appears that those in power just don’t care unless it’s somewhere to “be seen” with Royalty etc.
As a long time retired Primary School teacher I cannot understand the lack of realisation that all the arts are essential to, and sometimes the basis of, child development. For adults of all ages vital for our health and wellbeing, mental and physical. Helps keep us away from the doctors!
I think there is an artificial and unwarranted division in our education system between arts and science. To be truly fulfilled as people, we need both.
Also, our woes are built into our deep rooted class system, and that is reflected in this re[port. Unless that is addressd, there will always be problems. Easier said than done, of course.
It is hardly surprising to find a co-relation between lack of arts education and funding, which forms the central problem in this country. As an opera critic I attend performances both in the UK and Europe, France particularly. While many countries have seen spending on the arts squeezed, it is noticeable that so far as I can observe few deny the importance of the arts in mankind’s existence to the same degree as happens in this country. Audiences in Europe are far more balanced between ages, between classes that they they are here. It short it is my belief that Britain in general has lost its love and respect for the higher forms of artistic output.