However it does make for interesting reading. It’s just been released (October 2010), but only covers the year 2005-2006. The information is now going to be regularly updated, so that for instance the section on attendance in selected cultural venues for 2009-2010 is due out by next month.
Let me provide a snapshot of what I found to be some of the more interesting statistics, all of which relate to the period 2005-06:
- Australians on average spent 0.3% of their time visiting entertainment and cultural venues, which is the same as that spent on religious activities and three times as much as that spent at sporting venues.
- 3,630,000 people attended art galleries and 3,611,900 attended museums (i.e. almost equal) as compared to 5,699,000 that attended zoos or aquariums (surprisingly high) and 1,508,000 that attended classical music concerts (surprisingly low).
- Significantly more females attended art galleries than males, whereas only marginally more females attended museums than males.
- The frequency of attendance at art galleries (36% only once, 46% 2-4 times and 17% 5 times or more) was significantly higher than at museums (50% only once, 39% 2-4 times and 11% 5 times or more).
- 57% of overseas visitors attended a museum or art gallery and 62% visited a historic building or site
- State funding of collecting institutions varies widely, an interesting comparison being between the three major eastern states. On the face of it, there is a massive discrepancy between museum spending in Victoria and NSW, with the latter being far more supportive. Likewise in Queensland , it looks as though Archives are being disproportionately supported, though this may be due to capital works.
Art galleries Museums Libraries Archives
NSW $49.9m $138m $67.3m $7.9m
Victoria $43.7m $46.9m $85.9m $15.1m
Queensland $36.2m $37.1m $48.8m $51.9m
- Employment in museums and art galleries rose from 5,422 in 2001 to 6,204 in 2006 a rise of 14%, whereas employment in libraries dropped a massive 39% in the same period from 11,451 to 6,986, no doubt partly due to the introduction of technological services
- What is the offering that zoos/aquariums are providing that attracts so many more visits than art galleries and museums? Is it all about attracting kids?
- The significantly increased frequency of visits (i.e. return visitation) to art galleries over museums is in my view due to the better handle art galleries have on creating social spaces, i.e. places where people want to come to socially interact and dwell.
- With over 6 million overseas tourists and students coming to Australia each year, the fact that 57% of them visit a museum or art gallery must make us focused on how we cater for them.
- There are a large number of unemployed librarians out there.
Julian Bickersteth
Managing Director
internationalconservationservices
Posts
These figures always interest me.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know what the actual aggregate figures are - are the 3.6mil people who visit art galleries roughly the same 3.6mil who visit museums? and are these just a subset of the 5.7mil who visit zoos?
indeed art galleries do social spaces better than museums, but i wonder whether this is also a factor of the perceived cost of entry to some museums?
Hey! How I wish I could visit this place someday. You have a very informative and interesting page. Keep writing good stuff like this. I'll be looking forward to visit your page again and for your other posts as well. I had so much fun reading and of course to have additional learnings from you with this blog. Kudos! Thank you so much for sharing with us an information about this one. This is a good read!
ReplyDeleteBased on what I have read on a website, Tthe Egyptian Museum owns three different versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, including the most ancient copy known. An integral illustrated version and the personal copy of the First Royal Architect Kha, found by Schiaparelli in 1906 are normally shown to the public. On more than one occasion the director of the Museum was asked to remove the two copies of the book on display and stock them in a deep and dark basement, always for strictly esoteric reasons (as the papyrus emanates "negative energy"). At the time of writing, none of these requests appears to have been put into practice.
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