Scotland's Culture

Each year the Scottish government conduct a Scottish Household Survey that gives us an insight into the composition, characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of Scottish households and individuals. The research is used by the government to support their work in transport, communities and local government policy areas and allow for the early detection of national trends. The Survey covers a range of topics including housing, communities, economic activity, finance, education, transport and travel, the internet, health and caring, local services, volunteering and culture and sport.

I’ve been looking over the last three published reports going back to 2007 to see what trends we can detect about cultural attendance and participation in Scotland. I’ve picked out some of the things which caught my attention and I’ll let you interpret the facts in the way you want. However this type of information can help you to identify either how big a potential local or national audience you could have, or help us to identify areas that we need to grow, develop and support.

Sian’s Top Insights into the Scottish Household Survey

I’ve been looking at the reports from 2007/2008, 2009/2010 and the most recent report 2011 to see what patterns or trends I can see. These are some which stood out.

Participation and attendance

• 63% of the population read for pleasure, by far the most popular cultural activity to participate in (the second most popular activity is dancing with 17%). There are approximately 5.2 million people living in Scotland, so this means around 3.3 million people read for pleasure.
• When we then look at the cultural activities that people attend in Scotland it shows that only 5% of the population attend book or writing related events, that’s about 261,100 people. A fraction of the total number of people who read books.
• A similar trend emerged for dance – 19% of the population participate in dancing, however only 5% attend a live dance or ballet performance. It is not clear what the survey means by ‘participate in dancing’ and whether that refers to classes or dancing on a night out.
• However in music, art, theatre and cinema the behaviour shows the opposite trend.
• Around 11% of the population play an instrument, however 28% have attended a live music event (that’s around 1.5 million people).
• 9% of people actively create art or sculpture, while 17% have attended a gallery, and a further 17% have attended an exhibition or viewed an art collection (together that’s around 1.7 million people – although I would imagine that people who said they have visited a gallery are likely to be the same people who say they attend exhibitions).
• And in cinema, 53% of the population have been to the cinema to see a film (the most popular activity attended in Scotland), however only 2% of people in Scotland actively make film or video’s.

Age

I noticed three possible trends in the data around age and attendance.

• There has been a small rise (2%) of the number of 16 to 24 year olds in attending cultural events in the last 5 years (2007-2011).
• Similarly for people aged 25 to 34 there has been a 2% increase in attendance.
• Together that’s about an extra 25,000 people under the age of 34 attending cultural events.
• However, this is compared to a 3% decrease in the number of people aged 75 and over attending cultural events – this equates to a drop of around 10,970 people.

 Frequency of Attendance

• A quarter of people go to the cinema once a month in Scotland (that’s about 705,000 people), while 42% of people go 3 or 4 times in a year (around 1.1 million people).
• On average 27% of the population have attended the theatre in the last 5 years (1.4 million people), of these less than a third have been 3 or 4 times a year (approximately 469,990 people), just over a third had been twice a year and less than a third once a year.
• Similar patterns emerged from museum attendance, live music attendance, exhibition and gallery attendance. Around about a third of people will attend 3 or 4 times a year, a third twice a year and a third once a year.
• In Crafts, although the survey does not clearly outline what a craft exhibition is and whether that includes craft fairs or visiting craft shops, approximately 11% of the population (574,430 people) have attended a craft exhibition. Around 23% go 3 or 4 times a year, 35% go twice a year and 36% go once a year.
• There has been an increase in the frequency of craft exhibitions people attend in the last 5 years – we can see a 5% increase from 21% of people attending craft exhibitions 3 or 4 times a year in 2007 to 26% in 2011 – that’s an increase of approximately 28,700 people in 5 years.
• In opera and classical music 6% of the population attend these events (that’s around 313,330 people). Of these 40% attended one event per year, 30% saw 2 events per year and 22% saw 3 or 4 events, which is approximately 68,930 people.
• We can also see some rises and falls within opera and classical music attendance over the last 5 years. In 2009/2010 there was a big rise in the number of people attending classical and opera events. In 2007/08 27% of people saw 2 events per year, and then in 2009/10 34% of people had seen 2 events. However in 2011 only 29% of people went to see 2 classical or opera events – that’s a drop of 5% – approximately 21,932 people from the previous two years.
• A similar fall can be seen in the number of people who see opera or classical music once a year. In 2007/08 44% of people went to see at least one classical or opera concert (that’s around about 137,863 people). While in 2011 this dropped by 5% to 39% – which is a fall of about 15,666 people.
• Finally dance showed a different trend, of the 5% of the population who attend live dance or ballet performances, over 50% go to see a show once a year, 25% go twice a year and 15% go 3 or 4 times a year.

Rural versus Urban

For the first time in 2009/2010 the survey distinguished between urban and rural attendance and participation. Although we only have two reports worth of data to compare there are some interesting trends to be brought to your attention.

• Attendance of live music events in urban areas and accessible rural areas has increased by 5%.
• Theatre attendance across urban and rural areas has stayed the same since 2009.
• Museum attendance has increased by 5% in remote rural areas.
• Gallery attendance has increased in remote small towns by 5% and 4% in rural areas.
• Nearly twice as many people in rural areas attend craft exhibitions as they do in urban areas. While 10% of urban populations go to craft events, 19% do so in remote rural areas and 17% in accessible rural areas.
• 8% of large urban populations attend dance performances compared to 7% of people in accessible rural areas; only 5% attend dance performances in remote rural areas.
• Of course there are individuals who do not attend any cultural events during the year, and the report shows us that 22% of people in urban areas do not attend, while 30% of people in remote rural areas do not attend.

There is a lot more information available in the reports which you can download directly from the Scottish Governments website (all links made available below). And if you would like any advice on how to use and interpret this kind of data then you can get in touch with me.

Scotland’s People

Scottish Household Survey 2007/2008

Scottish Household Survey 2009/2010

Scottish Household Survey 2011

The exhibition considers the relation of art and science and the difficulties in translating ideas from one to the other. By making a live connection from the physical and geographic location of HICA, to Hangar, a centre for arts production and research in Barcelona, the city in which Puig lives and works, he presents an equivalent dialogue through which ideas of translation may be explored.

A performance on the opening day (Sunday 8 July) will establish this dialogue, enacting various translations simultaneously between HICA and Hangar, via the internet: Photographic images and poetic texts directly related to each specific location will be variously encoded and deciphered, obtaining data sequences which, transmitted on-line, are presented as equivalents to the source materials’ DNA. An experiment in the unification of geographically distant points, the analysis of this ‘DNA’ further enables Puig to conduct a comparison of place as sequence alignment, following the scientific methods of bioinformatics and computational genomics. The comparison will generate new ways of seeing and understanding the source materials, as image and information, and explore the reality of concurrency as something disruptive to our individual sense of personal narrative, and our narratives of place.

Throughout his work Puig considers whether language, and art, through their conceptual separation from reality, unavoidably manipulate ‘fact’. He specifically draws parallels between human bodies and minds, and the physical components of computers and the virtual states they create, asking whether the ‘language’ of computers might be similarly afflicted. To this end, his works have created corrupted computer data to be endlessly repeated, or randomly generating computer programmes with no input possible from the user. He has further incorporated manifestations of the real and fake, through such disparate sources as Instants, a poem purportedly written by Jorge Luis Borges, the fake pop group Milli Vanilli, and the TV documentary Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?

A specialist in computer-art and digital printing, Puig is Professor in the Department of Painting at the University of Barcelona, and a member of the Imarte research group. He held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Akademie der Künste München Bildenden, through 2008, and his exhibitions include Gallery Ferran Cano (Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona), I8 (Reykjavik), I.Bongard (Paris), Cavecanem (Seville), with other audiovisual projects including the CGAC (Santiago de Compostela), SonarCinema at CCCB, Mostra d’Arts Electroniques 2000, and CASM (Barcelona).

Simultaneous translation / Traducció simultània runs from 8 July – 12 August, and is open on Sundays 2 – 5pm, or by appointment.

HICA, Dalcrombie, Loch Ruthven, Dores, Inverness-shire, IV2 6UA, UK

T: +44 (0)1808-521-306 info@h-i-c-a.org  www.h-i-c-a.org  

Source: h-i-c-a

The Magnus House at Aigas Field Centre – A large open space suitable for workshops, demonstrations, lectures, conferences etc. Seats up to 100 people. With state of the art audio / visual projection facilities, kitchen, toilets (including disabled toilet) etc. Available for rent for one off events by arrangement. Tel: 01463 782443for details.

Artist’s Studio for Long Term Rent – Large (8m x 5m) studio space with 3m ceilings available for rent in Strathglass, half way between Beauly and Struy. Total privacy, spectacular strath views, lots of natural light, warm and comfortable with wood burning stove for winter. Electricity and access to running water and toilet facilities. £50 pw. Tel: 07980 213439.

The shop stocks an impressive range of place mats, coasters, mugs, T shirts, and various other gifts with images of local scenery, views and wildlife, all made in house ; or to have a truly personalised gift, your own images can be used.

Locally made crafts and fine arts. The shop displays an extensive range of island made products, featuring original watercolours by Brian Large and Liz Wren, oil paintings by Philippa Attfield, paintings and photographs by Jeff Worrall. Hand painted ceramics by Jessica Herriot and hand crafted wooden gifts such as pens and clocks by Ted Kelcher, hand carved sticks and horn handled knives by Gordon Stevenson and items by various other local artists are on display. There is also a range of gifts with paintings of Highland Cattle and other animals by Ruth Slater.

Original art by local, emerging artists as well as artwork and prints by established international artists can be found hanging on the walls of the gallery. The Pink Gallery also showcases photography as part of the portfolio.

Open Monday – Saturday 9.00am – 5.30pm and also on Bank Holidays.

One-off functional ware in saltfired stoneware and Porcelain and sculptural forms that are informed by the sedimentary rocks and the coastline.

Sculpture workshops by arrangement.

Commissions undertaken.

Opening hours- 10am-5pm Wednesday – Saturday. March until Christmas. Outside these times by appointment.

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northshorepottery@yahoo.co.uk

Hugh paints directly from his subject matter and follows many great Scottish artists in the tradition of painting directly from life. Hugh said, “Painting from life is crucial in trying to capture a particular quality of light or movement. As a Christian, I know that God is the great creator; what I am trying to do is to show people a different way of looking at his creation that is exciting but not consciously obvious.”

The artist sees his own invention as a necessity for his work. “The paint-box has become like a camera from me now,” Hugh said. “My portable studio was developed for painting people in the street. How to store turps, oil, palette, paint, brushes, and to re-use the paint-box for the next painting all took some years to get right but at long last it is published.”

The artist, who was short-listed for the 2008 Wildlife Artist of the Year Award, is trying to reintroduce the traditional style of sight-size portraiture. Hugh said, “Nearly all the great portraits that we see hanging in our national galleries were painted by the sight-size method, and no other technique can adequately produce the incredible clarity of brush-work and colour – just look at any of Raeburn, Sargent or de Laszlo’s full-length portraits.”

The Summer Exhibition at The Ruthven Gallery in Auchterarder runs until 27th August and a preview is available online at www.theruthvengallery.co.uk