Statistics suggest if you read, you're more likely to go to galleries, performances

Arts are not elitist in the conventional sense and have much less to do with demography than with the quality of other arts-related experiences, according to a new study.

Though it doesn't probe magazine reading specifically, a just-released report from the Hill Strategies Group on factors in Canadians' cultural activities has much good intelligence for magazine publishers to chew on.

For one thing the study, which is based on analysis of a Statistics Canada telephone survey of about 10,000 Canadians in 2005, demonstrates that demography (age, income, education etc.) doesn't play as large a part in engagement with culture as do other cultural experiences. In other words, reading a book or going to a gallery is a more important indicator of whether you'll go to a live performance or a museum.

Among the things the study found were:

• Compared to the Canadian average of 67%, the book reading rate is particularly high among Canadians who visit an art gallery (85%), visit another type of museum (82%) or attend a performing arts event (between 77% and 80% for various types of performances).
• Compared to the Canadian average of 41%, the performing arts attendance rate is particularly high among Canadians who visit an art gallery (68%), visit another type of museum (65%) or visit an historic site (59%).
• Compared to the Canadian average of 27%, the art gallery attendance rate is particularly high among Canadians who visit another type of museum (60%), attend a cultural festival (51%) or visit an historic site (49%).
  
• Compared to the Canadian average of 61%, the movie theatre attendance rate is particularly high among Canadians who attend a cultural festival (79%), listen to downloaded music (79%), attend a performing arts event (between 77% and 79% for various types of performances) or visit an art gallery (78%).

Not surprisingly, of all the cultural activities studied, reading was the most closely aligned with education...and sex. Men are less than half as likely to read as women and university educated people are far more likely to read than those with a high school education or less. But there is very little variance by age or income.

Canadians who enjoy other types of reading material also read books. Canadians who read a magazine in 2005 were 85% more likely to also read a book than those who did not read a magazine, keeping other factors constant. Similarly, Canadians who read a newspaper in 2005 were 59% more likely to read a book than those who did not read a newspaper, keeping other factors constant.

The report's observation, while largely focussed on performing arts and institutions, is that the statistics have implications for marketing cultural experiences and for stronger collaboration within the cultural community.

Overall, the statistics imply that cultural experiences and cultural exposure are more important factors in cultural activities than most demographic factors. In other words, there is an arts‐interested public that transcends demographic analysis. Those who get the arts go to a range of things. Those who don’t “get it” don’t go.

Its arguable conclusion is that some way has to be found to infect others with what it calls the "arts bug". Whether there is such a bug and whether it is transmissible may spark some conversations among literary and cultural publishers.