A recent survey found interest in arts and cultural events to be abysmal. Few people are interested in attending cultural events, much less paying for them, according to the survey by the Arts Council.

Times of Malta asked people in the industry why they thought interest was so low and what could draw audiences to galleries and theatres.

Toni Attard, director of arts management company Culture Venture, said Malta had always lagged behind in audience participation and, post-pandemic, attempts were needed to get people back.

“For years, we have seen low participation and, while increases have been recorded, they still remain negligible in the grand scheme of things,” Attard said.

During the pandemic, audiences failed to migrate to watching online for various reasons.

“It took us a long time to have sufficient measures to be able to produce work to welcome audiences,” he said.

“This is why we lobbied hard to re-open theatres because every day lost was a day lost to bringing audiences back.”

The next step is to take audience development more seriously, he added.

“To do that we need professional cultural management across all public cultural institutions,” Attard said.

“We must stop staging events for the sake of filling in a calendar. That’s not how audiences are built and especially not if the state ends up competing with the private sector and fills seats with free or complimentary tickets.”

Education also has a role to play in building new audiences, Attard reckoned.

“Ultimately, we know through research that there is a correlation between cultural education and cultural participation. So, if our schools struggle to have arts classes – some barely have any – we can’t expect a generation to grow with cultural engagement as a regular activity,” he noted.

An age factor?

While the issue is not black or white, Diane Portelli, director of Moveo Dance Company, believes young people are not being given enough opportunities to engage with the arts.

“While it’s evident that people from certain age groups are still somewhat uncomfortable attending events due to COVID, others have no problem conglomerating in large numbers and partying, which means COVID is not the reason they are not attending cultural events,” she said.

“The younger generation is the key to creating audiences.

“In the past, there was fantastic work produced for children without any artistic limitations. I feel now that there has been a dramatic shift towards linking the arts to educational concepts and although there are massive benefits to that, I worry we might be losing those productions, which were just about the arts,” she added.

“These were productions which enticed children and allowed them to be free and imaginative, without forcing an educational element, where the mere exposure to the arts was an education in itself. This is what makes children fall in love with art and what makes them want to attend cultural events in the future.”

Additionally, the shift to online performances did not provide the same feeling that audiences were looking for in their leisure time, she said.

“Unless there is no alternative, I think nothing is more attractive than offering performances with live audiences. I spend lots of money on live performances but find myself unwilling to spend money to watch a performance online.”

No value for money

Theatre director Chris Gatt said that while the decline in cultural participation has been happening for some time, it was time to investigate why money is being pumped into the industry and not achieving the desired results in audience return. 

“Money is being spent through institutions which are badly administered,” he said.

“The lack of coordination and communication between the various institutions, which occasionally even escalate to a turf war, is made worse by the evident ‘us and them’ mentality between institutions and private companies and individuals who really constitute the backbone of the country’s cultural sector.”

He adds that administratively, culture is often not treated seriously, with decisions sometimes being made to suit individuals rather than the sector.

Lack of coordination

“Culture is the cinderella of ministries,” he said.

“It’s been moved around with no rhyme or reason, attached to education, tourism and, now, local councils.

“Ministers are replaced at breakneck speed and with them go permanent secretaries. None of them have the time or the interest to understand the issues, let alone create the right joined-up thinking.”

The media, Gatt added, also had a role to play, with culture often appearing in the form of promotion rather than critical discussion.

“Without that discussion, there is no value. And there is no history to go back to and examine,” he said.

Pandemic killed interest

A spokesperson for the Arts Council told Times of Malta that while results may appear worrying, in the context of the longitudinal study, the public’s lower interest in cultural events was expected, with the survey being held at times when various restrictions were in place.

“We know that cultural participation had been gradually growing before the pandemic,  but, naturally, the virus outbreak presented an unexpected obstacle that the sector had to adjust to,” he said.

“The survey shows that health-related concerns are still an important factor in this respect.

“Over the course of this study, we saw that interest in attending cultural events increased from one survey to the next, as health-related restrictions subsided. This indicates that interest is gradually approaching pre-pandemic levels, although we are not there yet.”

The Arts Council spokesperson added that it was encouraging to see that the study had sparked debate on cultural participation, which, he said,  was part of a wider conversation informing preparation for the council’s new strategy.