This report describes cultural participation inequalities through COVID-19.
The Audience Agency has been conducting a national programme of ongoing research, allowing them to understand and track changes in the public’s cultural participation through and beyond COVID-19. In the first summary report from the Cultural Participation Monitor they emphasised that it has impacted everyone: mostly negatively, but differently. This report focuses specifically on inequality in its impacts.

Who is more negatively impacted and how does that relate to or exacerbate previously existing and ongoing inequalities in audiences? This report lays out evidence to support the following argument:
• Cultural engagement was unequal before COVID,
• The impacts of the pandemic have been experienced unequally, reinforcing this existing inequality,
• Further inequalities have developed in terms of health impacts and vaccination,
• And the result it likely to be increases in inequality in cultural engagement into the future.

It can be seen from the evidence in this report that COVID is likely to further increase existing inequalities in cultural engagement. The negative impacts of COVID in terms of time and money have tended to fall on those who are: younger; from Black, Asian, Mixed and Other ethnicities; from less affluent occupations and areas; disabled; and female. Most of these groups are under-represented in audiences for funded culture. The impact of the pandemic is therefore likely to accentuate these types of inequality.

The Audience Agency. (2021). COVID-19 Cultural Participation Monitor: Inequalities through COVID-19. The Audience Agency.