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Engagement in English museums and galleries rises 10 percentage points
Latest DCMS figures show museums saw biggest increase of all cultural sectors last year
Public engagement in museums and galleries was 10 percentage points higher in 2023/24 than it was the previous year, according to the latest Participation Survey from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The survey, which asked a representative sample of adults about their participation in a number of sectors during the previous year, showed that 46% of respondents engaged with museums and galleries in 2023/24, up from 36% in 2022/23.
This was the highest increase of all the cultural sectors included in the survey. Engagement in heritage stayed the same, at 69%, while engagement in the arts rose slightly from 90% to 91%.
Both digital and physical engagement in museums and galleries rose in 2023/24, with physical engagement up from 33% to 43% and digital engagement up from 9% to 13%.
Physical engagement in heritage dropped slightly from 67% to 66%, but the sector saw digital engagement grow from 18% to 25%.
“I’m not interested” and “No reason in particular” were the most common barriers for both physically or digitally engaging with cultural sectors, similar to the previous year.
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The past year also saw a rise in domestic tourism, with 64% of respondents saying they had taken a holiday in England in the past 12 months compared to 60% in 2022/23.
However, the survey showed that there is work to be done to raise awareness of the UK Government's City of Culture programme.
Asked about major events, awareness of the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023 was the highest among respondents, at 89%, while awareness of the Bradford City of Culture 2025 festival was the lowest, at just 10%. Of those who were aware of the festival, 24% said they would be interested in participating in the event.
Meanwhile, just 16% of people had heard of the Coventry City of Culture festival, which took place in 2021.
DCMS partnered with Arts Council England on this year’s survey in order to produce “meaningful estimates at local authority level”. It has described the results as “the most granular data we have ever had”.
In the previous year, there has been a gradual upward trend in visitor numbers to museums across the UK as the sector slowly returns to pre-pandemic levels.
The Box museum and art gallery in Plymouth recently announced that it had seen a 10% rise in visitor numbers last year, with around 272,000 people passing through its doors between April 2023 and April 2024. Meanwhile Hull Museums reported that its visitor numbers for 2023/24 exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 9%.