Overview

Creative Transformations: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey is the sixth study in the landmark research series exploring Australians’ attitudes towards, and engagement with, arts and creativity. 

The National Arts Participation Survey asks Australians key questions about their engagement with arts and creativity in daily life. It asks them to reflect on their views on arts and culture, including on public investment in arts and creativity. It also asks Australians about the impacts of creative participation on everyday life and how their engagement with creativity might be changing.

For the first time, this edition also explores new topics such as the ethical sourcing and consumption of First Nations arts, ticket purchasing habits, how people discover books and music, and attitudes towards artificial intelligence (AI) in creativity. 

^{Photo: Brook Andrew, Loop. A model of how the world operates (detail), 2008, installation view MCA Collection: Artists in Focus, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2026. Credit: Maja Baska.}

Top takeaways for 2025
 

1. Almost all Australians engage with the arts in some way, either by listening to music, reading, creating art, engaging with the arts online or by attending arts and cultural events and festivals. 
    
2. Australians increasingly recognise the positive impacts of creative engagement, and most Australians hold positive attitudes towards the arts.
    
3. Arts access for children and young people is now Australians’ top priority for arts investment, overtaking free or low-cost arts events.
    
4. More people are attending Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts events and festivals; however, some attitudes towards and interest in First Nations arts have dropped slightly. 
    
5. More Australians are attending live arts events and festivals, with 2025 the highest level of attendance recorded.^[1] While some art forms have seen shifts back towards more frequent pre-COVID-19 attendance patterns, others have not fully recovered.
    
6. Entertainment and socialising continue to be the key motivators to attend arts events and festivals.
    
7. Cost is increasingly the biggest barrier to attend arts events and festivals. 
    
8. There is a strong connection between learning an art form during school-age years and positive attitudes towards, and engagement with, the arts. 
    
9. More readers are engaging with books on at least a weekly basis, particularly young readers. 
    
10. Australians are increasingly listening to recorded music, but there is less diversity in modes of listening.
     
11. Both streaming and radio are the most common ways Australians discover new music, but this is skewed by age. 
     
12. Australians feel a tension between using AI-powered tools to create art themselves and their perspectives as audiences about whether AI-generated works constitute ‘real art’. 
     

^{[1] Note: Prior to 2016, the National Arts Participation Survey did not include attending arts events and festivals to engage with own cultural background, language group or community.}