Issues & Advocacy
Arts and culture is recognized as a means to community building, encouraging outdoor activity, healthy lifestyles, life-long learning, increasing accessibility to programs for all levels of society, and celebrating diversity and cultural differences.
September 2014 - Hill Strategies presents three Canadian studies and one Scottish report related to the social and health benefits of the arts, including a Toronto report on neighbourhood-based community development through the arts, a Vancouver study of the arts and seniors’ well-being, an overview of the potential impacts of documentary films on social change, and a Scottish study of the connection between cultural engagement and health and well-being.
August 2014 - Hill Strategies Research: Beyond simple attendance rates, what can be said of the outcomes of cultural participation? Are there relationships and connections that have broader social impacts? This recent study looks at key issues related to arts participation and engagement explored at the 'Measuring Cultural Engagement amid Confounding Variables' research symposium.
It’s extraordinarily hard to measure and quantify an idea like value in relation to culture, because the use of the term raises so many questions – not least, ‘who is asking about value?’, and ‘what does value mean?’ The Arts Council of England commissioned WolfBrown to undertake an international literature review with a particular focus on how individuals value their cultural experiences.
June 2014 - Hill Strategies Research: Many arts organizations struggle to reflect the diversity of their communities within their audiences, and would like to learn more about how diversity is reflected in the arts sector as a whole. This presentation provided national and provincial arts attendance statistics, focussing on key elements of the demographic diversity of British Columbia.
May 2014 - The Arts and Individual Well-Being in Canada, the 39th report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series, examines whether connections exist between Canadians' cultural activities and their personal well-being. The data in the report show that there is a strong connection between 18 cultural activities and eight indicators of health and well-being (such as health, mental health, volunteering, feeling stressed, and overall satisfaction with life).
April 2013 - Performing arts presenting generates a wide range of benefits for Canadians, the communities they live in and society at large, according to a report prepared by Strategic Moves and released today by the Canadian Arts Presenting Association (CAPACOA).
The San Francisco Foundation 2011 - A critical assessment of efforts by nonprofit arts organizations to engage audiences and visitors in deeper and more impactful arts experiences. A Wolf Brown Report by Alan S. Brown and Rebecca Ratzkin. Commissioned by The San Francisco Foundation and Grants for the Arts with the support of The Wallace Foundation.
March 2013 - Many arts and culture organizations in Canada are organized as not-for-profit organizations and rely on individuals to donate time or money in order to help achieve their mandates. Volunteers and Donors in Arts and Culture Organizations in Canada in 2010, the 40th report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series, highlights the volunteer time and financial donations given to Canadian arts and culture organizations.
February 2012 - The Hill Strategies Research report on Canadians’ Arts, Culture and Heritage Activities provides insights into the number and percentage of Canadians 15 or older who participated in activities in 2010. The percentage of Canadians participating in most of the 18 activities measured in the report – including art galleries, museums, festivals, historic sites, book reading, and more – reached record levels in 2010, higher than in 1992, 1998 and 2005, when this type of survey was also conducted.
January 10, 2021 - A study prepared for the City of Vancouver, the City of Calgary, the City of Toronto, the City of Ottawa and the Ville de Montréal. This report compares the municipal cultural investment in five of Canada’s largest cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal.
November 16, 2020 - Very little statistical information exists regarding the arts participation of Canadian children. Young children’s participation in the arts and reading outside of school in 2008, the 35th report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series from Hill Strategies Research, provides a first look at data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth regarding the frequency with which Canadian children between three and seven years of age participate in certain arts and reading activities outside of school.
May 2011 - This briefing paper by the American Planning Association highlights how “arts and culture strategies help to reveal and enhance the underlying identity — the unique meaning, value, and character — of the physical and social form of a community. This identity is reflected through the community's character or sense of place. A community's sense of place is not a static concept; rather, it evolves and develops over time, reflecting the spectrum of social values within and around the community.
Department of Canadian Heritage, 2009 - Canadians’ Experiences Attending Arts Presenter and Festival Activities: Participation, Appreciation, and Motivation. This report examined audience motivations for attending and experiences at 24 music festivals and concert series funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Arts Presentation Canada program in 2008-09.
January 2011 - Statistics Canada recently released summary data of performing arts organizations in 2009. The performing arts survey provides information about for-profit and not-for-profit theatre, musical theatre, dinner theatre, opera, dance, musical groups (e.g., orchestras, chamber music and popular music groups) and other organizations (e.g., circus, ice skating shows).
March 2010 - This discussion paper, prepared by the UK Regional Cities East (RCE) group, provides British examples of how the arts and culture sector can help stimulate and sustain economic growth, build a sense of shared identity, promote community cohesion, and help address challenges regarding infrastructure and skill levels. According to the paper, smaller cities “offer many of the right characteristics for the arts and culture to flourish”, such as easier networking and sharing of ideas, a high quality of life, and low carbon emissions.
December 2010 - The report identifies key trends and issues regarding human resources in Canada’s cultural sector and provides recommendations for addressing human resource challenges. Prepared for the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) by the Conference Board of Canada, the report “is intended to provide a starting point for discussion and action across Canada on how to strengthen the fabric of our society by enriching the workforce of the cultural sector”.
November 2010 - The 32nd report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series from Hill Strategies Research, shows that Canadian consumers spent over $27 billion on cultural goods and services in 2008.
November 2010 - While there has been extensive international research on the benefits of music education for young people, there has been only limited research on the state of music education in Canada. A Delicate Balance, a ground-breaking report prepared by Hill Strategies for the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, suggests that schools across Canada desperately need funding to keep up with the demand for quality music programs.
October 2010 - Natural Cultural Districts and Neighbourhood Revitalization. The presentation suggests that “we need a policy approach that understands how deeply creativity is embedded in urban social structure, especially the importance of diversity (economic, ethnic, household).
ArtsResearchMonitor.com provides synopses of qualitative and quantitative research findings in the arts and culture. The site is useful to artists, arts managers, funders, policy makers, researchers and others with an interest in learning more about the arts and culture.