Longitudinal changes in home-based arts engagement during and following the first national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to examine potential heterogeneity in longitudinal changes in home-based arts engagement during the first national lockdown and following gradual easing of restrictions in the UK. Further, it sought to explore factors that were associated with patterns of longitudinal changes in home-based arts engagement. Methods: Data were from the UCL COVID-19 Social Study. The analytical sample consisted of 29,147 adults in the UK who were followed up for 22 weeks from 21st March to 21st August 2020. Data were analysed using growth mixture models. Results: Our analyses identified five classes of growth trajectories. There were two stable classes showing little change in arts engagement over time (64.4% in total), two classes showing initial increases in arts engagement followed by declines as restrictions were eased (29.8%), and one class showing slight declines during strict lockdown followed by an increase in arts engagement after the easing of restrictions (5.9%). A range of factors were found to be associated with class membership of these arts engagement trajectories, such as age, gender, education, income, employment status, and health. Conclusions: There is substantial heterogeneity in longitudinal changes in home-based arts engagement. For participants whose engagement changed over time, growth trajectories of arts engagement were related to changes in lockdown measures. These findings suggest that some individuals may have drawn on the arts when they needed them the most, such as during the strict lockdown period, even if they usually had lower levels of arts engagement before the pandemic. Overall, our results indicate the importance of promoting arts engagement during pandemics and periods of lockdown as part of public health campaigns.

Can a brief interaction with online, digital art improve wellbeing?: A comparative study of the impact of online art and culture presentations on mood, state-anxiety, subjective wellbeing, and loneliness

“…Our stepdown analysis highlighted that online cultural engagement might especially be an avenue to regulating mood, which possibly drives other positive impacts (stateanxiety, subjective wellbeing). This highlight of mood regulation is supported by past research, which has found emotion and mood regulation as a common beneficial outcome of a variety of types of arts and cultural engagement (Fancourt et al, 2019(Fancourt et al, , 2021Ivcevic & Brackett, 2015).…”

“…However, an ongoing mental health survey conducted by University College London in the UK (Covid-19 Social Study, 2020) found, more than a fifth of 70,000 respondents engaged more with the arts during lockdown than before. Those individuals who identified as having a mental illness or disability were likely to engage more in the first 22 weeks, which was speculated to be due to the move of cultural institutions online (Bu et al, 2021), however this study did not quantify whether such use translated to actual effects.…”

“…A number of projects and discussion in the press were built around suggestions that a brief engagement with a few works of art, or a trip to a virtual museum, might help sooth anxiety, boost one's mood (Barbican Center, 2020), provide better wellbeing (International Arts and Mind Lab, 2020), or even help those isolated and lonely (Belvedere Museum, 2020). These aims seem to have been well received by the public, especially by those with low wellbeing and mental health issues, with evidence suggesting that a notable portion of individuals were, for the first time, seeking out online art encounters (Bu et al, 2021). These developments are not unique.…”

“…Today, art viewing, cultural engagements, and trips to art or other types of museums can take place via computers, tablets, smartphones and even virtual reality. This would certainly make it possible for many more individuals to engage art (Bu et al, 2021;Leng et al, 2014). Personal media, bringing artworks directly to a viewer could perhaps duplicate many of the same results, especially if beneficial effects are tied to the visual or cognitive-emotional aspects of experience.…”

Understanding experiences of changing socioeconomic and psychosocial adversities during COVID-19 for freelancers working in the UK cultural sector: A rapid approach

“…These changes fluctuated in line with the easing and tightening of social distancing throughout the pandemic, with many cultural venues oscillating between inperson and digital offerings, alongside hybrid models. The impact of these ongoing changes provided many challenges for the sector including fewer employment opportunities (Office for National Statistics, 2021), but also some opportunities including increased digital production (Radermecker, 2020), and some increases in home-based arts engagement (Bu et al, 2021).…”