Art exhibitions draw bigger crowds than Football games
With around 11 million visitors a year, galleries are now more highly attended than Australia’s most popular spectator sport, Australian Rules Football, which had 10 million attendances as recorded by the ABS.
Spending on visual arts in Australia has increased 26% since 2004
Households spend more on paintings, carvings and sculptures than computer games or tickets to sporting matches. Australian households spend almost $2.13 billion on things related to visual arts and craft each year.
Sales of artworks at auction in Australia reached $95 million in 2012, around five times the market in 1991.
Sales at art auctions have experienced strong growth since the 1980s – peaking at $175 million in 2007. Since 2007, total sales have fluctuated between $88 million and $115 million annually, which is strong considering the world went through the global financial crisis.
Nearly half of all Australians are creatively engaged with the arts
Almost 8 million Australians are involved in creating art. In 2013, creative participation significantly increased to 48% from 41 percent in 2009. Visual arts and craft was still the most popular artform creatively engaged in and increased to 30 percent.
1 in 3 artists bring their creative skills to other industries.
Throsby and Zednik’s economic study of professional artists in Australia found that just over one third of artists had at some time used their creative skills in industries outside the arts and most had done so on a paid basis.
So now you know how great the Australian Arts industry is, why not take a leap of faith and sign up for our Diploma in Visual Arts starting in Feb 2017.