Who Engaged in Home-Based Arts Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Data From 4,731 Adults in the United States

Abstract

Arts engagement is a health-related behavior that may be influenced by social inequalities. While the COVID-19 pandemic provided new opportunities for some people to engage in the arts, it might have created barriers for others. We aimed to examine whether there was social patterning in home-based arts engagement during the pandemic in the United States, and whether predictors of engagement differed according to the type of arts activity. We included 4,731 adults who participated in the United States COVID-19 Social Study between April and July 2020. Three types of home-based arts engagement were considered: reading for pleasure, arts or crafts activities, and digital arts activities. Using logistic regression models, we tested cross-sectional associations between a broad range of demographic, socioeconomic, psychosocial, and health-related factors as well as adverse events and worries during lockdown and each type of arts engagement. The factors most strongly associated with all three types of arts engagement were social support, social network size, age, race/ethnicity, keyworker status, and experiencing physical or psychological abuse during the pandemic. However, most socioeconomic and health-related factors were not associated with arts engagement, including household income and mental and physical health problems. Overall, our findings indicate that the social gradient in arts engagement was reduced in the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Given the health benefits of arts engagement, the potential diversification of arts audiences during the pandemic is promising for both population-level health and wellbeing and the future of the arts and cultural sector.

No substitute for the real thing? Physical and digital cultural participation in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…We find that (a) physical cultural participation decreased significantly in Denmark during the two COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021; (b) physical participation did not return to its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2021; (c) individuals did not substitute physical cultural participation with digital cultural participation; and (d) socioeconomic gradients decreased with regard to physical (but not digital) cultural participation. Our results contribute to a small literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural participation (Bone et al, 2022;Choi et al, 2020;Codagnone et al, 2021;Feder et al, 2022;Hall et al, 2021;Roberts, 2020) by including time-series data, a longer time window, physical as well as digital participation, and changes in socioeconomic gradients. We end by discussing what we might learn from our results about how social disruptions such as COVID-19 affect cultural participation.…”

“…Other research finds that many individuals took up new “at-home” activities during the first lockdown or refined those in which they already engaged (e.g. reading, cooking, and arts and crafts; Bone et al, 2022; Choi et al, 2020; Roberts, 2020). Consequently, the limited evidence we have provides no clear picture of how the pandemic affected inequality in cultural participation, but suggests that there was “consumption displacement” (Hall et al, 2021) from out-of-home to at-home and online activities.…”

Creative leisure activities, mental health and well-being during 5 months of the COVID-19 pandemic: a fixed effects analysis of data from 3725 US adults

“…It could be a result of greater heterogeneity in experiences in the USA due to variation in lockdown rules across states, compared with the homogeneity of the UK’s approach early in the pandemic. Alternatively, it could be because of cultural differences in the profile of people using these activities 23 24…”