Culture on Demand: Ways to engage a broader audience

We need to demystify culture itself. But how?

In the summer of 2006, DCMS asked FreshMinds, a research consultancy, to consider these fundamental questions and arrive at a set of conclusions, relevant to each group. The challenge was, and is, to throw light on the process of demand formation, its relationship with leisure patterns more widely, and to suggest some ways of tackling non-engagement through tactics that address the aspects of background, motivations and experience which drive demand.

This report summarises the findings of an extensive programme of research and consultation and sets out some key principles for stimulating demand for culture in the United Kingdom. Its scope is both wide-ranging and cross-sectoral, taking in lessons from within the cultural sphere as well as the non-cultural public sector – health and sport primarily – and also the private sector.