Young Australians see the arts as ‘inseparable’ from their lives

Involved in digital with less distinction between artforms, a new report from A New Approach challenges assumptions about young arts audiences.
A light based artwork set in a dark room with a person silhouetted

Young people see the arts as ’embedded in and inseparable from everyday life’ according to a new report from the arts and culture think tank A New Approach (ANA). Releasing its sixth report Next Generation of Voters: Young Middle Australians talk Arts, Culture and Creativity, ANA spoke to 84 participants across Australia aged 18-29 years old in a series of targeted focus groups.

Part of this involvement in everyday life was the way digital media has brought culture closer to them. Participants talked about how they made their own art through making GIFs or Tik Tok. One respondent from the Northern Territry said, ‘We’re expressing ourselves, our opinions, our videos, our dancing, our music, our culture – whatever we’re expressing, yet by pictures, video. And that’s all social media. It’s all technology. You know, you might be expressing your feelings or your interests by – when you’re gaming, if you game with friends or whatever, and it’s just a whole new world.’

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Celina Lei is an arts writer and editor at ArtsHub. She acquired her M.A in Art, Law and Business in New York with a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. Most recently she took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne.