During this time of global and local arts sector uncertainty, we can be sure of one thing if nothing else: we live in a capitalist society where economic concerns underpin large parts of our lives.
And while it’s still possible to find moments of respite (including perhaps those times we find ourselves in front a favourite artwork at a state art gallery?), for the most part, economic superstructures continue to shape our collective and individual realities.
It’s therefore little wonder that many not-for-profit, government-funded arts organisations use a range of economic metrics to help them measure their value – to their audiences, to their communities and to government.
In some cases, these calculations are in-line with their organisational KPIs, which are in turn part of their funding agreements with government agencies. They are therefore obliged to report on things like their return on investment (ROI) and the gross value added (GVA) through their outputs.
But in parallel to this work, there’s a trend currently underway that’s attempting to sway these ‘economic value of the arts’ conversations in a different (but far from new) direction.
These discussions, championed by at least one economics research and advisory firm in partnership with a major Australian arts festival, are instead thinking about the arts activities as powerful economic ‘enablers’ and strategic assets which help facilitate wider cultural, economic and social objectives.
The economics of art – quick links
Art as an economic ‘enabler’
‘Rather than asking what the sector is worth, we should ask how it enables us to reach important national economic and societal goals,’ says Amit Singh, Managing Partner of economics research and advisory firm Mandala, in the firm’s research paper Reimagining the value of the arts.
The report has been compiled as part of an Economist-in-Residence pro bono collaboration with Melbourne’s RISING Festival, and it argues the sector should expand on some of its current methods of evaluating arts’ value. Instead of simply quantifying the number of jobs created, wages earned and audience spend, we should be looking to devise methods to measure other outcomes and ‘shared national goals’, such as the impact of art on wellbeing and mental health.
In this way, Mandala’s approach chimes with other researchers in the arts who have, for some time, been advocating for greater recognition of the arts’ instrumental value and its ‘enabling’ factors that add value in various ‘non-arts’ areas of the economy (such as in health and disaster recovery).
Do politicians still see the arts as an ‘elitist hobby’?
Mandala’s report also contains an interesting observation made by RISING Artistic Director and CEO Hannah Fox, who says the ‘dominant narrative of government’ remains that ‘”regular people” don’t care about the arts, because it’s [seen as] an elitist hobby for middle-class, inner-city audiences’.
While that may be true of some Australia politicians who (wrongly) assume their electorate members don’t care about the arts, if the government at large frames the sector in these elitist, middle-class terms, that would be quite alarming indeed. That’s because the government’s own numbers show a very different picture of arts engagement in Australia.
At Creative Australia’s last count, 74% of Australians attended at least one live arts event or festival in 2025. Drilling down, the data shows 81% of major city dwellers attended a live arts event, as compared to 74% of those living in remote Australia – showing very little difference in level of arts engagement based on geographical location. (Both of these statistics appear in Mandala’s report.)
So, while we might have a problem with some people in government remaining ignorant of just how many Australians genuinely value and participate in the arts, perhaps the more pressing economic concern is how, amid a painful cost-of-living crisis, we can best support ‘regular Australians’ to access live arts experiences when the majority of these experiences don’t come for free.
Refocusing on affordable arts experiences
According to Live Performance Australia’s latest Attendance and Revenue Report, the average ticket price for live performance in Australia in 2025 was $117.83 (up 2.4% from the previous year).
Looking specifically at different live artforms, we see that the price of an average theatre ticket was $88.23, rising to $96.32 for circus and physical theatre, $109.17 for ballet and dance, $127.15 for musical theatre and $139.31 for opera. None of these prices are very accessible for the ‘regular Australian’ person – right?
That said, there are many publicly-funded performing arts companies that try hard to offer discounted prices for low income audiences, concession holders, students and under 30s. But these ‘cheap’ tickets typically start around $45 to $50, which is still a fair cost, even for average income earners.
If you compare this with theatre and opera ticket prices on offer in parts of Europe, the difference is stark. In some European countries, where governments subsidise live arts activities to a greater extent than in Australia, one typically sees a greater cross-section of people attending performing arts shows.
For example, at Berlin’s Schaubühne theatre, which is a state-subsidised venue, average ticket prices are around €30 (AU$49), with hugely reduced prices available for students and welfare recipients of around €9 (AU$15).
As with many other publicly subsidised theatres in Germany, the Schaubühne’s ticket prices typically fall into six different price categories, which are scaled according to seat view. The most expensive seats, equivalent to Australia’s Premium A Reserve, average €62 (AU$100) and the cheapest seats, which come with a restricted view, average €9 (AU$15). Similar price structures exist in parts of Austria and France.
So, while there is clearly a case for employing top-shelf economists who can show how the arts enables value in diverse areas of our economy – and by extension, why it deserves cross-departmental public funding – perhaps what we also need is for some of these economists to focus on the basics of access and affordability, devising a roadmap that reveals ways we could be offering audiences more affordable ticket prices. (And yes, that would likely mean greater levels of government and other financial support for our artists and arts organisations at all levels.)
