Currently local authorities are very active in conducting surveys on cultural activities and participation in culture. They use the information obtained from the surveys to develop local cultural policies. Another example are studies connected to specific cultural events on the local level, such as ‘Research on the Informedness, Attitudes, and Participation of the Residents of the City of Pilsen in the Project “Pilsen – European Culture Capital”’ (2015-2016, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen), which focused on cultural consumption in relation to Pilsen as a European Culture Capital in 2015.
There are also studies that are conducted on the national and international levels.
As part of a national project called ‘Keys for Life’, in 2012 a study titled ‘Children in the Ring of Today’s World – Value Orientations of Children Aged 6 to 15’ was published. The study looks at four areas of children’s lives: family, school, leisure time, and values. It points to current trends in how children spend their leisure time, including interest in arts activities in relation to age and gender. In 2015-2017 the study ‘Methodology for Segmenting the Population of the CR in Relation to the Consumption of Cultural Goods’ was conducted at the University of Economics in Prague that looked at the segmentation of visitors attending cultural activities, questions of satisfaction, visitor loyalty, and examining the main reasons for attending cultural activities.
The results of studies devoted to culture and cultural preferences and consumption are also regularly published by the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences – such as Cultural Consumption and Social Distinction in the CR (Šafr, 2014) or Leisure Time, Society, Culture: Czechia – Slovakia (Chorvát, Eds., 2019).
According to the Czech Statistical Office, the number of visitors to cultural events fell by almost 55% in 2020 (the latest available data) compared to 2019. This was particularly true for historic sites, libraries, cinemas, exhibition and concert halls, festivals and theatres. Despite this, cultural establishments in the CR recorded almost 45 million visits, an average of 4 visits per capita.
Visitor arrivals in the CR in 2020 were affected not only by government restrictions against the spread of the COVID-19 disease on Czech territory, but also by the global reduction in tourism as a result of the pandemic.
New investigations have emerged in the context of changes during and after COVID-19. For example, the research Reading in the Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic (National Library of the CR et all., 2021), was conducted in 2021 by the National Library of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Institute for Czech Literature and Nielsen Admosphere. In 2021, the National Library of the Czech Republic and Nielsen Admosphere also conducted a repeated nationally representative survey of children focusing on book reading, reading behaviour, usual ways of spending leisure time, and the influence of family and school environment on children’s relationship to books and reading in general (previous surveys were conducted in 2013/2014 and 2017). The timing of the survey Czech Children as Readers in a Time of Pandemic (National Library of the CR & Nielsen Admosphere, 2021), i.e. April to June 2021, allowed for a strong focus on the changes in children’s reading and media behaviour in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic.
The following table contains data from NIPOS and Czech Statistical Office surveys, but also from surveys of other professional associations and cultural organisations.
Table 6: People who participated in or attended a certain cultural activity during the last 12 months in the Czech Republic (in % of the population, over 2005, 2015, 2019 and 2020)
|
|
2005 |
2015 |
2019 |
2020 |
|
Activities heavily subsidised by the state |
|
|||
|
Theatre |
48.6% |
54.8% |
63.9% |
22.9% |
|
Opera performances |
5.1% |
4.4% |
4.1% |
1.4% |
|
Dance |
0.02% |
0.03% |
1.7% |
0.7% |
|
Concerts of classic music |
4.5% |
3.0% |
5.0% |
1.7% |
|
Libraries |
200.0% |
223.9% |
206.8% |
122.4% |
|
Museums |
89.1% |
111.6% |
137.5% |
64.1% |
|
Monuments |
115.1% |
123.3% |
139.4% |
69.7% |
|
Cultural centres |
– |
88.5% |
107.2% |
34.3% |
|
Activities without large public subsidies |
|
|||
|
Cinema |
90.3% |
122.8% |
171.4% |
59.7% |
|
Read books not related to the profession or studies[1] |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
In paper format (Usually use) |
39.0% |
42.0% |
38.0% |
43.6% |
|
In digital format (Usually use) |
– |
22.0% |
19.0% |
26.0% |
|
Listen to music (Usually listen) |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
On a computer or directly on the Internet |
– |
47.0% |
46.6% |
48.0% |
|
Read periodic publications (Usually read) |
83.0% |
86.0% |
74.4% |
73.0% |
|
Directly on the Internet |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
Watch videos (Usually watch) |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
Directly on the Internet |
– |
50.0% |
50.5% |
52.6% |
|
Watch television (Usually watch) |
|
65.0% |
69.0% |
71.0% |
|
Directly on the Internet |
2.8% |
28.5% |
30.0% |
42.0% |
|
Listen to the radio (Usually watch) |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
Directly on the Internet |
– |
22.0% |
21.0% |
19.8% |
|
Play videogames (Usually play) |
– |
25.0% |
21.0% |
19.6% |
Source(s): Data from the statistical research of NIPOS; Statistical survey of the Czech Statistical Office: Use of information and communication technologies in households and among individuals (2015, 2019, 2020); Results of the survey on the readership of the population of the Czech Republic (2007, 2016, 2018 a 2021), National Library in Prague; Union of Film Distributors (cinemas);
[1] Data for book readership is not available for selected years, only for 2007, 2016, 2018 and 2021.
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