For the past 30 years no systematic research and polls in the sphere of culture have been held in Georgia due to the extremely dramatic and dynamic political life aggravated by the socio-economic crisis. The exception was the sociological research carried out on focus groups for the Conception of Development of Culture and Tourism in Tbilisi, held by the Fund for Culture Salvation under the order of the Service of Culture and Sport of Tbilisi Municipality in 2004.
As the research was targeted only at the detection of specific urban trends, nationwide data on participation of various social groups, distinctive by gender, age or educational level, in cultural activity, is not available.
Data on culture from the LEPL The National Statistics Office of Georgia is not useful either as in the majority of cases cultural information was compiled with education or recreation, entertainment or even religion data. The differential indicators in the sphere of culture cannot be separated.
Unfortunately, in 2020-2021 the amount of statistical data on culture has further decreased.
However, the general trends of participation are as follows: the trends of cultural participation, which had been constantly growing since 1995, reached a peak in 2003. In 2004-2005 participation figures have stopped growing and have decreased in some spheres. In general, the trend of participation is much lower than in the 1980s.
There are many reasons for the low figures: living standards are lower; comparatively lower range of cultural services, obsolete in some cases (as in museums and libraries) and even disappeared.
Over a period of 18 years the number of public libraries in Georgia reduced from 8 000 in 1990 to 824 in 2008. This decrease is most notable in the regions. However, for the last five years, the situation has stabilized to some extent.
Due to serious financial problems, local museums, archives and libraries are not able to maintain their infrastructure, to purchase new displays, publications, equipment etc. At the same time, in the past ten years, the number of professional theatres has increased, although this increase took place at the expense of small theatres such as “Sardapi” or mobile repertory companies based on enterprise principles.
There are some research studies and opinions on the monitoring of the participation of representatives of national minorities in the cultural life of the community, carried out by the Public Movement “Multinational Georgia”.
Table 4: People who participated in or attended a certain cultural activity during the last 12 months in Georgia (in % of the population, over 3 available years)
| Year 2018 | Year 2019 | Year 2020 | |
| Activities largely subsidized by the state | |||
| Theatre | 582 681 (15.62%) | 614 616 (16.50%) | 125 644 (3.38%) |
| Opera performances | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Folk performances | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Dance | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Concerts of classic music | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Libraries | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Museums | 2 114 666 (56.69%) | 2 253 225 (60.51%) | 309 900 (8.33%) |
| Monuments | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Cultural centres | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Activities without large public subsidies – information not available |
Table 4 a: Data on cultural participation in Georgia, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2020
| Year 2000 | Year 2005 | Year 2010 | Year 2015 | Year 2020 | |
| Public and universal libraries (quantity in units) | 2 208 | 2 056 | — | – | – |
| Book lending (in million copies) | N/A | 0.3 | 2.2 | 3.1. | – |
| Museums (quantity in units) | 101 | 111 | 118 | 207 | 249 |
| Visitors of museums (in thousands) | 376.6 | 412.5 | 730.1 | 1335.941 | 309.9 |
| Theatres (quantity in units) | 37 | 46 | 44 | 49 | 52 |
| Theatre audiences (in thousands) | 508.2 | 256.0 | 359.9 | 554.5 | 125.6 |
There is no information available about people who participated in or attended certain cultural activities without large public subsidies in Georgia (over 3 years) There is no information available about people who have carried out artistic activities.
Comments are closed.