For the love (or not) of art in Australia

This paper presents the findings of a 2015 survey of cultural tastes and practices relating the visual arts. Administered to a main sample of 1202 Australians, and to boost samples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Lebanese, Chinese, Italian and Indian Australians, the survey included questions on visitation practices in relation to a range of art museum types, art genre preferences, and knowledge of, and liking for, a range of Australian and international artists. The paper interprets these findings via multiple correspondence and cluster analyses of the patterns of knowledge about, tastes for, and participation in the visual arts in Australia that they evince. It also correlates these items with indicators of social class, ethnicity, gender, and level and type of education. The differential patterns of involvement that emerge from these analyses suggest the operation of powerful cultural barriers inhibiting participation in the Australian art field just as, among those who do manifest a ‘love of art’, there are significant social divisions regarding their tastes for different kinds of art. In addressing these questions the paper also considers the light that they throw on the appropriateness of the National Gallery of Australia’s choice of Tom Roberts’ work as the subject for a special exhibition to mark a rehang of the Gallery’s Australian collection.