Fostering diversity in the creative arts by addressing students' capacity to aspire

Research on young people's aspirations and their capacity to aspire to higher education has proliferated in recent decades, however, very little attention has been paid to the creative arts. Diversity in the arts remains a persistent issue in many nations, and repeated attempts to promote diversity in the Australian arts community have had limited impact, suggesting the need for new approaches. Drawing on data from a 4-year longitudinal study of students from ages 8 to 18 (n = 6,492) in government schools, we examine school students' aspirations for careers in the arts. Arts-related careers were popular among students, yet we found a distinct lack of diversity among those aspiring to such careers. Using logistic regression analysis we found that being female, high achieving, from an English-speaking background, possessing high cultural capital, and attending advantaged schools were significant predictors of interest in the arts, suggesting the likely reproduction of existing patterns of participation. We argue that initiatives within schools are essential to disrupting these patterns and building the capacity of a more diverse range of students to aspire to careers in the arts.