The demand for creative arts in regional Victoria, Australia

A healthy creative arts industry can contribute significantly to the economic and social fabric of a community. Unfortunately, regional areas often suffer from a lack of supply and demand for the creative arts. This article explores the demand for the creative arts in three regional locations in Victoria, Australia, using three broad dimensions of demand: attitudes towards the arts; frequency of participation in the arts and level of expenditure on the arts. The analysis of demand patterns uses the general modelling approach of Levy-Garboua and Montmarquette (1996) as a basis and makes use of the ordered probit class of models for its statistical analysis. The study confirms that individual levels of demand are contingent on a range of demographic characteristics and also identifies factors such as festival attendance and increased past creative arts expenditure as being important determinants of demand for the arts.