4147.4.55.001 - Culture and Recreation News, Sep 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/09/2008   
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PERFORMING ARTS GENERATE $733 MILLION IN INCOME

Australia's performing arts earned $733.4 million during 2006-07, according to Performing Arts, Australia, 2006-07 (cat. no. 8697.0).

The main sources of income for Australia's 726 performing arts businesses/organisations were box office takings (49%) and government funding (24%).

These 726 performing arts businesses/organisations:

  • employed 6,569 people at the end of June 2007. Nearly half were employed as performing artists (3,249 people).
  • gave 43,460 paid performances, with over 12 million people paying to attend various live theatrical or musical presentations during 2006-07. Drama productions had the highest attendance, at just over a quarter (26%) of the total.

There were an additional 145 performing arts venue operators, running 189 venues with a total of 271 performing arts spaces at end June 2007; they:
  • generated $494 million in income; government funding accounted for just over one-third of this ($166 million).
  • hosted 20,819 performances - drama productions made up nearly a third (30%) of all performances, followed by musical theatre (15%).