Arts Participation and Wellbeing in Regional Western Australia

This thesis explores the belief that engaging in the arts has a positive influence on wellbeing, not just for individuals considered disadvantaged or “at- risk”, but also for the wellbeing of society and communities. A telephone survey was conducted with 76 participants residing in the Shire of Denmark, Western Australia. Arts participation was more strongly associated with the direct cognitive measure ‘satisfaction with quality of life’ than community participation. This research has developed a workable methodology from which future research can be based, as well as demonstrated the ease with which standardised satisfaction, wellbeing and social capital measures can be adapted and administered to explore the relationship between arts participation and community wellbeing.