UBC Arts and Culture District Students Living Off-Campus
Creators: name: Glass, Liana
name: Penner, Pearl
name: Sarshar, Soraya
name: McNaughton, Mark
name: Flock, Ian
name: Luzong, Kevin
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2019

description: The UBC Arts and Culture District was conceived in 1957 with the vision of bringing arts and culture onto UBC to enhance campus culture. In its current form it consists of a cluster of buildings on the Northwest portion of campus. Recent effort has been taken to fulfill the original vision for the Arts and Culture District, this is where the impetus for this project originates. The purpose of this research project was to assess the barriers that are keeping the off-campus population from attending nighttime events in UBC Art and Culture District. Our group narrowed the scope of the study to students living off campus to enhance our ability to obtain representative data. The study also looked at the opportunities for retention and possible incentives to increase the off-campus student population’s attendance at nighttime events. We conducted a literature review that covered research on the community impact of arts and culture, as well as other institutions’ best practices with their arts and culture districts. Two data collection methods were used, intercept surveys and a focus group. The surveys were delivered online through various media outlets and social networks, in addition to in person surveys conducted in the AMS Student Nest. At the end of the survey there was a section for further research. An email list was generated from willing participants and invitations for the focus group were sent out. The research was constrained by weather disruptions, limited time and research capacity. The survey results indicated that 62% of respondents had never attended an evening event in the Arts and Culture District, 28% had, and the remaining 10% had attended an event in the District, but not a nighttime event. The focus group participants expanded on the general trends observed through the survey results. They were generally unfamiliar with the Arts and Culture District. The Chan Centre, Museum of Anthropology, and Belkin Art Gallery were visited by the participants, but only one of them attended a nighttime event at the Chan Centre. Reasons cited for low attendance included difficulty staying on campus between the end of classes and the start of nighttime programs. Students living off campus usually do not feel like commuting back to for evening events if they have been on campus during the day. Recommendations for improving the District are increased messaging and advertising of the District, and including more promotion of the free tickets that are available to students. Other recommendations include creating one centralized database that has a complete list of upcoming events in the District for ease of finding events. Finally the District would benefit from a cohesive brand image to cement it as part of campus life in students minds. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”