When sport meets culture
- Apr 22
- 1 min read
How do you create strong partnerships between culture and sport - despite very different traditions, target audiences, and working cultures?
Galder Reguera (Bilbao, 1975) holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Deusto. He has built his professional career in cultural management and has, since 2008, been responsible for the club’s cultural programme at the Athletic Club Foundation.
Read more: Active participation in sport and culture is closely connected.
Key Takeaways
There is a clear, positive correlation between an active cultural and leisure life and participation in sport and exercise.
This applies to most types of cultural and leisure activities: the more cultural and leisure activities people participate in, the greater the likelihood that they engage in sport and exercise every week.
The analysis cannot establish causality in these relationships, but it likely works both ways. There are, however, significant differences in the strength of the correlations between the various cultural and leisure activities.
The relationships primarily apply to organised sport and exercise within associations or clubs. The strongest correlations are found with participation in leisure activities, voluntary work (“folk culture”), and watching, attending, or listening to sporting events. In other words, there is evidence that the more active people are in cultural and leisure activities, the more active they are in sport, exercise, and association life.
Strong examples of structured collaboration between sport and culture include: Wrexham AFC, Athletic Bilbao, Hearts FC, FC St. Pauli, and BK Skjold.
Further reading: Bjarne Ibsen analysis, “Is a Busy Cultural Life Positive for Sports Participation?”
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