Donna Walker-Kuhne, a New York-based arts marketing specialist, says that in 20 years time the majority of the American population will be ‘people of colour.’ Walker-Kuhne has been working determinedly to develop multicultural audiences for the arts in the United States since 1983. She is passionate about providing access to the arts for all, but points out that her audience development talents are now knowingly employed by clients who understand the changing demographics of society.
‘If you have any kind of economic savvy then you know you better implement some programmes now that [are] going to engage those constituents,’ she quips. ‘It’s not because it’s the right thing to do, it’s because it’s economically sound to do,’ she adds.
‘That’s why, for instance, a number of Broadway producers call me to work on productions,’ she continues. ‘And while, yes, they want to see other communities engaged, it’s [also] because they [culturally diverse groups] are going to be tickets buyers.’
Walker-Kuhne’s innovative strategies have resulted in audiences increasing by up to 45 per cent. She has developed ’10 Tools for Building Audiences’: Investment; commitment; research; review and analysis; follow up; partnerships; educating the audience and artist; building bridges; creating value; and expressing appreciation.
The point she feels most strongly about, however, is for institutions to invest in a permanent audience development strategy.
‘The challenge for institutions is to implement a permanent component…that is not the vision of one Executive Director, so that when they leave, so does that programme,’ Walker-Kuhne emphasises.
The key to investing in the long-term, she says, is to invest in staff.
‘You have to have someone to spearhead this. That person has to reflect the communities you try to develop.’
‘The staff,’ she continues, ‘has to have a budget. They can’t go around begging every other department to get their programs off the ground.’
But what about cash-strapped budgets I cry, thinking of hard-up small-to-medium sized organisations.
‘If you don’t have any financial resources, then it’s got to be people, it’s got to be labour, it’s got to be collaborations, it’s gotta be ways to show the community the value of your cultural product,’ Walker-Kuhne responds. ‘What does the community need, where are the gaps? Are they missing after school programs, are they missing programs for seniors, are they missing programs that reflect their culture? Then you can bring those programs to the community.
‘So smaller organisations [with] limited financial resources…have to be very innovative and find a way to still create value.’ Walker-Kuhne maintains that such commitment only comes with passion, speaking from her own experience implementing innovative outreach schemes.
From 1984 to 1993, as Director of Marketing for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Walker-Kuhne is credited with increasing the organisation’s box office sales by 45 per cent and establishing a ‘National Audience Development Taskforce.’
At The Public Theatre, from 1993 onwards, Walker-Kuhne not only increased audiences in New York, but across the country as a result of a national tour of the production Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk.
‘At The Public Theatre, we were engaging our membership – which was pretty much traditional theatre-goers – with this new multicultural community,’ she explains. ‘The first three performances of Noise/Funk were sold out – to Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. An Upper East Side, very very wealthy, white clientele. They bought the first three performances of a show about African-Americans!’ Walker-Kuhne exclaims. ‘The wealthy communities don’t even come downtown,’ she says, incredulous.
She also began a series of Sunday afternoon panel discussions at The Public, in which a different community group would come into the theatre on the third Sunday of every month, to create a work linked to the mainstream production at the time.
‘We would give them two hours. They could do a play, stage a reading, have a meeting, a dance performance…whatever they wanted to do that would be of value to their constituency.’
‘Those were very successful, because literally, they brought all kinds of different groups into the building, which we could then cultivate for our program.’
More recently, Walker-Kuhne was an Associate Producer for the production of Harlem Song at the Apollo Theatre. The producers established an audience development committee comprising different sub-committees that were in charge of areas including public relations, website marketing, education, social groups, and churches, for example. Each sub-committee would hold their own meetings, and each member would be responsible for marketing within their own communities. The committee was established before the play’s script was even written. The result? A 65 per cent African American audience attendance.
In the UK, several recent attempts to attract new audiences to the theatre have involved ticketing schemes. The Independent newspaper recently launched a campaign, spearheaded by arts columnist David Lister, to drop ticket prices in the West End to £10. At the same time, The National Theatre ran a scheme – sponsored by Travelex – in which tickets to selected shows were also offered for a tenner.
Given this example, Walker-Kuhne talks a lot about the value of the art. Any reduction in ticket prices, she maintains, needs to be done with intent to draw in new audiences, and that intent needs to be promoted along with the tickets prices.
‘I don’t believe in giving away tickets,’ she says. ‘I think that there has to be a value to the art. If you find you have tickets you want to make available at reduced prices, do it, but with intent. Tell the audience that you are doing and why, what is the expectation.’
What about advertising? Surely that plays a role?
‘Advertising will help, but only if it is from sources they [the community that is being targeted] trust.’ That’s where the research comes in, Walker-Kuhne notes. For African-Americans, radio is the best medium. For an upcoming production of Hairspray, Walker-Kuhne is using hand-held fans (the fold-out paper kind, on a stick), which are popular with the African-American community.
Given the diversity of cultures in the United Kingdom, Walker-Kuhne’s innovative arts marketing strategies could provide useful models that have the potential to be translated to the nation’s multicultural communities.
For further information about Donna Walker-Kuhne’s work, visit her company’s website: www.walkercommunicationsgroup.com
