A climate of dwindling subsidies and fierce competition for corporate sponsorship has left many arts operators struggling to stay afloat, increasingly reliant on paying customers to sustain their practice. What’s more, that paying customer has become ever more problematic to win over. And neither is the proliferation of entertainment choices outside the ‘traditional’ cultural sphere aiding the ‘natural’ turnover in arts audiences.
Policies, strategies and programs are no longer pure theoretical construct, instead they are key survival mechanisms in building a robust collective audience for culture. Indeed, the understanding now is to build them or bust, and if they are built well the benefits are incalculable. How then does the sector overcome the variety of obstacles to maximize arts attendance?
Programming for cultural and economic diversity
Many arts companies are turning to ‘mixed genre’ programming in their bid to win novice audiences. This cross-pollination of arts can revive the appeal of an artform the general public might consider staid (or not have considered at all), and introduce devotees of one form to another (such as Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s blockbuster production, Indigo in Motion, which fused the city’s jazz heritage with classical ballet).
Arts companies and organisations are also discovering the attendant benefits of multiculturalism. Culturally ‘narrow’ arts fare (a season of all white-male British playwrights for example) inevitably excludes audiences from other ethnic or class backgrounds. British think-tank, The Runnymede Trust, agrees, its report on The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, condemning the “scant recognition of Britain’s cultural and religious diversity in funding policies for the arts in England, Scotland and Wales”, and the “insufficient representations, through the performing and visual arts, of the increasingly hybrid society that Britain now is.” Programming to address this concern (especially when those cultures are involved in new content-creation) can turn diversity of voice into diversity (and volume) of audience.
For some, economics poses a barrier to arts attendance. To combat this, arts bodies are raising awareness of affordable or free cultural events, and programmers are bundling – utilising subscription seasons, group booking discounts and other packaging tactics to incentive their audiences of consumers to ‘best buy.’ Additional ‘value-adds’ (such as backstage tours, free merchandise, free educational public programs or the opportunity to meet artists) can clinch the deal.
Youth as fuel for the future
A child raised with the arts is more likely to stick with them as an adult. Keenly aware of this, governments, peak bodies and arts organisations continue to invest funds and resources in arts opportunities for young people. In 2004, Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) held 853 arts education and audience-building activities, including a School Culture Day Scheme (where students visited performing venues, museums and libraries) and an animateur scheme (in which local performing arts groups provided in-school training for kids).
The department is following the lead of arts bodies and groups around the world, creating and tailoring content for young people with an eye to retaining their loyalty over time.
Festivals and award winners
Australia Council for the Arts CEO Jennifer Bott has called festivals “vital vehicles for building new audiences for the arts.” The multi-tiered Festival calendar in Edinburgh superbly demonstrates how the arts – when bundled as a socio-cultural event – can manifest an irresistible pull for audiences around the world. Observed The Guardian in 2004: “Edinburgh’s cultural collateral has won over the world … It is now impossible to imagine Edinburgh without the festivals.” And the Vancouver International Children’s Festival combines the twin power of arts for the young and the festival forum to “express a strong message to children that the arts are an important and meaningful part of life”. Clever, ‘destination’ based audience building in action.
Employing innovative, contemporary programming and budget savvy packaging at these events bolsters their drawing power – a direction many Festival heads are leaning.
Competitions and awards can also cultivate audiences, in particular those that gain a national or international reputation over time. Someone not usually interested in books might pick up this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction winner; a non-theatre goer might risk a ticket to the play that ‘won all those Tony’s’.
While cynics argue this approach is inherently superficial and does little to cultivate a ‘real’ interest in the arts over time, others counter that any interest is better than none. Accolades that raise the profile of an artform and specific artists seem an increasingly viable a strategy to attract younger audiences, weaned on a buffet of competition based, winner–takes-all television programming.
Celebrity has a role to play here also. A famous face in a new play, a well-known subject, judge or patron, can only further extend the PR reach of a the cultural activity in question. Scorned by some ‘purists’ as cheapening culture, the ploy is consistently effective, as attests a recent report from The Guardian: “Stars of the silver screen are giving London’s theatreland a boost: new figures attribute a 200% rise in West End theatre ticket sales over the past year to the onstage presence of such actors as Sienna Miller and Val Kilmer,” the paper observed.
Technology
The arts are harnessing new systems and devices to boost communication with potential customers, and explore ways to expose people to culture.
Once the domain of the ‘hip’, fringe company that sent mass emails to promote their wares, flagship companies and even peak bodies are now readily embracing technology to build arts viewership.
Creative New Zealand’s audience development initiative, Txt2U, used text messaging to “enhance the loyalty of its existing audience and encourage new attendees – particularly young audiences” with a range of instantly broadcast special offers. Orchestras deliver ‘program notes’ via i-pod like devices; remote broadcast allows actors perform to audiences a world away; small screen creativity abounds on mobile phones and PDA’s. Most arts operators realise their best chance to reach audiences is aligned with these means of dispersal, and are helping things along however they can.
Of course, the value of new audiences extends beyond the box office. “Culture alone can give people the means better to understand and engage with life, and as such is a key part in reducing inequality of opportunity,” offers UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell in a personal essay on Government and the Value of Culture.
Politicians, artistic directors, sponsorship managers or volunteers – whoever the audience-builders, they must continue to leverage that selling point.
