Twelve case studies of arts engagement projects working with older people and families in London. The case studies share the learning from Audiences London’s Family Advocates Programme, BAC’s work with non-professional older artists, a skills exchange with Building Exploratory, an architecture centre and Cubitt, a gallery and studios regarding work with older audiences, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Tate … Read more
The Discover Dance programme was run by Arts About Manchester between 2005 and 2009. This evaluation provides Acorn profiles of dance attenders and a useful insight into some of the key barriers to engagement for first time attenders with the dance sector, as well as an evaluation of the development work that was undertaken.
In the year that the Edinburgh International Festival celebrated its sixtieth birthday, this presentation discussed how an understanding of audiences contributes to the development of the Festival brand, illustrating how in 60 years it has transformed a City not known for its festivals into one that attracts millions of visitors and generates over £200 million … Read more
A case study on how Chicago’s Lookingglass theatre weathered the recession with clever pricing.
The study, involving nine London galleries, sought to quantify and understand the evening market for galleries, providing demographic and psychographic profiling data alongside attender motivations and the relationship with daytime visits. The data also cross-referenced findings from participating venue to venue, and analysed marketing activity reach and appeal by segment, and opportunities to position galleries … Read more
The ‘Test Drive the Arts’ concept is about utilising spare capacity in arts venues (which generate nil income) to give potential attenders a ‘taste’ of the product in order to stimulate repeat attendance (and thus generating income in venues where a charge is levied). This groundbreaking study evaluates performance against objectives including: targeting 25,000 new … Read more
Subscription schemes are used by major American institutions to sell theatre tickets in bulk. These schemes often act as a starting point for increasing customer loyalty – by encouraging customers to attend more frequently, it is hoped that they will eventually become a friend or a donor. Consultant Debbie Richards explains the benefits of this … Read more
Case studies and research undertaken since the 1980s have shown that price is not the most significant barrier to arts attendance and suggests that there is scope for price increases. This article on Welsh National Opera’s experience found that for current opera-goers, a decrease in price could encourage more attendances and actually increase revenue.
This report provides a summary of the Test Drive: North West audience development project which looked at how venues could increase repeat attendance using spare capacity. Using telemarketing, potential attenders where given a chance to ‘try before you buy’ with the offer of free tickets providing an opportunity to capture personal data and profile their … Read more
This keynote from AMA Conference 2009 poses the argument that selling the superiority instead of the diversity of the arts has not been a particularly effective strategy for developing audiences. It poses an approach to changing a culture of creating barriers that involves brokering relationships.