by Pieter Jacobs, ACT CEO
(The following article
is made available in arrangement with the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) and
the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO). See ACT’s
website http://www.act.org.za/)
When it comes to the implementation of audience development,
it is all too easy to resort to bussing in underprivileged children from who
knows where. Unless this is part of a holistic programme which also addresses
other crucial factors, such as motivation and opportunity to attend or participate,
one can’t but wonder whether it isn’t simply an attempt to fulfil a short-term
need to get bums on seats. Providing access (ability) to attend is only one
part of audience development.
It becomes a concern when at the Arts & Culture Trust
(ACT) we receive countless applications from arts organisations interested in
growing their audiences (market) by doing just that. Most often by targeting
the youth in locations that doesn’t make sense at all.
ACT is passionate about this area of development but also
realises that there aren’t enough funds to shoot and miss.
In 2001, the RAND Corporation published an extremely useful
resource A New Framework for Building
Participation in the Arts, which highlights motivation, ability and
opportunity to attend as the three main considerations when devising an
audience development programme. Mia Stokmans from Tilburg University’s paper, Model of Audience Development: Some
Theoretical Elaborations and Practical Consequences, also identifies these
three aspects as vital to the success of audience development.
As could be expected, there are some challenges when it
comes to the implementation of audience development models. Jennifer Wiggins,
at University of Wisconsin-Madison, interrogated some of the challenges associated
with the RAND model in her paper, Motivation,
Ability, and Opportunity to Participate. The RAND Corporation also
published research Cultivating demand for
the arts commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, which highlights arts
education as a priority when attempting to increase demand for artistic work.
The state of, especially, arts education in the public school curriculum as
described in the research, is similar to the situation locally.
The Newcastlegateshead Cultural Venues worked with Morris Hargreaves
McIntyre (MHM) to develop new ways of understanding and thinking about
audiences. The MHM-NGCV Levels of
Engagement Model was developed in 2010 is also a notable resource. This and
MHM’s Culture Segments have been tested through a series of research projects
(please see the bottom of blog post for links to sources).
While some arts institutions, artists and organisations may
be able to increase demand, enable access and supply valued arts products and
experiences to a growing market, the underlying issue of which declining
audiences and consumption of the arts are symptomatic, is an industry-wide
challenge. I have no doubt that great advances could be made if a unified arts
community, the Department of Arts and Culture and the Department of Education,
could systematically work together to address this issue.
‘Well that’s just great!’ right? Where does this leave the
artists, arts institutions and organisations in the meantime? I like to think
in a place of massive opportunity. There are hundreds of thousands potential
art lovers out there. It is our challenge to learn to know them and understand
what makes them tick.
Below are sources and additional resources; please feel free
to add others in the comments section:
A New Framework for
Building Participation in the Arts: http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/key-research/Pages/New-Framework-for-Building-Participation-in-the-Arts.aspx
Motivation, Ability, and
Opportunity to Participate: http://ernest.hec.ca/video/pedagogie/gestion_des_arts/AIMAC/2003/resources/pdf/A/A08_Wiggins.pdf
Cultivating demand for
the arts: http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/key-research/Documents/Arts-Learning-and-Arts-Engagement.pdf
Model of Audience
Development: Some Theoretical Elaborations and Practical Consequences: http://neumann.hec.ca/aimac2005/PDF_Text/Stockmans_Mia.pdf
Encourage Audience
Development: http://www.cfgnh.org/Learn/SupportArtsCulture/EncourageAudienceDevelopment/EncourageAudienceDevelopmentIssueBrief/tabid/646/Default.aspx
Arts Derby Audience
Development Toolkit: http://culturehive.co.uk/search/?q=Arts+Derby+Audience+Development+Toolkit
Newcastlegateshead
Cultural Venues: http://ngcv.tv/work/public-engagement/audience%20development
Building Arts
Participation: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310827_steps.pdf
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