Building Arts Audiences

APAP and The Wallace Foundation support arts organizations’ efforts to reach new audiences and deepen relationships with current audiences. Together, we are proud to share The Wallace Foundation's findings and resources on audience-building efforts with the performing arts field. 

What you’ll find here:

• Best practices you can start using now

• Case studies of success and failure in growing audiences

• How you can engage more deeply with these resources

The Wallace Foundation has identified nine practices that successful audience-building efforts have had in common. Review the nine practices and read more about them in the downloadable report, The Road to Results: Effective Practices for Building Arts Audiences. 

1. Recognize When Change Is Needed

2. Identify the Target Audience that Fits

3. Determine What Kinds of Barriers Need to be Removed

4. Take Out the Guesswork

5. Think Through the Relationship

6. Provide Multiple Ways In

7. Align the Organization Around the Strategy

8. Build In Learning

9. Prepare for Success

Focusing on one of the nine effective practices, this guide Taking Out the Guesswork: A Guide to Using Research to Build Arts Audiences, seeks to help arts organizations get over the hurdles of research. It details how to carry out the research effectively – in both low-cost and more elaborate ways – and how to bring together an organizational team to manage the work. This separate infographic summarizes the guide’s key points.

These principles emerged from case studies of ten arts organizations that undertook audience-building projects as part of the Wallace Excellence Awards initiative. You can read more examples of successes and challenges from the work of museums, opera companies, a theater and other institutions.

5 Minutes to Shine: "Building Arts Audiences" Competition

The APAP|NYC “5 Minutes to Shine” (5MTS) competition is an opportunity to share a compelling story about an individual's or organization’s stellar idea aimed at audience development at APAP|NYC 2018. Stories are based upon one or more strategies identified in The Wallace Foundation publication The Road to Results: Effective Practices for Building Arts Audiences. Applications will be available in the fall of 2017.

Presentations

• Building Millennial Audiences: Barriers and Opportunities - Arts organizations could help attract millennials by clarifying pricing and better explaining the value of the arts, suggests this Wallace-commissioned synthesis of market research.

Case Studies

• Staying Relevant In A Changing Neighborhood: How Fleisher Art Memorial Is Adapting To Shifting Community Demographics - The Fleisher Art Memorial creates an initiative to bring residents of the surrounding ethnically diverse neighborhood to its on-site programs.

• Opening New Doors: Hands-On Participation Brings A New Audience To The Clay Studio - The Clay Studio experimented with a series of events and workshops aimed at persuading their target audience to try out the organization.​

• Getting Past “It’s Not For People Like Us”: Pacific Northwest Ballet Builds a Following with Teens and Young Adults - A Seattle-based ballet company garnered new interest in traditional and contemporary ballet among teens and adults under the age of 25.​

• Extending Reach with Technology: Seattle Opera’s Multipronged Experiment to Deepen Relationships and Reach New Audiences​ - To engage audiences, the Seattle Opera used technology including simulcasts, interactive lobby displays and behind-the-scenes videos.​

• Someone Who Speaks Their Language: How a Nontraditional Partner Brought New Audiences to Minnesota Opera - Learn how an opera company found new audience members among women age 35 to 60.

• More Than Just a Party: How the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boosted Participation by Young Adults - Learn how the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boosted Participation by Young Adults.​ View extra features for this case study.

• Cultivating the Next Generation of Art Lovers: How Boston Lyric Opera Sought to Create Greater Opportunities for Families to Attend Opera - Learn how Boston Lyric Opera sought to create greater opportunities for families to attend opera. View extra features for this case study.

• Building Deeper Relationships: How Steppenwolf Theatre Company Is Turning Single-Ticket Buyers Into Repeat Visitors - ​​Learn how the Steppenwolf Theatre Company is turning single-ticket buyers into repeat visitors.

• Attracting an Elusive Audience: How the San Francisco Girls Chorus Is Breaking Down Stereotypes and Generating Interest Among Classical Music Patrons - Learn how the San Francisco Girls Chorus is breaking down stereotypes and generating interest among classical music patrons. View extra features​ for this case study.

Learn More

At APAP|NYC 2015, APAP and the Wallace Foundation hosted a professional development session on Welcoming New Audiences featuring participants from case studies. Listen to the audio recording to learn about their strategies, successes and setbacks.

Learn more about the vision behind the Building Arts Audience initiative, visit the Wallace Foundation website at ThrivingArts.org.

Inside Arts articles on Building Audiences

APAP has reported on the importance of building arts audiences, the tools and research needed to this and how the 5 Minutes to Shine competition brings forth new ideas.

Read the 2016 conference article

Read the 2016 summer article

Read the 2015 spring article