Audience Development.pdf

Audience Development is a strategic, dynamic, and interactive process to make arts widely accessible, aiming to engage individuals and communities in experiencing and valuing the arts. It involves widening, deepening, and diversifying audiences.

Main Objectives:

1. Widening audiences: Attracting audiences with the same socio-demographic profile as the current audience.
2. Deepening relationships: Enhancing the experience of the current audiences.
3. Diversifying audiences: Attracting people with a different socio-demographic profile, including those with no previous contact with the arts.

Key Principles:

1. Strategic approach: Audience Development is a long-term strategic planning process.
2. Addresses traditional and new audiences: Uses different tools and strategies to engage various audience groups.
3. Requires professional competencies: Needs specific skills and knowledge to implement effectively.
4. Trigger for change: Involves taking risks, investing resources, and facing a change process.

Implementation:

1. Not a special project: Audience Development is an institutional dimension, not a one-time project.
2. Not the responsibility of a single department: Requires a whole-organisation approach.
3. Comes with a price tag: Involves investing resources and facing potential challenges.

Starting Points for Cultural Organisations:

1. Define organisational identity: Be clear about what makes your organisation special and for whom you want to make a difference.
2. Balance priorities: Align audience goals with your values and artistic vision.
3. Focus, listen, and understand: Know your target groups and prioritize them.
4. Assess capabilities: Evaluate your staff's skills and knowledge to tackle audience challenges.
5. Foresee consequences: Consider the impact of Audience Development on your organisation in the short, medium, and long term.

Tools and Strategies:

1. Raise awareness: Promote Audience Development among cultural stakeholders.
2. Evidence-based approach: Measure advancements in Audience Development.
3. Reinforce educational links: Integrate the cultural sector with the educational system.
4. Build capacity: Train staff and arts professionals in Audience Development and Engagement strategies.
5. Promote innovative participation models: Enable conditions for long-lasting processes and invest in dedicated staff positions.