Audience Building. Cultural Democracy.
For the last three weeks I have been working on a presentation I am giving later this month about audience development and engagement. I thought it might be of value to share three of the many resources I have been using on topics related to audiences and cultural democracy.
Audience Building
The last 18 months have provided an opportunity for the leadership of cultural organizations to rethink their programming and their relationship to their communities. One way to help students studying arts management gain perspective about community engagement and audience building would be to have them read the 2019 report by Francie Ostrower and Thad Calabrese entitled Audience Building and Financial Health in the Nonprofit Performing Arts: Current Literature and Unanswered Questions. It is a great resource for helping students develop a more global understanding of issues that cultural organizations continue to grapple with today. In addition, the report’s extensive bibliography contains dozens of readings that will help them with their research on these topics.
Cultural Democracy
In my own research, I also came across a report commissioned by the Arts Council England in 2018 called Cultural Democracy in Practice. It seems like it would be an excellent complement to Ostrower and Calabrese’s work. While cultural democracy is not a new idea, it seems particularly relevant to conversations arts organizations are having on being more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. If the goal is to truly engage with communities, systemic changes will be needed in the existing cultural ecosystem. However, that is easier said than done. This report will help students quickly become more literate on what cultural democracy means, and the case studies provided offer excellent examples of how these concepts can be put into practice.
Closer to home, I found an organization that I didn’t know existed called the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (it is not a government agency, by the way). The USDAC website states that it “is a people-powered department—a grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging.” Their 10-item action platform “Standing for Cultural Democracy,” issued in 2016, covers a gamut of issues that cultural organizations need to consider as they develop their strategies for becoming more engaged with their communities.
I hope you and your students find these resources of value. If you are interested in receiving a PDF of the presentation I am working on, email me at mgtandthearts5e@gmail.com. Thanks.
Bill Byrnes
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Audience Building and Financial Health in the Nonprofit Performing Arts
There is little agreement about the reasons behind documented declines in arts audiences, this literature review finds, and no proven path for organizations to stem or reverse them. The effects of audience-development efforts on an organization’s finances are equally unclear, the review finds. But it highlights questions that may help organizations chart a path to committed audiences and improved finances. Efforts that work at one organization may not work at another, and attempts to draw one audience segment could drive another away. But a broad commitment to audience development and close coordination between artistic and marketing departments may establish a foundation for success, the report suggests.
Link to report – https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/audience-building-and-financial-health-nonprofit-performing-arts.aspx
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Cultural Democracy in Practice
The term Cultural Democracy describes an approach to arts and culture that actively engages everyone in deciding what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it. It is not a new concept, but it’s one that seems to be gaining focus across arts and culture. It’s also often misunderstood or misused within the cultural sector.
- What is cultural democracy
- Cultural democracy – some whys
- Moving towards cultural democracy: embedding values
- Cultural democracy in practice – a brief how to…
- How to open up decision making (governance and leadership)
- How to use creativity to influence other areas of civic life
Link to website – https://www.culturehive.co.uk/resources/cultural-democracy-in-practice/
Link to PDF: https://64millionartists.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/culturaldemocracy.pdf
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Standing for Cultural Democracy – The USDAC’s Policy and Action Platform
In this platform, we describe ten ways to advance toward cultural democracy, a social order which embodies and affirms the right to culture in every aspect of our public and private policies; welcomes each individual as a whole, creative person; values each community’s heritage, contributions, and aspirations; promotes care, reciprocity, and open communication across all lines of difference; and dismantles all barriers to love and justice.