THIS MONTH I thought two recent arts audience surveys would offer students and faculty an opportunity to compare participation and attendance profiles in the USA and England. Trying to ascertain trends, or spot opportunities to engage audiences and patrons, is challenging work for arts markets and leaders. Despite our best efforts in deploying increasingly sophisticated techniques and tools to reach new audiences and maintain existing ones, the longer range trends seem to point to the public responding by making other choices than the arts when it comes to expending their discretionary income.
As a corollary to the two arts attendance and participation articles, I thought the recent NY Times story about how the Met Opera could attract more audiences might offer some interesting class discussion. There are numerous suggestions from various sources on what the Met might do to draw bigger crowds. Some of these ideas seem worth further consideration. For example, adding Sunday performances might help the Met marginally increase its revenue. Of course, being interested in opera in the first place still remains a prime reason for attending.
Lastly, I came across a story about the weird goings-on at the Healing Arts Initiative in Queens, New York. This story offers a dramatic example of a breakdown in financial controls and a lack of management and board oversight. I am not sure what the complete story is on this embezzlement incident, but it certainly took an odd turn with an attack on the executive director.
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New study paints picture of arts engagement
Following the third year of the DCMS Taking Part’s longitudinal study, a new report reveals who attends the arts most often and why people stop engaging.
Arts Professional News, April 29, 2016
Taking Part is a household survey in England which looks at participation in the cultural and sport sector. The survey was commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in partnership with Arts Council England, Historic England, and Sport England.
Since Year 8 of the Taking Part survey (2012/13), a longitudinal component has been included in the survey, whereby the same individuals (starting with individuals who participated in Year 7, 2011/12) are re-interviewed annually.
The aim of the longitudinal component is to enable greater understanding of the extent of change over time in participation in and engagement with cultural and sporting activities at the individual level, and pathways in and out of participation and engagement. Over time the longitudinal component will help to build a picture of how changes in circumstances and other life events can help or hinder participation and engagement, and for how long.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/taking-part-longitudinal-report-2016
A PDF of the report is available at the above link.
A Decade of Arts Engagement: Findings From the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2002–2012
National Endowment for the Arts, 2015
This report synthesizes findings across several modes of arts participation (attending the visual and performing arts, reading literature, creating/performing art, using digital media to consume art, and learning within the arts) to show how many American adults–and from which backgrounds–have engaged in art throughout the decade of 2002 to 2012. Based on the NEA’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau.
The full PDF of the report is available at the above link.
The Met Opera Is Struggling. How Can It Fill Those Empty Seats?
By ZACHARY WOOLFE, ANTHONY TOMMASINI, MICHAEL COOPER, CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM and DAVID ALLEN, MAY 4, 2016, NY Times
While there was plenty to celebrate artistically this season at the Metropolitan Opera — with several acclaimed new productions and memorable star turns — the company’s worrying box-office slump continued.
The Met was on track to take in only 66 percent of its potential box-office revenue through the end of the season on Saturday, company officials said, down slightly from the previous season. (Since some seats are discounted, attendance is projected to be 72 percent.)
Some weakness stemmed from factors beyond the Met’s control: Jonas Kaufmann, one of the last bankable stars in opera, withdrew from all his appearances this season, citing illness, and other opera companies are facing struggles of their own. But it is becoming a pattern.
It is a daunting house to fill. With 3,800 seats and 200 standing-room places, the Met is far bigger than most European houses, and it gave 225 opera performances this season, more than almost all of its peers. It sold an average of 2,869 seats per performance — more than enough to fill the 2,256 seats of the Royal Opera House in London or the Vienna State Opera, which can hold 2,284.
What to do? Channeling their inner impresarios, critics and reporters for The New York Times engaged in a little operatic spitballing, throwing out ideas — including some that the Met is experimenting with and others it might find off the wall — that could help fill the house again.
Rocked by Embezzlement and Lye Attack, Healing Arts Initiative Shuts Down
Sarah Cascone, Monday, May 16, 2016, artnet News
Scandal has rocked a Queens-based arts charity that abruptly shut down on May 11. Healing Arts Initiative (HAI), founded in 1969, offered performances and workshops for the the city’s poor, disabled, and elderly, but was brought down by a $750,000 embezzlement scheme that left director D. Alexandra Dyer disfigured after she was attacked with lye while investigating the organization’s finances.
Hired this past July, Dyer took over an organization in turmoil. Since 2012, debt had risen from less than $100,000 to $2.2 million, and HAI had cut staff from 28 to 14, while being forced to move from SoHo to Queens.