Are Arts Organizations Leading or Following Audiences?

This was an interesting article that was posted posing the question of whether or not arts organizations should be as concerned as they are about audience opinion. The idea of arts organizations following audiences as opposed to leading audiences is one that has become an issue as audiences start to dwindle at some organizations. There is no doubt that audiences need to feel connected to the organization that they are participating in. The question lays in how they feel connected and why. Adam Lerner head of MCA Denver suggested that organizations are misguided in their search for direction from audiences. He suggests that "the answers lie inside the organization, not outside." Posing the thought that museums need to look more carefully at themselves. This would lead to arts organization's interaction with audiences being about selling audiences more of what the organization offers and not re-thinking what the organization should offer as suggested by audience members. I think this is a very interesting way of looking at things, I'm not sure it is best for every arts organization and that specific organizations should thoroughly examine their mission before approaching audience interaction in this manner. Still, something to think about.
http://www.sloverlinett.com/blog/2012/march/good-research-isn-t-about-asking-audiences-what-they-want

The Ability to accept credit cards can open up so many more doors for organizations!

By: Jessica Teaford 

My paychecks are directly deposited into my account every two weeks like clockwork.  I would be lost without my debit card; I never carry cash on me.  And there is nothing that I hate more than going places that only accepts cash because they do not have the capabilities to take credit cards.  Organizations that do not take steps to modernize the way they can receive funds will slowly lose more and more patronage. 

Eventbrite has made it incredibly easy for small organizations to have the ability to take credit card payments for on-site ticketing and merchandise.  The only downside is that the app is only compatible with an iPad.  This is an expensive investment for companies to make.  However it will more than pay for itself not only when organizations don’t have to turn away patrons because of payment type.  This is something that all small organizations should look into.   

http://www.technologyinthearts.org/2012/04/eventbrites-newest-ticketing-solution-the-at-the-door-card-reader/

new ticketing initiative in the bronx.

http://www.technologyinthearts.org/2012/04/lesson-from-the-bronx/#more-4844

This Technology in the Arts blog post draws attention to the new free ticketing initiative underway at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.  Thanks to a grant from the New York Community Trust, the museum is offering free admission to city residents and tourists alike for the next 15 months.  There is hope, however, that this free ticketing program will draw attention to the museum's (and, in general, Art's) importance in the community and will inspire generous donations that will allow it to remain free indefinitely.
Museum director, Molly Block, was quoted as saying: "With our immediate community being the poorest per capita in the nation, and at a time when many are struggling to pay bills…we don’t want anyone to have to use (admission costs) as excuse not to visit us."  
If museums in lower-income communities can receive funding to do this, it is a great way to draw attention to their important roles in their respective regions and to bring publicity.  Initiatives like this one should go hand-in-hand with an extensive social media campaign.

Data and Funding

We've spent a great deal of time this semester looking at database programs. Data is incredibly valuable - what is shows, what you can extract from it, and how you can use it to track your development. The conversation we've had around the gathering and using of data has, of course, focused on arts organizations. Another major user of data is funders. As Lisa Philp writes on Philantopic, "When funders want to do more than just make good grants, they often seek targets of opportunity -- places where their support could be especially influential, help develop a new direction or innovation, or align with others to accomplish more. Activities that accomplish these goals are what we mean by "scanning the landscape." Philp's post, "Scan 2.0: New GrantCraft Guide Helps Funders Scan in the Digital Age", discusses GrantCraft's guide Scanning the Landscape 2.0, which looks at how funders can take advantage of technology to gather, maintain, and analayze data (aka scan) to determine how to best make grants. The scope of the guide is about funding in general, but has information that arts funders can make use of. For organzitions, it may be worth a look as well:  knowing how funders view data can help organizations not only understand the possibilities their data holds but how to read that data through a funding lens. A better understanding of the environment leads to better proposals, which in turn lead (hopefully) to increased funding. The GrantCraft guide is free but registration will be required.

Read Philp's blogpost at  http://pndblog.typepad.com/pndblog/2012/04/new-grantcraft-guide-helps-funders-scan-in-the-digital-age.html

Guide available at  http://www.grantcraft.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&pageId=3680

-Adrienne

The O

I just read a fascinating article about the MONA museum in Tasmania, Australia.  They no longer have any wall labels or signs to guide visitors.  Instead they have a mobile device to get all the information they need about the museum (maps, cafe hours, etc) as well as the art work.  In addition, patrons can view the curatorial information in different styles; in a formal style or with personal comments by the museum's owner.   The O also lets people interact with the art by leaving comments, sharing it on Facebook or Tweeting about it.  Visitors can save the O tours and retrieve them in 3D the next day on the museum's website.  80% of the visitors to the museum who used the O stated that it enhanced their experience. 
    
Not only is this device great for visitors, it is FANTASTIC for the staff!  They can easily see what the visitors commented on the most, visited the most, liked the most, etc.  This is the kind of technology that will bring younger people in, which is what museums and other arts organizations desperately need!

Do you know who your true audience is?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/04/23/151201002/are-your-facebook-friends-really-your-friends

Tanja Hollander was curious about the relationship status of her 626 facebook friends.  How many of these 626 "friends" were actual friends?  Using the medium of photography, Hollander set on a quest to photograph every single friend she has.

What intrigues about this article is the wondering how arts organizations are able to gauge the level of involvement their facebook and twitter followers.  Knowing everything there is to know about your followers would really allow organizations to gauge the best way to utilize the social media outlets to cater towards their loyal patrons, the inquisitive newbies and occasional participators.  Even though there are different matrix options available to gauge your activity levels, this doesn't truly tell you who your followers are and how to most effectively reach out to them.

But how could the audience be gauged?  Using a combination of different technologies that have been discussed and blogged about this semester could certainly help.  WHen scanning tickets using the new eventbrite software, perhaps there could be one question asked, whose answer could be input with the push of a button.  Or perhaps a quick questionnaire as part of the ticketing process could be incorporated.  The more data an organization is able to capture, the more effective their distribution of information could be and the more engaged their patrons will be.  

Arts Management, Arts Marketing, and the difference between physical and digital.

Being a full time student, I find myself often working on multiple projects, papers, and assignments at once. Today is one of those days. While traversing the internet for research, I come across some information that I feel is worth talking about.

I'm having to do research for a marketing plan, and I needed to find evidence of realistic prices for advertisement space in a newspaper. Would you like to know the prices? One column inch of space on a weekday costs $434. On a Sunday, it costs $613. How about a full page ad? $10,327 on a weekday. $12,748 on a Sunday.

You know what's interesting though? In just one page prior to these price listings in this report, The Washington Post gives some other helpful information: Daily Total Circulation: 562,108 people.

Total number of monthly readers who visit Washingtonpost.com: 17.5 million.

What this is saying to me, is that for art organizations who want to advertise in the local paper, they should think again. Why waste money on a dying form of information distribution, when you can market yourself so many times more effectively and efficiently via viral marketing?

One thing this class has taught me over the semester, is that there is no lack of software out there that can help arts organizations organize their patrons, and monetize properly from a good marketing strategy. Without a digital world for commerce to take place in, programs like Vendini, Tessitura, Ovation Tickets, and even Raiser's Edge, have no place in the future.

So perhaps if people stopped reading the newspaper, we'd be killing two birds with one stone: we'd stop killing trees, and we'd stop supporting an ineffective, outdated source of information distribution.

Just a thought.



http://www.washingtonpostads.com/sites/default/files/RC_SpecialIndustry2012.pdf