Arts & Culture Audience Survey Results:
May, June, September 2020 November 10, 2020
A key component of The Essential Journey of Audience Building has been capturing and utilizing data to make informed organizational decisions. The ABR has created a resource library — a knowledgebase — that contains the learning gleaned from experts in a variety of fields and from the very important peer interaction that has been the cornerstone of the ABR.
THE ESSENTIAL JOURNEY BULLETIN
Resources for Arts & Culture Organizations
November 6, 2020
In the age of COVID, The Essential Journey of Audience Building continues to be a practical journey focused on the eyes-wide-open, adaptable, data-driven leadership that guides organizations – and people – through extraordinary times.
From Creative Mornings, April 14, 2019
By Elizabeth Labbe-Webb, Executive Director
Core Dance is celebrating our 40th anniversary. It’s quite an accomplishment. We’ve been a fixture on the Decatur Square for more than 35 of those years. We’ve seen Decatur change and grow to be one of the most vibrant parts of the Greater Atlanta area and we’ve managed to make ourselves an undeniable part of that vibrancy. Our studio space on the square is our home, our creative center, and it’s a resource for our community because we make it available for rent to other artists and nonprofits at very, very affordable prices.
By Stephen Brown, President, Cookerly PR
As The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation reconvened its Audience Building Roundtable for a “COVID-19 Pivot,” I had the opportunity to talk with more than 50 arts and culture organizations in the Roundtable about ways they can stay top of mind with their audiences during a 2020 which has thrown curveballs to nearly every American institution.
The week ending June 12, 2020, the twelfth week of national arts and culture data expert Colleen Dilenschneider’s research about “intent to visit” has now intersected with societal unrest in the wake of tragedies and protests related to systemic racial injustices, capturing the attention of Americans and the world at large, with people indicating that they intend to return to their usual attendance behaviors within about three months, but with some redistribution of demand.
From IAMO4W to Equitable Dinners:
Out of Hand’s Unexpected Journey of Audience Building
By Ariel Fristoe, Artistic Director, Out of Hand Theater
I want to share something extraordinary and unexpected that came out of Out of Hand Theater’s audience building journey. Out of Hand works at the intersection of art, social justice, and civic engagement. We spark conversations to build a better world by using the tools of theater to support and enhance the work of community partners. Through the generosity of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, we have taken several steps on our audience building journey, starting with our neighborhood, Old Fourth Ward.
Following a $32-million renovation, the Alliance Theatre opened the Coca-Cola Stage this past January. Even as construction was being completed during the 2017–2018 season, the show had to go on, and leadership at the Alliance made the untested (and rather bold) move to produce 12 shows in different locations around Atlanta, selecting venues that complemented themes of the work being produced. The hope was that they could meet Atlantans where they lived and bring them back to the newly renovated stage once it opened.
By Adam Fristoe, Out of Hand Theater
Thanks to a scholarship provided by the Arthur Blank Family Foundation’s Audience Building Roundtable, Out of Hand Theater’s Co-Artistic and Marketing Director Adam Fristoe was able to attend the 2018 National Arts Marketing Conference in Seattle, Washington.
Over the past five years, Out of Hand has focused our work toward social justice, civic engagement and community building in Metro Atlanta. In Seattle, Washington, both the city and King County have policies in place that make a commitment to equity, in particular to racial equity, including taking into account historical inequities. In Seattle, I was specifically looking for guidance and best practices in implementing such a commitment at Out of Hand, as well as for strategies to advance advocacy for these policies in Atlanta.
With very special thanks to Veronica and our friends at the Atlanta Contemporary, it is a great honor to accept the Nexus Award on behalf of my colleagues at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, plus our champions for the arts at the Blank Foundation, and everyone here, who works for—or supports—an arts organization in our community.
The word “nexus” in this context has particular meaning for me, because in my experience, success has come from positioning myself at the intersection, or nexus, of many extraordinary individuals who, if I’m lucky, share some of their talent and wisdom with me. A large part of leadership derives from following others we look up to…