Taylor Swift – a case study for audience appreciation

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Shoshana

  Hardly a day goes by without a Taylor Swift reference these days. I am not a fan of her music, yet I am finding myself a big fan of how she connects with her audiences. This will be, probably, my one and only post about Taylor Swift. She might do something huge in terms of audience engagement, so I can’t…

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The How of Audience Development for the Arts – Paperback!

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Shoshana

It’s a reality now! After 5 years of work, The How of Audience Development for the Arts is now in paperback format.  I wanted to take a moment to thank the people that helped make this milestone possible. The printed version of this book would not have been possible without the following people.* Thank you for your contributions, your support,…

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Weekend audience development thoughts

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Shoshana

I am in between book editing at the moment. My first book should be coming out by the end of this month! I will keep you posted. In the meantime, I had a weekend to simply think: I came across yet another theatre website that barely has photos and videos (only links), the type was tiny, and the site overall…

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ADS Podcast call for ideas and guest artists!

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Shoshana

Terrific Tuesday to you! I am in the middle of editing the design proof of my second book, which is why I have been so quiet. In the meantime, I am issuing a call for guest artists and ideas for the ADS Podcast. Check out the show and see what you think. If you have an idea and would like…

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Community solutions can go both ways

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Shoshana

This will be a quick one today. I had mentioned how you and your art could be a solution for your community, and this is a great way to become a central part of your community, connect, collaborate and show you care (all 4 C’s of audience development are covered). We can also think of community solutions going the other…

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Artistic buy-in for audience building

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Shoshana

This past weekend I was giving a presentation to the board of a choral organization. One of their main concerns of shifting to audience development was whether or not the choir would be supportive. The choir members already do help sell tickets and volunteer in other capacities. Will this be overload? Will they see value in this new way of thinking?…

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ArtPlace is funding arts community development!

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Shoshana

Yesterday, I attended a local Boulder arts meeting for a presentation of ArtPlace. ArtPlace is new on the block to innovate and fund arts community development projects. I have been saying for a long time that arts are a solution, and we can become a bigger part of our communities by helping to create projects that will solve some of our…

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Pay What You Decide programs may really pay off!

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Shoshana

Ooooo! I am excited to share this article with you!  Here’s what happened when we asked audiences to set their own ticket prices… ARC is a theatre company that only produces new work. They were having the challenge of building audiences since people were afraid to invest their time and money into seeing something that they may not like. The…

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Broken Record – Word of Mouth

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Shoshana

This will be a quick one this morning. Another survey crossed my desk today. Again, the highest percentage of how they heard about the event was Word of Mouth. When will it sink in? Word of Mouth is all about relationships. The tighter the relationship, the more people trust and take your word as gold. Relationship building is the main…

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Programming levels for audience building?

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Shoshana

I am sure you have heard of music appreciation classes. Many of us have used “family friendly” formats as well. What if we combined levels of appreciation with formats? This goes a little bit beyond simply labeling the performances. What if we had a season of discovery that leads the audience through a growing appreciation of your art form? Imagine…

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“Thanks so much Shoshana. Thank you for all that you’ve done for the Theater Project – your work with us paid off tremendously, and we really are grateful. We feel like we grew a lot last year, and have a solid platform to grow even more in the coming years – that is extremely important for us as we look toward our 50th anniversary (and beyond!).” —Jim Adolf, Board President of The Theater Project (Brunswick, ME)

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