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Audience development and combatting the “elitism” of the arts

Posted On December 1, 2011 By Shoshana

I just finished reading Classical music ain’t just for snobs When I saw the title, I was expecting an article detailing the various reasons why classical music can be enjoyed by everyone and anyone.  I should have known better.  It turned out to be another critical essay regarding the format of how someone is presenting… 

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Audience Development for Arts Advocacy or the popcorn & candy top 10 reasons to support the arts

Posted On July 26, 2011 By Shoshana

Last week I found a blog that was resurrected for another round on Twitter: The Top 10 Reasons to Support the Arts (from Arts Watch) This blog post is a good summary of many of the practical reasons why the arts are good for us: 10. True prosperity 9. Stronger communities 8. Health and well-being… 

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Audience development needed – Van Cliburn proves the arts deserve it!

Posted On July 13, 2011 By Shoshana

I saw another listing of an orchestra filing for Chapter 11 today.  Right now I am hoping and praying that more people will start seeing the value of audience development and do what they can to give it a fair try.  It is sad to see artists and arts organizations in trouble, especially when they… 

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Audience Development and Friday YouTube Mood

Posted On June 24, 2011 By Shoshana

I finally updated my YouTube Gallery page.  Before June vanishes, I wanted to share with you a sample of how classical music is a part of our culture and is quite popular in its usage in commercials. You can sample them here: ADS YouTube Gallery Also for your enjoyment, here is my playlist of classical… 

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Audience development and what I have learned over the vast arts weekend

Posted On June 20, 2011 By Shoshana

This is not going to be the typical summary blog.  I was not able to attend any of the conferences this weekend, but was able to catch some of what was happening via Twitter and Livestream.  We had the TCG (Theatre Communications Group) conference and the AFTA (American for the Arts) conference this past weekend. … 

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Audience development & arts advocacy for arts funding

Posted On June 7, 2011 By Shoshana

These are strange times.  For every arts cut story I find in news sources across the country, there is at least a story to match of an arts group raising money to help a community.    Today there was an arts cuts article for Wisconsin, and meanwhile in Joplin, MO, there was an article of an… 

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Audience development rants and raves and taking risks…

Posted On April 5, 2011 By Shoshana

Today I have been thinking a great deal about taking risks.  I myself have taken some risks these past few years.  For the past 3 years (and some months) I have been running a business called Audience Development Specialists.  We help artists and arts organizations build a happy and loyal audience.  Through working one-on-one with… 

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Audience Development & #Artsadvoc: Vote for I support the arts because___.

Posted On March 15, 2011 By Shoshana

You may be asking why I am committing myself to arts advocacy instead of just audience development.  My thoughts are, arts advocacy is audience development for the arts.  Whenever we build a case for the arts with those that we relate to, we are also planting a seed for audience development.  If we can share… 

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Audience development, Rocco and the buzz

Posted On February 2, 2011 By Shoshana

There has been a good discussion happening since Rocco Landesman, chairman of the NEA, had the audacity ( ;O) )  to point out that arts organizations should downsize or collaborate more due to high supply and low demand: #SupplyDemand There of some us in the arts world that will agree and some of us who… 

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Arts Advocacy Day! Do it for Mozart! Twitter and Facebook Instructions…

Posted On January 27, 2011 By Shoshana

It’s time to take action!  I ask you to lend your voice by writing a letter and then posting on Twitter and Facebook that you took action.  Let’s make some noise today!  I am dedicating this arts advocacy day to Mozart.  In order to find our next Mozarts in this world, we need to support… 

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“We had an enormously productive session with Shoshana Fanizza of Audience Development Specialists, discussing both long and short term strategies for marketing, outreach and audience development. In addition to recommending several new strategies, which we plan to incorporate into our marketing and outreach efforts, she showed us ways to refine and enhance what’s already working so that it will reach even further. Shoshana is knowledgeable, prepared and a total professional. We won’t hesitate to call on her again.” —David Srebnik and Cynthia May Listener Directed Productions, Inc – producer of Virtuoso Voices

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