Meeting Audiences Where They Are

As part of its wide-ranging “Building Audiences for Sustainability” initiative, the Wallace Foundation recently published “Proximity and the Performing Arts: What Leads Audiences to Go the Extra Mile?” by Francie Ostrower, Ph.D., and C. Nathan Marti, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin. The study examines how someone’s distance from a performing arts venue has an impact on whether they will attend live events, and points out, “As arts organizations try to expand and diversify their audiences, widening their geographical scope might seem to be a natural strategy.” The report also unpacks implications that arts groups might consider in building audiences and engaging communities.

Here are excerpts from “Proximity and the Performing Arts: What Leads Audiences to Go the Extra Mile?” Read the complete report at https://wallacefoundation.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/proximity-and-performing-arts-attendance.doi_.10.59656%252FA-AD3981.001_0.pdf.

“Proximity and the Performing Arts”

Does an audience’s distance from a performing arts venue have an impact on whether or not they will attend live events? And, what factors might draw people from further away? Those are the questions addressed by this brief. We found that distance was negatively associated with attendance—that is, frequency of attendance is lower for audiences located further from the performance venue. But the relationship was not fixed. Organizational size and production popularity were positively associated with audience distance, with larger organizations and more popular productions attracting audiences from further away.

By contrast, audience distance was unrelated to either the organization’s artistic discipline or sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., population density) of the venue location. While much remains to be explored, current findings have implications for audience-building efforts. For those seeking to expand their geographical reach, findings suggest the potential usefulness of offsite performance, but caution against expecting offsite attendance to translate into home venue attendance. Likewise, findings are consistent with perspectives highlighting links between community engagement and organizational sustainability since most audiences are likely to come from the local geographical community. Most broadly, our findings indicate that organizations consider, quite literally, ways to reach people where they are.

Our findings indicate that organizations consider, quite literally, ways to reach people where they are.

Introduction

A leader at a performing arts organization seeking to increase attendance recalled, “one of the ideas was to try to develop an audience that was from out of town, basically, a more regional … audience.” National statistics have long shown declining or stagnant attendance at multiple arts organizations. As arts organizations try to expand and diversify their audiences, widening their geographical scope might seem to be a natural strategy. Geographical reach can also be an implicit but key consideration in engaging audiences. For instance, a theater hoped to attract more diverse audiences but was located in an area with a relatively homogenous population. Thus, attracting audiences from farther away was an important means to achieving their goal. Said one organizational leader, “[This organization] is not interested in being a theater for a small subset of people who live in a 20-mile geographic, or … 5-mile geographic zone…. To remain relevant and continue to exist as an art form, it needs to speak to the population.”

But how feasible is it to attract audiences from a wider area to performance venues? In this brief, we analyze data from our study of performing arts organizations in The Wallace Foundation’s “Building Audiences for Sustainability” initiative to offer some insights. The discussion addresses the following questions:

• What is the relationship between audience distance from the performance venue and main season attendance?
• What factors are associated with organizations’ ability to attract audiences from further away?

A small but intriguing group of studies has explored the relationship between distance from, and attendance at, arts and cultural venues. Traditionally, studies of arts attendance have mostly concentrated on associations with individuals’ sociodemographic characteristics and social position. This literature on distance seeks to counterbalance that emphasis by calling attention to the importance of the availability and accessibility of arts and cultural institutions.

While distance studies differ in method and disciplinary focus (e.g., opera, museums, a music festival), they generally find attendance declines as distance from the venue increases. That said, these studies focus mostly on European cities. Still, a white paper that examined American data estimated that at one mile from the arts organization, the likelihood of attendance drops off by 80 percent, and a study of school tours and membership at four Los Angeles museums found geographical distance mattered. Additionally, a national survey in the United States found that among respondents expressing an interest in attending arts events, difficulty getting to the venue was one of the more commonly self-reported barriers.

Taken together, the findings point to the importance of understanding the relationship between distance and attendance more closely in the United States. That includes exploring questions that remain to be answered, notably whether the relationship is subject to variations—that is, under what conditions audiences are willing to travel further. For instance, one study found that school tours helped overcome geographical distance from museums. And a study of libraries identified the presence of nearby facilities, such as shops, had a positive influence on attendance. However, as some have noted, key potential sources of variation remain unexamined.

Better understanding the relationship between distance and attendance can help organizations who are considering how to expand their geographical scope. Strategies around offsite performances are a case in point. Performing arts organizations have seen some success performing in community venues outside of their home sites. However, findings from the larger study of the Building Audience for Sustainability initiative found that efforts to use offsite performance as a gateway to attract audiences to their home venue were unsuccessful. Studies of distance speak directly to questions about whether it is realistic to expect that people will travel to the home venue—or whether organizations will need to travel offsite to literally “meet people where they are” to expand their geographical scope for live audiences. Likewise, understanding where audiences are geographically located also contributes to current discussions about community engagement and organizational sustainability.

Building community engagement is not only an obligation of nonprofit status but also a prerequisite for expanding audiences.

Conclusions and Implications

The frequency of attendance at performing arts venues decreases with audience distance, but this relationship is subject to variation, with larger organizations and more popular productions attracting people from further distances. Much remains to be explored to understand other factors, as well as the underlying mechanisms accounting for organizational differences observed here (such as whether larger organizations’ ability to attract audiences from further away has to do with marketing, production mix or other factors). The present findings, which underscore both variation and the widespread challenges of overcoming distance, speak to the relevance of continuing this line of inquiry.

The current findings have practical implications for organizations considering audience-building strategies to expand their geographical scope. Broadly, they underscore the importance of considering ways to “meet people where they are” quite literally. Offsite performances are one key case in point. Our findings support the idea that performing at offsite venues (geographically near the audiences the organization seeks to reach) is a potentially effective strategy, but caution against expecting this strategy to bring those audiences to the home venues.

With respect to attracting audiences to the home venue, we find that programming matters. As we have seen, audiences were willing to travel longer distances to the same venue to see productions more appealing to them. Although we believe that transportation options are important to study, this finding should also serve as a caution against too easily attributing reticence to travel to the venue as a function of only logistical factors.

Recent years have seen growing emphasis on the importance of arts organizations building meaningful connections with their local communities. Doug Borwick has long contended that building community engagement is not only an obligation of nonprofit status but is also a prerequisite for expanding audiences. Likewise, a recent study identified a community orientation as a key element of high-performing arts organizations. Our findings are consistent with this perspective because they indicate that the preponderance of the live audience will likely remain within an organization’s geographical locale – even for the largest arts organizations. And indeed, interviews with BAS participants indicate that many of them were coming to see a stronger community orientation as key to their continued importance.

In closing, we return to the case of the BAS organization mentioned at the opening—the theater that sought to expand its geographical reach to connect with more varied audiences. Offsite performances were among their strategies, which they initially hoped would lead audiences to then come to their theater. Although they concluded offsite performances would not serve as a gateway to their home venue, they came to value the connections they did facilitate. Interviewees variously said these performances were, “very much about increasing our audience that is younger and more diverse and not just part of [this] zip code,” and “have really been effective in building that audience base, that community outreach base.”

One interviewee in the larger study commented with frustration on a perceived “mentality in the arts that if we build it, they will come.” Maybe—but among other things, our findings suggest that it depends on just how far you expect them to come.