A study from the Wallace Foundation, In Search of the Magic Bullet, explores results from its long-running Building Audiences for Sustainability Initiative. Among the 25 arts organizations that participated in the initiative are the Seattle Symphony and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The initiative found, essentially, that if arts organizations want to change how audiences engage with them, they must first be open to changing themselves. The Magic Bullet study revealed that there is no single method for arts organizations to build their audiences while also increasing revenue—but there are strategies that could help. In the initiative, the arts groups tested different approaches to build new audiences while keeping their current audiences engaged. Some focused on age groups, such as millennials or Gen-X; others looked at location and how they interacted with their community. Some worked to attract a more racially or ethnically diverse audience. A few sought to build audiences for new or less familiar artworks. To find out which approaches worked and which were less successful, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin drew on extensive interviews with BAS organizations’ leadership and staff as well as ticketing data and audience surveys. Learn more at https://wallacefoundation.org/resource/article/scoop-audience-building.
