Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0101

• Abstract

  In Germany, as in England, only a minority of the population, predominantly the higher educated, attends state-subsidized theaters. For theaters, attracting audiences from hitherto underrepresented groups of the population is not just a matter of increasing attendance in the short term, but also of securing their legitimacy in the longer term. For cultural policy, the challenge is to guarantee a higher degree of participatory justice. The article discusses the perspectives of a participation-oriented audience development against the background of the national regimes of theater governance in Germany and England, which are characterized by different models and legitimation patterns of theater funding.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0102

• Abstract

  Personal recommendations and word-of-mouth communication are central to information gathering and the decision-making process for visiting a cultural institution. More and more publicly funded theaters want to use this resource of their existing audience more effectively in order to attract and retain (non-)visitors, break down access barriers and strengthen their legitimacy. They are therefore implementing multiplier and intermediary projects at their theaters that are based on the keyworker strategy. The case study uses the evaluation method of the CIPP model to show the framework conditions, strategic approaches, implementation practices, and effects at four theaters that implemented such multiplier projects during the 2020/21 season. It shows that the implementation of the projects only partially accomplished the objectives. The theaters have either not internalized audience development and comprehensive visitor orientation as a fundamental organizational philosophy or this has not yet manifested itself in the existing work processes and organizational structures.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0103

• Abstract

  The purpose of this study is to test whether nonprofit theatres in New England that are engaged with higher education institutions (HEIs) have increased revenues over those that are not. Besides revenue, the study also tests two additional measures of financial well-being: expense-to-revenue ratios, and employee-cost-to-total-expenses ratios. The results showed that theatres that had discernable HEI engagement have greater total revenue and lower expense-to-revenue ratios over theatres that did not. Notably, regardless of the size of the theatre, those with discernible HEI engagement operated, on average, with a surplus. Conversely, theatres with no discernible HEI engagement operated, on average, with a deficit. The study found no difference in employee-cost-to-total-expense ratios. Resource Dependence Theory is used to explore why engagement with HEI’s may improve the financial status of nonprofit theatres. The implication of these results through a resource dependency lens is that HEI engagement creates paths to increase total revenue and reduce expense-to-revenue ratios of nonprofit theatres.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

doi 10.14361/zkmm-2024-0104

• Abstract

  Engaging with new and broader audiences is increasingly relevant for cultural institutions. For that reason, visitor studies have become an established part of cultural management and research. Reaching out to new and broader audiences requires non-visitor research as well. Focusing on the case of the Swiss Science Center Technorama this study compares characteristics, needs and motivations of both non-visitors and visitors and shows, based on Falk’s phenotypes, how this information can be used for targeted offerings and digital marketing communications. The results affirm well-known barriers such as price and distance, but also show potential of better targeted offerings and digital communications.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0105

• Abstract

  While visitor research in cultural institutions is becoming more and more commonplace and systematic, interest in non-visitor research is currently increasing. However, the few existing approaches to investigating non-visitors appear to be only partially suitable for productive institutional use, as we demonstrate in this article on the basis of three current studies. However, in view of the large number of non-visitors, who are mainly found in sections of society that are either not culturally aware or live in Germany due to migration, non-visitor research has great potential. The challenges of reaching these groups are obvious, but there is a lack of coherent implementation strategies. Against this background, a participation-oriented non-visitor study that we conducted for the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden is used to present a possible approach and explain how a cultural institution can approach non-visitors. This case study shows how non-visitor research can function as part of a change process.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

0.14361/zkmm-2024-0106

• Abstract

  This essay challenges the conventional view of audience engagement in arts and culture, arguing that it’s more about habitual, everyday processes than the usually highlighted exceptional moments. Current approaches to researching and teaching audience engagement overly focus on one-off events, overlooking broader contexts and long-term habitual practices. Through a practice lens, audience engagement emerges as interconnected, routinized processes within organizations. Changing engagement requires systemic shifts, acknowledging the stability and sociability of practices. Traditional methods of audience research and education must evolve towards deeper qualitative analyses; cultural policy should prioritize meaningful engagement over superficial metrics; and cultural management needs to care for genuine engagement recognizing diverse organizational practices. The essay is a call for embracing the everyday, underreported social interactions that form the true foundation of audience engagement.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0107

• Abstract

  This essay compares the concept of Audience Development (AD) to arts marketing in order to tease out both similarities and differences. The author argues that it is not necessary to define arts marketing and Audience Development as having different aims and pursuits. The critical analysis relies primarily on literature review and subsequently explores the common understanding of Audience Development as well as assesses the degree of its originality with regard to existing theories and practices in the domain of arts marketing. To that end, the author introduces the concept of Audience Development and situates it within a theoretical framework. Importantly, the paper also examines the modes and means employed by cultural managers to adapt to the market-related challenges facing the cultural sector in Europe since the 1980s. The key outcome of the study is an outline of (and insight into) the cross-national beliefs in relation to the relevance of different areas of AD practices in the European context. The essay concludes by restating the central aim, that Audience Development and arts marketing have a great deal in common.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0108

• Abstract

  This paper investigates the impact of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) policies, diversity climate, and inclusive leadership on the diversity of cultural organizations across four Ps: Personnel, Program, Public (audience), and Partners. Using data from an online D&I scan of 295 Dutch cultural organizations, we observed a positive association between the overall D&I policy and diversity outcomes. Additionally, we found a positive association between D&I policies targeting a specific P and diversity outcomes for that specific P. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the pivotal role of inclusive leadership in translating D&I policies into tangible outcomes. Our findings reveal that inclusive leadership not only directly influences the synergy climate, but also strengthens the link between D&I policies and the fairness climate. Overall, our study offers insights into how to effectively enhance diversity and inclusion in cultural organizations.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0109

• Abstract

  Two articulations of cultural capital found in two disciplinary contexts are examined: one from Bourdieu’s sociology and one from Throsby’s cultural economics. These conceptions, it is argued, intersect in the notion of cultural value and need to be integrated. Bourdieu needs Throsby for cultural capital to be an object of decision-making but Throsby needs Bourdieu to make the definitional feature of cultural capital—cultural value—meaningful. This is because cultural value is not an aggregated sum of individual utilities the way economics conceives of value; but, and in line with Bourdieu, it is constituted through the collective meaning-making of situated social agents. Rather than a static, discrete object of measurement, cultural capital is a mutable and relational object of interpretation in social contexts and must be understood accordingly, before it can be calculated in economic terms. Cultural policy needs the humanities and sociology before it can make use of economics.

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0110

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0111

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

doi 10.14361/zkmm-2024-0112

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor

10.14361/zkmm-2024-0113