On September 8,  TRG Arts’ CEO Rick Lester and VP Will Lester led a remarkable 2-hour presentation and discussion in which they shared insights & information gleaned from the analysis of the demographics and patterns of participation of 700,000 Arizona households who are arts & cultural participants.

It is not hyperbole to say that the meeting was incredibly revealing & instructive.

As promised, HERE is a link to their presentation slides along a few of my notes on what they said:

• “Assumption Free Management” - On page 3, Rick Lester made this point emphatically:  The power of statistical information is now within (easy) reach of arts & cultural organizations large & small.  The goal of that information is not to command or compel artistic decisions – but rather to enable organizations to pursue “Assumption Free Management.”  For every participating organization, the community database is a tool that can/should/will help them eliminate guesswork, risk and waste from their operations.
• Are We Normal?  On page 5, Rick Lester noted that this is the first question every community asks when they first look at their data is:  As also pointed out on page 15, what stands out most is that of nearly 700,000 unique households tracked (so far) in the database, only 21% appear on more than one organization’s database.  Stated another way, 79% of the Arizona households tracked appear as participants/donors of JUST ONE organization.  Rick and Will noted that this isn’t the highest or lowest percentage TRG has seen – but it should be a POWERFUL indicator of opportunity for organizations in Arizona to work together to encourage audience members to increase their participation.
• Relevant?  You bet! – On page 12, Will noted that 25% of ALL Arizona households are already represented in the database (and because we’ve gotten off to a particularly strong start in the Phoenix area, the database tracks 34% of Maricopa County residents.)  That means that this database is already significant in its ability to understand the demographics and participation patterns of Arizona audiences.
• These ARE the “Good Old Days” – Rick &  Will spent a good amount of time discussing the general age parameters of Arizona audiences (and national audiences) - and forecasting how, in coming years, the numbers of ”traditionalists” will diminish and how the patterns of Baby Boomers will begin to change.  Their “bottom line” is that in 10 years or so, arts & cultural administrators will look back to TODAY as being the “good times” – because the number of audiences is going to shrink and there is going to be increased competition for those that remain. 
• Confront Conventional Wisdom – Rick concluded with the provocative thought that conventional wisdom is not the “safe” bet that most arts & cultural administrators assume.  He offered that in Arizona and nationally markets behave distinctly, economics are fast changing, and organizations everywhere need to do a much better job of understanding WHO are their audiences, WHERE are there more of them and HOW to convey an invitation to participate in an appropriate and effective manner.  He pointed out that just as TRG can measure the “total arts & culture market” of Arizona, that each participating organization RIGHT NOW TODAY has the power to log into the community database system and analyze the specific demographics, patterns of participation, geography and more of their own audiences.    

Finally and MOST IMPORTANT – this is NOT a one-time research project.  This is an ON-GOING system of tracking audience behaviors and the start of an on-going learning process for leaders in all facts of arts & cultural organization management and leadership.

So, stay tuned!  There’s MUCH MORE to come!

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