We need to talk.

It’s been more than 10 years since the idea of an “alliance for audience development” was conceived – and nearly 8 years since Alliance for Audience was born as an independent service organization to the Greater Phoenix region’s arts & cultural community and about 3 years since our services expanded to include Metro Tucson, Flagstaff & Prescott.

We all know that times have changed – and that’s what prompts this very important message.

Thanks to a planning grant recently awarded by the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, we have contracted with a consultant who is charged to examine EVERY facet of Alliance for Audience’s business model to uncover powerful new technologies to advance the core “audience development” mission that is the foundation of this collaboration.

Absolutely NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS in that exploration.

In fact, as the Board of Directors, staff and I have been preparing for this process, we have also come to appreciate some of this organization’s (and our whole community’s) greater “truths.” 

In particular, we recognize that the “need” that led to the formation of Alliance for Audience (and similar organizations nationally) was grounded in shared, long-standing frustrations regarding the under-utilization of arts & cultural assets stemming from reasons both “external” (i.e. changing demographics, heightened competition and diminished arts & cultural education) as well as “internal” (i.e. technological advancements, budgetary pressures).

The under-utilization challenge is historic, profound and long term.

But that challenge has been trumped by a new priority whose challenges are historic, profound and immediate.

Today, Arizona’s arts & cultural organizations are suffering from the onslaught of a devastating financial drought.  Their immediate challenge is one of under-capitalization a situation made critical by the simultaneous experience of withdrawn corporate sponsorships, shrinking government allocations, downgraded philanthropic support, diminished earnings on invested assets and weakened audience participation (which itself diminishes earnings capacity and individual philanthropy.)

Just this week, I heard one organization’s CEO state the challenge succinctly:  “Companies that used to consider generously contributing to or sponsoring our activities now tell us that they no longer consider arts & culture to be “essential” community services.”

This is not just an Arizona challenge.  The under-capitalization of the arts & cultural sector has emerged as nationally significant issue, as noted in Nonprofit Finance Funds’ recently published Case for Change Capital in the Arts and the Kresge Foundation’s focus area on Arts & Culture Institutional Capitalization.

To be clear, the under-utilization challenge has not been solved nor gone away.  But that challenge can no longer be addressed without also confronting the concurrent challenge of under-capitalization.

Alliance for Audience was founded to help organizations work together to achieve goals that are impossible to attain on their own. 

Thus, we now ask the question how Alliance for Audience might re-deploy its assets, position, experience and momentum to address these dual challenges in service to Arizona’s arts & cultural sector.

So, for YOU – the Members & Stakeholders of Alliance for Audience, this is a two part question:

• Do you agree with the “dual challenge” position as stated above?
• If so, HOW might Alliance for Audience be of greater service?  (Specifically, what might you like to see us to more, less and/or different?) 

What do YOU think? 

There is no questionnaire to complete.  No vote to be taken.  This is too important.  And again, NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS.

While I have lots of ideas, please know that I am not “selling” any specific solution – at least, none other than the sincere desire that Alliance for Audience be of continued & meaningful service. 

Please write me at MLehrman@allianceforaudience.org or call me at 602-971-2223 x101.   Please, let’s start a truly courageous conversation about the future. 

These are critically important questions and they deserve to be discussed honestly, openly and candidly.

I look forward to hearing from you.

We definitely need to talk.  

Matt Lehrman
Executive Director
Alliance for Audience
MLehrman@allianceforaudience.org
602-971-2223 x101

• Ballet Arizona
• Phoenix Symphony
• Flagstaff Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Foundation for Traditional Culture

A quick check of the US Census information reveals that Arizona is home to a total of nearly 2.25 million households – which means that the Community Database now tracks 5 years of arts & cultural participation encompassing 36% of ALL Arizona households! 

And we are not done growing yet.  All Alliance for Audience member organizations are invited to participate – AT NO CHARGE – in the Community Database. 

The next “window of opportunity” is open right now! 

Simply complete & return THIS FORM by January 20 – and be prepared to upload your data no later than February 3.

You’ll find complete information about the Arizona Arts & Cultural Census and Community Database HERE.

Please contact Matt Lehrman at MLehrman@allianceforaudience.com for additional information or assistance. Here again, spelled out, is the link for complete information:  http://www.allianceforaudience.org/Pages/arts&culturecensus.html 

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Personally, I have come to reject that premise.

Fundamental changes in personal interests & economics – coupled with advances in technology and social media – are radically transforming every aspect of why and how audiences choose to engage.  There is no virtue left in the concept that organizations can “harvest” audience transactions rather than to cultivate meaningful and on-going audience relationships. 

I could go on…  And in fact I will!  

ARTS JOURNAL has recently invited me to produce an on-going blog on the topic of Audience Development.  You’ll find it here:   http://www.artsjournal.com/audience/

 If you’d like to be part of an on-going national discussion on the innovative future of how arts & cultural organizations are developing, cultivating, engaging audiences, I invite you to subscribe to AUDIENCE WANTED.

And to get you started, here are a couple of posts to help you get your 2012 off to a great start:

• The 7 Deadly Sins of Arts & Cultural Marketing
• The 7 Heavenly Virtues of Arts & Cultural Marketing

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The stark realities of withdrawn corporate sponsorships, shrinking government allocations, downgraded philanthropic support, diminished earnings and weakened audience participation/philanthropy is testing the intestinal fortitude of leaders, staff and stakeholders alike – and challenging (as far as I can tell) organizations of every size, genre and maturity.

While reporting on the latest organization (Arizona Jewish Theatre Company) to go public with its challenges, the Arizona Republic’s Kerry Lengel asks a critically important question – and it deserves YOUR immediate answer. 

He writes: 

“For years, advocates have been trying to make the case that supporting the arts is about more than just feel-good altruism or even “quality of life” enhancement for the Valley. Rather, it is an economic driver in its own right, they have argued, with studies to back them up.  My question is, with governments slashing arts funding and corporate donors focusing on social welfare, have those advocates officially lost that debate?”

What do YOU think?  My observation is that people who work, lead, contribute to and volunteer for Arizona’s arts & cultural organizations are passionate, tenacious and highly creative.  Despite dire challenges, I’ve never met an pessimist among us.

Now is a good time to say so publicly.  (And if you can, write a personal check to support whatever organization in town you enjoy, respect and/or appreciate most.)  

You can read (and reply to) Kerry Lengel’s post here:  http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/KerryLengel/150152 

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Doug McLennan, Founder & Editor of ArtsJournal presented a keynote address titled, “MORE THAN APPLAUSE:  The Pursuit of Cultural Conversation”  in which he wondered how arts & cultural expression could have been so integral to the movements that led to the New Deal, Civil Rights, Vietnam-era activism, the Environmental cause, AIDS and the NEA “culture wars” of the late 1980′s but be far from evident in today’s most pressing issues, such as Education, 9/11, Iraq, Immigration, Health Care, Financial Crash and the Federal Budget.

Despite touch economic times, he argued that the arts & cultural community must not lose sight of its unique position to serve as ”an infrastructure of ideas” – allowing for the necessarily “messy, noisy, liquid & complicated” exchange of information and perspectives required in a healthy democracy. 

Where the goal (and business model) of TV and radio seems to depend on polarizing discussions and keeping arguments boiling, Doug suggests that it is the realm of performances, exhibitions and other cultural experiences to engage multiple voices and open dialogue that addresses a far more complex range of issues, beliefs and desires.  (He continued with a rich discussion of the growing significance of social media – a topic I’ll address further in a future post.)

Responding to Doug’s comments was a panel comprised of

• Ron Barber, District Director, Office of Representative Gabrielle Giffords; Founder, Fund for Civility, Respect & Understanding
• Denise Uyehara, Tucson artist
• James Garcia, Co-Founder, The Real Arizona Coalition; Producing Artistic Director, New Carpa Theatre

The discussion was simply too lengthy and deep to do it justice in this brief post – but among the highlights:

Ron Barber pointing out that after the tragic events in Tucson last January, that “there is a pause in the rhetoric” – and, perhaps, an opportunity to re-examine HOW people might engage in civil society.  This is an ideal time, he suggested, for arts & cultural organizations to rise to the opportunity of a much higher level of engagement in all matter of community affairs. 

Denise Uyehara sharing examples of her dance & performance art – offering opportunities to understand new perspectives on matters of immigration.

James Garcia explaining that the Real Arizona Coalition is a widespread gathering of business, civic and community associations on a statewide basis who have joined forces to confront issues that are firmly grounded in profound issues of race and power – and to which the arts & cultural community is invited to also participate.    

 The Community Discussion was organized jointly by the Tucson Pima Arts Council (Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director) and Alliance for Audience – and supported by a grant from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.

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On November 30 and December 1 – they’ll be performing 2 shows in Scottsdale as a special benefit for Alliance for Audience & ShowUp.com.  (And goodness knows, we are VERY GRATEFUL!) 

CLICK HERE for complete details & to purchase tickets.

They’ll be performing in the cabaret of Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre (to whom we also extend our thanks for making the space available.)

Tickets are very limited – so act fast!!!  This is going to be an incredibly FUN show – and all proceeds benefit the work of Alliance for Audience & ShowUp.com!!!

More about Carnival of Illusion HERE

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Last Wednesday, representatives of Prescott’s arts & cultural community undertook a first-of-its-kind ”expedition” to Phoenix-based media to raise the visibility of Prescott as a premier arts & cultural destination in Arizona and make valuable personal connections.

In a series of candid & highly-informative meetings with the Arizona Republic, KTVK/NewsChannel 3, Arizona Office of Tourism, Echo Magazine, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, AZ Weekly and bloggers from Locallilly.com and Raising Arizona Kids – the delegation came away with immediately actionable insights about WHO to contact, WHEN to contact them and HOW they preferred to be contacted.

It may not be a surprise – but it was truly delightful to hear EVERY media representative express LOVE for the Prescott community and warmly invite continuing relationships to share knowledge of upcoming events & activities.   That’s the power of such a collaborative effort:  the major impression left behind wasn’t so much for any individual organization but of GREAT EXCITEMENT for Prescott arts & cultural community as a whole! 

Participants were:  Cyndi Gresser (Smoki Museum & Prescott Arts & Humanities Council); Mike Lange (Sharlott Hall Museum), Terri New (multi-media producer), Michelle McFadden (playwright), Jon Meyer (Prescott Center for the Arts), Patti Ortiz (Tis Gallery), Tim Graham (Whispering Pines Bed & Breakfast), Kim Villalpando & Edd Kellerman (Phippen Museum), Margo Christensen (Springhill Suites & Alliance for Audience Board Member) & Don Prince (City of Prescott).

The visit was organized by Alliance for Audience (with the very generous assistance of PR maven Steve Carr)  - and in very close partnership with Don Prince, the City of Prescott’s Director of Tourism who (on top of everything else) piloted the shuttlecraft (er, drove the van).

Thank you, too, to the Arizona Community Foundation which allowed us the use of their conference room.

Thanks to a grant from the Lodestar Foundation, Alliance for Audience has been able to contract with ASU for Erika to conduct research & analysis focused on the Arizona Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database.

As always, the information that every organization loads into the community database is highly-secure and completely confidential.  Neither Erika nor anyone else outside of your organization (including me) has access to detailed information about YOUR organization’s patrons or performance.  

However, what Erika does possess is the unique opportunity to LOOK AT and THINK ABOUT the aggregate data of the Community Database and offer a perspective that, frankly, most of us don’t take the time (or have the patience or skill) to do.

Starting this week, look for Erika’s weekly observations on the Community Database.  And if you have a question you’d like to ask Erika to explore, please send it to:  Census@allianceforaudience.org. 

In her academic studies, Erika’s research interests center on cultural and arts programming and relationships with community development. She works with Dr. Rhonda Phillips, Professor, ASU School of Community Resources and Development, on cultural data projects including the Arizona Indicators initiative and the international Encyclopedia of Quality-of-Life Research study.

Erika’s prior experience includes over 3 years’ experience with a cultural nonprofit organization, the Seongnam Arts Center in Korea, where she served as a Cultural Program Planner. She holds a M.A. in Music Education.

Welcome Erika!

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In brief, the grant is going to allow us to conduct a audience engagement science experiment using the new Arizona Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database.

Step 1 – TRG will conduct a “market modeling” analysis on the records in the community database to that will identify a core demographic or “sweet spot” of current and active arts & cultural patrons.

Step 2 – Then, TRG will identify 20,000 households in Maricopa County that MATCH that demographic “sweet spot” but that are not arts & cultural participants.  (In essence, that will be a list of households that are not arts & cultural participants – but, judging by their demographic profile, SHOULD BE!)    That group will then be split in two – with half set up as a control group – to which nothing special will happen; and an active group that will be the recipients of multi-faceted year-long marketing efforts.

Step 3 - In the first 4 months, Alliance for Audience will invite a select few organizations (to be strategically recruited based on the Step 1 demographic analysis) to make the active group the subject of their own marketing efforts - and AFA will underwrite those marketing expenses.  We’ll be monitoring the response rate of those efforts very closely.

Step 4 – Beginning at month 6, we will open up the active group list as a mailing list to ALL organizations participating in the Community Database.  (Obviously, with some structure to assure that they don’t receive everybody’s materials all at the same time.)  Since organizations that are participating in the community database have the ability to analyze the demographics of their own audiences, this can be a rich resource for organizations that wish to strategically test their own new audience-engagement efforts.   

Step 5 - A year from now – we’ll compare the rates of participation of the active and control groups.  Our hypothesis, of course, is that the active group’s participation will be higher.  What we are especially interested to learn is HOW MUCH HIGHER?  

This is an incredible learning opportunity – not just for Alliance for Audience but for Arizona’s entire Arts & Cultural sector.  Expect to see (many) more posts about this project as it progresses.

Please note that this experiment purposefully focuses on a single demographic target (to be determined based on the Market Model analysis) so as to design, administer and measure results most clearly.  A key point of this experiment is that its methodology must be replicable for future efforts with other demographic target audiences, as future audience development efforts must continually pursue priorities for audience diversity.

If you haven’t signed up yet to participate in the Census/Community Database – it’s not too late!  The next deadline for new organizations to sign the participation agreement is November 9.  CLICK HERE for more info.

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• School Teachers
• Veterans & Active-Duty Military members.

These outreach initiatives are called, respectively, SHOWUP FOR TEACHERS (conducted in partnership with the Arizona Department of Education) and SHOWUP FOR VETERANS (conducted in association with the Veteran Tickets Foundation).

You may already be aware that ALL of the discount tickets in ShowUp.com’s Ticket Marketplace are available to Teachers and Veterans at a deeper discount.  (That deeper discount is achieved by removing the ShowUp.com service charge – so organizations selling tickets receive the same amount regardless of where it sells.)

But did you know that you can make available EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT OFFERS to Teachers and/or Veterans?  It’s easy – just a simple check box when you submit your ticket offer.  The rest of the process is exactly the same as selling tickets regularly via the Ticket Marketplace.  For additional assistance, please contact Veronica Martinez at VMartinez@allianceforaudience.org; or 602-971-2223 x100.

Veterans Day is November 11 – and then, the holiday season is right around the corner.  So, how about extending a special THANK YOU to Teachers & Veterans by offering them and their families a SPECIAL DISCOUNT INVITATION to attend YOUR next performance, concert, exhibition or activity.

 ShowUp for Veterans is supported by Bank of America

ShowUp for Teachers is supported by JPMorgan Chase

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