Archive for Arts & Cultural Census
Community Database: Understanding “PATRON”
Posted by: | CommentsErika Sung is an ASU doctoral student in community resources and development where she focuses on non-profit management. Her analysis of the Arizona Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database is underwritten by a grant from the Lodestar Foundation.
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When an organization plans to produce arts & cultural offerings, when & how do you consider the availability of audiences?
While a quality arts or cultural experience is at the heart of every organization’s mission, there is no question but that without the PATRON, there is no experience to be had. As competition for patrons has (dramatically) increased, it is increasingly important to understand the characteristics of who comprises your organization’s audience.
The US Census (2010) reports that Arizona’s 6.4 million residents occupy nearly 2.9 million households. At about 700,000 unique households (and growing), the Arizona Community Database tracks arts & cultural participation of nearly 20 percent of ALL Arizona households and reveals fascinating insight into where Arizona’s arts & cultural audiences call home:
Because the Community Database has been most quickly embraced by organizations in the Greater Phoenix area (though it is certainly open to Alliance for Audience members in Tucson, Flagstaff & Prescott!) the data shows a preponderance of audiences members residing in Maricopa County. (The database tracks nearly 34% of ALL Maricopa County residents!)
It’s fascinating to note that 22% of the database resides outside of Arizona. All 50 states are represented somewhere in the Arizona community database (which speaks strongly to Arizona’s role as a visitor destination) – and California (not surprisingly) is the state with the largest representation.
Several new organizations from around the state are poised to join the Arizona Community Database in the next several months. It will be fascinating to measure how measuring arts & cultural participation in Tucson, Flagstaff & Prescott adds to these insights – and, in particular, to assess the extent to which the participation of Maricopa County-based residents powers arts & cultural participation around the state.
Community Database: “Many a little make a mickle”
Posted by: | CommentsAs the 6th largest city in the United States today, the Phoenix metropolitan area has more than 130 arts and cultural organizations for Phoenix residents and visitors. The range and diversity of organizations and activities is reflective of a rich arts and cultural environment; it includes a symphony orchestra, opera and ballet companies, producing and presenting theater and dance organizations, performing arts centers, art and history museums, botanical garden, and festivals. However, not all of them are big organizations supported by large amounts of funding annually; rather most of them have relatively small annual budget to run their organizations.
As you can see, our 28 art and cultural organizations out of 49 member organizations also run their organizations on less than $500k annually–which is close to 57% of Community Database participants. On the other hand, only 19% of participating organizations have more than 6 million dollars per year.
Note: number of organizations is in the parentheses.
So, what do you think? Do you think relatively small budget organization barely contribute to the Community Database as compared to the big organizations? Below graph shows an interesting result, indicating how important small budget organizations are.
Of course, nine relatively largest budget size organizations cover 64% of households in the Community Database. However, in this graph, the point we have to focus on is not the largest budget size organizations but smallest budget size organizations. Even though their annual budget size is less than $500k, they can cover almost 29% of the households in the Community Database. Their annual budget is only 1/12 of the largest budget size. Yet even though, audiences explained by each organization may be slight, with accumulation from the numbers of organizations, almost 200,000 households are covered by small budget size organizations.
It is easy to overlook the influence of small organizations. However, like an old saying, ‘many a little make a mickle’, if small budget organizations stand together to understand their audiences, they will make a huge contribution to analyzing the whole database. Therefore, small budget size organizations are really important compositions of the Community Database.
Community Database: Understanding “Genre”
Posted by: | CommentsThe Swedish have a saying that “Shared joy is double joy” – and that’s a great attitude to bring to the analysis of the Arizona Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database as you discover what your audiences do (and don’t) have in common with those of other organizations.
So far, 49 arts & cultural organizations have uploaded their audience & supporter databases into the highly secure and totally confidential repository. Yet their combined reach already accounts for nearly 700,000 Arizona households – which is close to 25% of ALL Arizona households.
It is important to understand the BREADTH of organizations represented in the Community Database – and understand that each organization’s entire database is classified into a Genre.
As you can see, various types of arts & culture organizations represented. Here is how they are grouped:
Genre • Participating Organization(s)
- Choral/Vocal • Phoenix Boys Choir
- Orchestra/Instrumental • DuoWest • ProMusica Arizona Chorale & Orchestra • West Valley Symphony Association Inc.
- Dance • A Ludwig Dance Theatre • Arizona Dance Coalition • AZ Dance Group • Conder/Dance • Desert Dance Theatre • Scorpius Dance Theatre • Southwest Youth Ballet Theatre
- Theatre • Actors Theatre • Arizona Broadway Theatre • Arizona Theatre Company • Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre- Arizona • Carnival of Illusion • Childsplay, Inc. • Nearly Naked Theatre • New Carpa Theatre • Phoenix Theatre • Prescott Center for the Arts • Southwest Shakespeare Co. • Theatre Artists Studio
- Performing Arts Center • ASU Gammage • ASU Kerr Cultural Center • Chandler Center for the Arts • City of Prescott/Elks Opera House • Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts • Herberger Theater Center • Mesa Arts Center • Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
- Museum • Arizona Museum of Natural History • ASU Art Museum • Children’s Museum of Phoenix • Heard Museum • Phoenix Art Museum • Smoki Museum, Inc. • The Children’s Museum Alliance, Inc.
- Service/Advocacy • Alliance for Audience • Arizona Citizens/Action for the Arts
- Film • Phoenix Film Foundation
- TV/Radio • Friends of Public Radio Arizona – KJZZ & KBAQ • KAET Arizona PBS
- Education • Phoenix Conservatory of Music
- Nature • Desert Botanical Garden
- Other • Jazz in Arizona (Jazz in AZ) • Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau • Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau • West Valley Arts Council
Such a wide variety of groups are collaborating to build arts and cultural capacity in Arizona! Understanding how “genre” is represented is a basic step to get acquainted with Community Database.
In the coming weeks, we’ll examine the total database from a variety of perspectives. We’ll talk about distribution of organizations by budget size and examine audiences from the perspective of their demographics and also discover fascinating patterns in what they attend – and where – and when.
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Have a question about the Community Database that you’d like to ask Erika to explore? Please submit it to Census@allianceforaudience.org.
Introducing Erika Sung
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I am delighted to introduce you to Erika Heeksung Sung, a doctoral student in community resources and development at Arizona State University, where she focuses on nonprofit management.
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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AFA Receives Grant to Boost Participation via Community Database
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday, the Flinn Foundation announced a grant to Alliance for Audience for which we are incredibly excited and grateful! See their announcement here: http://www.flinn.org/news/1038
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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Say YES by November 9 to join the Census/Community Database in December
Posted by: | CommentsNovember 9 is the deadline for NEW organizations to sign up for the Arizona Arts & Culture Census/Community Database!
This opportunity is FREE OF CHARGE and is exclusively available as a benefit to Alliance for Audience member organizations in Greater Phoenix, Metro Tucson, Flagstaff and the Prescott Area.
Simply complete and return the participation agreement (CLICK HERE) by November 9. The participation agreement includes important information regarding deadlines & processes related to uploading your data.
For additional information, please visit: http://www.allianceforaudience.org/Pages/arts&culturecensus.html or contact Matt Lehrman at MLehrman@allianceforaudience.org; 602-971-2223 x101.
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Tucson Briefing on Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database
Posted by: | CommentsFollowing up last week’s presentation by TRG Arts (and yesterday’s sharing of the presentation slides), I’ve been asked to conduct a TUCSON BRIEFING on the Arizona Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database:
- Date: Wednesday, September 21
- Time: 2pm – 3:30pm
- Where: Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Community Room,
- 100 N. Stone Ave.
Please RSVP to Daniela Ontiveros at DOntiveros@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org to let us know to expect you.
For more information about the Arizona Arts & Cultural Census/Community Database, CLICK HERE.
I won’t attempt to recite all of the TRG presentation – but I took very good notes! So rather than make a big formal presentation, let’s just sit down together to review their findings and then discuss the implications in Tucson, in Arizona and beyond.
Whether your organization is – or is not – presently participating in the Census/Community Database, you’re welcome to attend – and I think you’ll find this discussion VERY INTERESTING & HIGHLY RELEVANT!
(And yes, I’m working on dates to bring this discussion to Flagstaff and Prescott, too!)
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Revealing What We Know Now
Posted by: | CommentsOn 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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IMPORTANT! – INSIGHTFUL!! – PRACTICAL!!!
Posted by: | CommentsToday, more than 70 of your colleagues will participate in the FIRST-EVER presentation of the findings of the Arizona Arts & Culture Census & Community Database!
It’s not too late – you are STILL welcome to attend! In fact, I URGE you to attend!!!
- When: TODAY!!! Thursday, September 8; 1:30 – 3:30pm
- Where: Phoenix Art Museum, Whiteman Hall Auditorium
- Cost: FREE, but please RSVP: http://azcensus.eventbrite.com
Rick Lester, CEO and Will Lester, Vice President of TRG Arts flew in to Phoenix on Wednesday – and just gave a briefing to the Board of Directors of Alliance for Audience. WOW!!!
I won’t spoil their surprises – but let me just say that this is some POWERFUL stuff – and it’s worth experiencing IN PERSON! I promise, you’ve never had access to these kinds of insights before – into WHO our audiences really are and HOW they actually behave within Arizona’s arts & cultural sector. STUNNING!!!
Yes, I’ll write up some notes to share afterward – but after what I just saw today, I have to tell you that this is a presentation that you will really wish you had experienced directly. IMPACTFUL!
And this is definitely NOT just for marketing people… This has the potential to benefit your ENTIRE organization (artistic, curatorial & development leadership – as well as marketing and executive leadership!) PRACTICAL!
If you are not able to attend, please let me STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to immediately forward this message to someone else in your organization and URGE them to attend. (Don’t be surprised if by this time tomorrow, they are writing about the meeting in boldface, all caps & exclamation marks, too!)
See you this afternoon!!!
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Please plan to attend the FIRST-EVER PRESENTATION of the findings of the Arizona Arts & Culture Census & Community Database:
- When: Thursday, September 8; 1:30 – 3:30pm
- Where: Phoenix Art Museum, Whiteman Hall Auditorium
- Cost: FREE, but please RSVP: http://azcensus.eventbrite.com
- If you can’t attend, please RSVP anyway and let us know that you want to be KEPT INFORMED about the work of the Census/Community Database.
This meeting will feature presentations by (and discussions with) Rick Lester, CEO and Will Lester, Vice President of TRG Arts and promises to reveal never-before seen insights into the demographics and patterns of participation of Arizona’s audiences for arts & culture.
(We are presently exploring the possibility of video-taping the presentation for those unable to attend in person. (If you’ve got a great way to accomplish that, Matt would love to hear from you!) One way or another, we will find a way to share these insights with ALL Alliance for Audience member organizations.)
Background:
Last Spring, Alliance for Audience partnered with TRG Arts, a national database management & consulting firm based in Colorado, to create a sophisticated, secure and confidential way to collect & consolidate patron (i.e. ticket buyer and contributor) information from among Arizona’s arts & cultural organizations in order to analyze audience participation patterns. (Alliance for Audience makes this service available to its member organizations at no charge.)
Launched in March, 2011, the Community Database presently tops 710,000 unique Arizona households (that’s greater than 25 percent of ALL Arizona households) and draws from 5-years of participation records compiled from 49 of Alliance for Audience’s 230 member organizations.
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