Alan Brown?s frighteningly stark analysis of changes in arts consumers? expectations (p5), should be required reading for artists and funders, as well as arts marketers. It forces us to ask the most basic of questions ? why should anyone come and experience art? Although marketers like Andrew McIntyre and Helen Dunnett (p7) have found interesting new ways to tap into today?s audiences, their efforts will surely fail to fulfil their potential until the artists they are marketing for, and the funders who support them, start to recognise Brown?s key point ? that audiences consume ?experiences?, and not artforms.
The criteria applied by audiences in defining a ?quality? experience tend to be very different from those applied by funding bodies when assessing the quality of applications to fund ?dance? or ?theatre? or ?music?. Of course, that won?t interest those who believe that the arts have a right to be funded whether or not they serve an audience of any kind. But whether we like it or not, that particular philosophy has fallen from favour, and this is unlikely to change whichever political party takes the reins after 5 May (p1). We should never forget that politicians (who dish out the money) represent people (whose money they are dishing out), so if those people (who form our arts audiences) want something new and different, then politicians will be looking for ways of giving it to them. And if the arts can?t or won?t, then politicians will spend that cash on something that will.
Published: 11-04-2005