Three factors:

Changing economic condition demands operating vision that

continues to enable artistic excellence and encourage creativity,
innovation and most importantly effectiveness
Changing community demands inclusive, authentic and relevant
strategy
Changing customer expectation requires re-imagining spaces in a
manner that addresses threshold anxiety, encourages sense of
community ownership and broad participation
Reasons to attend a performing arts Centre
Socializing with friends and family
Lack of time, cost and location of Centre
Normally attended performances to support community events and
organizations

Implications for Arts Practice

Art organizations and presenters seeking to build a more diverse
audience base should recognize that wanting to learn and
experience new things is a strong motivator for attendance, and
that motivation is just as strongif not strongeramong individuals
with lower incomes and with no bachelors or higher degree.
Unfamiliar and experimental work couple it with free admission and
low cost for participation (place higher value in wealth and
expensive things)
Individuals who attend exhibits to support their communities tend to
have lower household incomes, compared with other exhibit
attendees, and individuals who attend performances for this reason
tend to value modesty and humility more
Encourage couples attendance- socialization
With friends, enjoy high arts
Organizations providing opportunities for attendees to socialize,
meet new people, and experience new art forms, in a flexible format
that combines the arts with other activities these individuals enjoy,
may be better able to attract and retain audience members from
this group. For visual arts and live music performances, the top-
donor gala events held in recent years at the Guggenheim and
Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and similar events
 elsewhere that combine a cocktail party atmosphere with
opportunities simultaneously to socialize and to enjoy the arts,
might serve as an example
Institution can increase participation by
by broadening iti.e., capturing a larger share of the existing
market by attracting individuals who constitute a natural
audience for the arts but are not currently participants
by deepening it i.e., intensifying its current participants level
of involvement
by diversifying it i.e., attracting new markets comprising those
individuals who typically would not entertain the idea of
participating in the arts.

Organizations chiefly dedicated to supporting the canons of

specific art forms: emphasis was on fostering an appreciation of
their art form, providing opportunities for the public to
experience their art, preserving and collecting existing works of
arts, creating new art, and other such activities.
Organizations chiefly dedicated to improving their communities
using art as a vehicle: improve the community through art, but to
increase their communitys involvement with art; to provide more
community members with the opportunity to experience art; and
to stress the societal, community, and other benefits of the arts.
Since these institutions view the arts as a vehicle for
engagement, they tended to place high priority on deepening
current participation and diversifying participation to include
members of the community not currently engaged in the arts.
Organizations serving as centers of creativity and chiefly
dedicated to training new artists and engaging individuals in the
creative process: tended to concentrate on training artists,
involving individuals in the creative process, and creating new
art., emphasize deepening rather than broadening or
diversifying. Indeed, arts organizations focused on creativity
often try to create a one-to-one personal connection with the
individual
Participation motivation
Personal interest
Social experience
 Learn about art
Invited by family/friends
Education and enrichment
Publicity
Express self
Community

1. Perceptual barriers: (1) the nature of the art or art form does not
appeal; (2)it is hard to connect with the meaning or message of the
work; (3) would feel uncomfortable; (4) perceptions of elitism
associated with the art form or organization.
2. Personal circumstances: (1) difficult to make time; (2) rather spend
leisure time in other ways; (3) cannot find anyone to go with; (4)
friends or family would not understand interest.
3. Practical barriers: (1) childcare problems; (2) organization is not
accessible;(3) not sure what the organization does; (4) hours of
operation are inconvenient;(5) location is not safe; (6) costs too
much.
4. Prior experiences: The individuals have not enjoyed their prior
experience with the particular art form.
Tactics Used to Increase Participation
publicize their activities
Artist involvement. Encouraging artists to interact with participants
by offering discussions before and after the performance, offering
workshops, and sponsoring artist residencies.
Programming. Involving the community in general planning and in
designing artistic programming. Linking programming to target
groups by providing artistic programs that appeal to nontraditional
participants and offering ethnically diverse programming.
Pricing. Offering discounts or free activities and various
memberships and subscriptions options.
Schedule and venue. Varying the schedule (hours and days) of
programming, providing programming in more accessible locations,
and providing transportation to events.
Other practical. Training staff to be more responsive to the public,
providing more appealing and user-friendly activities, opening the
facility up to other uses, and providing services or materials in other
languages.
 Girls Night Out with The Design Group: Sponsored by The Design
Group, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Brown Sugar Bake Shop
and Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. Mix and mingle in The Rep
lobby with yummy treats and fabulous shopping from 5 7
p.m. and enjoy a special talk-back discussion immediately
following the performance. Post-show discussion moderated
by Producing Artistic Director Bob Hupp, featuring the cast
of The Whipping Man and Lottie Shackelford, former Mayor
of Little Rock. The special Girls Night Out event is free and
open to the public.

http://www.ourtown360.net/
Our Town: a New Media Theatrical Experience presents a new media
re-imagining of Thornton Wilder's American theater classic. Wilders
play endures because it touches a core of the human condition: our
inability to fully appreciate moments of our lives before they pass us
by. This powerful message is sometimes lost when the play is
misunderstood as Americana kitsch. Using
new technologies, this production will
reinvigorate this play for contemporary
audiences by incorporating a responsive
gesture-based interactive system for actors
to control commissioned artworks
projected on a large-scale 360-degree
immersive screen environment, and a new
directional audio score. In a radical
departure from common approaches to
media in performance, which often risk
potentially alienating audiences unfamiliar
with avant-garde traditions, this project
utilizes a mainstream play in a way that invites audiences members
in to experience a new connection with an American classic.