As part of its Building Audiences for Sustainability Initiative, The Wallace Foundation has published articles exploring the insights gained by five of the performing arts organizations participating in initiative, among them the Seattle Symphony. Most of the stories are accompanied by discussion guides to help arts administrators, board members, and arts practitioners in organizations of varying budget sizes and disciplines apply those lessons to their own context. The Wallace Foundation makes these resources available free of charge.
On the Wallace Foundation’s blog, John-Morgan Bush, former Director of Learning and Leadership at the League of American Orchestras and now Director of Lifelong Learning at the Juilliard School, outlines how arts groups can use these guides to identify—and resolve—challenges in audience-building. Bush: “The essential point of these free resources is to offer a way of encouraging new ideas and vibrant discussions among staff that can then be used to address your organization’s specific needs around audience development. The BAS resources can help catalyze ideas, collaboration, and learning. You might not solve all your audience-building challenges at once, but you will certainly understand more about your staff’s collective capacity for innovation and experimentation.” Learn more at The Wallace Foundation.
