This section houses research relating specifically to audience development. The two main issues covered by this section relate to attracting new audiences, and diversifying an existing audience base.
The research in this section should be seen as a complement to CultureHive and AudienceFinder: two relatively new resources that are rich with best practice guidance and insight.
The summaries in this category are:
This research was conducted by Louise Ejgod Hansen at the University of Aarhus, Denmark
This paper describes an in-depth study of 'Theatre Talks' which took place at 18 theatres in central Denmark between 2010 and 2012. The paper highlights the potential of Theatre Talks for audience development (a priority among …
This research was conducted by Aaron Reeves at the University of Oxford, UK.
This paper seeks to understand social class, social status and education, and their relative effects on arts attendance and arts participation. The research rests on distinctions between these related and overlapping concepts. The author defines the …
This research was conducted by Mike Savage and Modesto Gayo at the University of York, UK and Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile.
This paper explored the musical preferences of adults in Britain, it analysed data from a substantial survey that asked people about what kinds of music they like and …
This research was conducted by Gary Crawford and three others at the University of Salford, UK and Queensland University of Technology, Australia
This paper analysed the potential of a mobile app for selling tickets and expanding the audience amongst a student audience for classical music. The research specifically focused on …
This research was conducted by Bonita M Kolb at the University of Westminster, UK.
This paper used a survey to explore what factors shape the arts-attending behavior of university students. The results showed that the cost of attendance was a factor in people's considerations, although what mattered most was whether …
This research was conducted by Angèle Christin at the University of Princeton, USA
This paper addressed gender as an influential factor in cultural participation in America. It explored the possible reasons why higher numbers of women than men participate in high-status cultural activities. Early exposure to the arts from a …
This research was conducted by Volker Kirchberg at the University of Lüneburg, Germany.
This paper used data from a survey of German adults who were asked about what motivated them to attend (or not attend) museums. The survey, carried out in 1995, randomly selected a representative sample of 1,080 …
This research was conducted by Sabine Wollscheid at the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, Norway
This paper explored the impact of parents’ reading patterns on their children’s reading habits. Drawing on a sample of 757 school-aged children living in two-parent households in Germany, the research demonstrated that parents’ …
This research was conducted by Mart Willekens and John Lievens at Ghent University, Belgium
This paper looked at how household structure and parental behaviour affected the cultural lives of children, specifically engagement in the visual arts, heritage or pop and rock music. While it might seem tempting to assume that …
This research was conducted by Anna Goulding at Newcastle University, UK
Over a period of 21 months, 43 participants aged 60-92 visited three contemporary art galleries in the northeast of England. They listened to a talk before taking part in facilitated discussions in which personal responses to the artworks were …