Sustaining Culture & the Role of Performing Arts Centres: Audiences

Sustaining Culture & The Role of Performing Arts Centres is a research collaboration between Griffith University and members of the OZPAC forum of performing arts centres: the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, the Sydney Opera House, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Arts Centre, Melbourne, Perth Theatre Trust and The Edge, Auckland. The research partners believe that performing arts centres are experiencing new imperatives to encourage wider cultural participation, maintain standards of excellence in arts practice, and develop innovative arts management practices. Meanwhile, existing aesthetic, social and economic paradigms have been unable to deliver comprehensive rationales for the major performing arts and its impact on artists, audiences and the wider public Based on a successful pilot study conducted by Griffith University and QPAC in 2004, Sustaining Culture secured Australian Research Council Linkage Grant funding to undertake a dedicated three-year study that examines and evaluates the social, cultural, environmental, educational and economic values and impacts of Australia's major performing arts institutions. This report focuses on a subset of the Sustaining Culture project that looks specifically at the motivations and practices of performing arts centre audiences. Known as the 'Audiences' study, this branch of research aims to build a comprehensive and nuanced picture of how a performing arts audience can 'become', 'be' and 'persist'. Audience members were invited to provide detailed accounts of their experiences and activities through a series of qualitative, semi-structured interviews. These interviews explored a range of subject matter: from earliest childhood and educational experiences through to adult arts consumption practices and preferences. Interview participants were encouraged to not only reflect on what they value about their performing arts experiences but how their experiences affect their personal identity and relationships, and impact on other spheres of existence such as consumer and media choices. Phase 1 of research saw a total of 69 interviews conducted at Queensland Performing Arts Centre; The Arts Centre, Melbourne; Sydney Opera House; and Adelaide Festival Centre. The participant sample captured a range of ages, genre preferences, and attendance frequency. Participants also completed a written survey providing quantitative as well as qualitative data which was analysed alongside relevant material from the Australian Bureau of Statistics regarding arts consumption. Key themes and findings identified from this initial phase were then developed into a second phase of research that focussed on participation and well-being, kinship and inter-generational practice, and media consumption. Phase 2 interviews were conducted with 36 participants at The Edge in Auckland, New Zealand and venues part of the Perth Theatre Trust (Subiaco Arts Centre, His Majesty's Theatre, Playhouse Theatre, and Perth Concert Hall). This report presents the findings from both sets of research provides high quality, rich data about the audiences who frequent Australia's most iconic and important performing arts centres. The information within these pages can be used to inform program development, marketing, and audience development strategies both within the major performing arts centres and other arts and cultural institutions that present live works. It can assist centres' to enrich and deepen their current audience experiences and tastes, and engage with new audiences.