During the ‘lightening round’ session at the Arts Presenters conference, performing arts facility consultant David Taylor pointed us to the challenge of traditionally designed and constructed performing arts spaces, particularly in the face of evolving consumer trends. At the heart of his presentation was the ‘Ten Trends of 20-Somethings‘ identified by Marian Salzman in the Huffington Post last year. In a nutshell, here they are:
- Real-time expectations
- More intensely local lives
- Radical transparency
- Expecting cheap or free everything
- Demanding entertainment
- Worrying about the planet
- Seeing luxuries as standard
- Pro-business, anti-multinational stance
- Wanting to regulate the heck out of media bias
- Naturally Me but aspiring to We
Among the most compelling for the performing arts are 1, 3, and 4, that challenge the traditional professional performing arts organization — which is highly scheduled, opaque in administration and process, and costly to run. And while major performing arts venue are certainly local in geography, they are often not designed or managed to be ‘intensely local’ (item 2).
For those with an existing facility that’s hard to modify, some serious programmatic retrofitting may be in order. For those yet to put bricks together, it’s not too late for a redesign!
I think we need to focus on rebranding traditional performing arts venues into #7 (a standard luxury) that is #5 (demanding entertainment) and incorporates #2 (intensely local) and not worry about making it #4 (free). This next generation is willing to part with their money for things that meet those first 3 criteria. I think the problem is that we start with the money issue (how will we produce? should we charge more or less?) and then backtrack to the other questions (what does our local audience want to see? how do we incorporate as many local actors/designers/businesses as possible?).
For me, #10 is definitely the most compelling! And I’d argue that #5 is a pretty big one too.
Even when one tries not to be “ageist” it’s really hard not to see the truth in these trends. We’re butting up against some of this with one of the new programs we’re running.
How can you simultaneously do #4 and #7? Is that perhaps an unrealistic expectation of someone just leaving their parents’ care who do not yet realize that you have to pay for luxury?
Thanks Anastasia. Like all trends, these are certainly in tension with each other in many ways. Large groups of people don’t tend to have internally consistent and entirely rational thoughts. The ‘luxury’ items that now seem standard to many of a generation include mobile phones, portable data devices, televisions, cable/dish/satellite.
The two challenges are that: a) as you suggest, it’s a disconnect to expect all of these amenities when income is low, and b) all the ‘free’ content isn’t actually free, as it requires the user to have a computer, high-speed internet, or smart mobile technologies — all of which cost something to buy and maintain.
Andrew:
Thanks for the post. Sorry I missed seeing you at the conference.
Jerry
David Brooks recently commented on this coming generation as being the “most giving” in recent history. It is interesting to see “sacrifice” has not been included on a list of trends and desires clearly demanding some sort of economic exchange. Taking the position of “Expecting cheap or free everything,” one trades one’s reputation for the perception by reasonable people as being at least naive or even ignorant. Perhaps the focus should be on the trend stated by Mr. Brooks rather than the top ten list of egocentric demands and wishes listed above. The arts always require a healthy social environment of giving.
It is # 9 that frightens me:Wanting to regulate the heck out of media bias. I see and hear this often at various forums and discussions, usually in response to some real or perceived outrage by mainstream media. Regulating media bias is just a new euphemism for censorship. Can’t we see this coming?
Just to comment on the David Brooks “most giving” comment about this age group. As the mother of two unemployed twenty-somethings, I can tell you that they laugh when they hear this categorization. “If anyone would pay us, we certainly wouldn’t be volunteering all the time.” Internships, apprenticeships, volunteer jobs, they’ve done it all. It is the reality of the job market. So of course they expect everything to be free — money is less and less their currency. Would love to hear the big thinkers take that and run with it re: arts centers.