{"id":968,"date":"2006-10-30T08:31:20","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T16:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2006\/10\/the_rise_of_the_active_audienc\/"},"modified":"2006-10-30T08:31:20","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T16:31:20","slug":"the_rise_of_the_active_audienc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/the_rise_of_the_active_audienc.php","title":{"rendered":"The rise of the active audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m preparing this week to host the bi-annual alumni conference for the master’s degree I direct<\/a> in Arts Administration. It’s always such a joy to welcome back graduates, to learn from them about their work, and to explore together a theme or trend that’s rising in our collective industry.<\/p>\n

Our theme this year, ”The Rise of the Active Audience,” digs into the growing sense of imbalance in the way professional nonprofit arts organizations engage their communities. For several decades, we’ve been emphasizing the ”professional” arts experience — where the audience is expected to be quiet and receptive, and the art or artist is intended to fill that receptive space.<\/p>\n

But there are signs that such a relationship isn’t the main game in town — or perhaps that it never was. Individuals are engaging aesthetic expression in a thousand different ways — by making<\/i> art in handicraft or community arts, by curating their lives through Flickr and multimedia computer software, by adorning their world through fashion and design, and by taking control of their professional-grade cultural experiences with iPods and TiVo and the like.<\/p>\n

Much of this isn’t new, but it’s nudging against the more traditional marketing and audience development methods of cultural institutions (and cultural managers). What are we to do about it among nonprofit cultural initiatives? How do professional arts organizations foster and encourage participatory practice in our communities, and is that part of their job? How can we rethink even the most professional of experiences as highly interactive? Or are we working along a spectrum of cultural opportunities that demands we focus even more narrowly on our point in that spectrum?<\/p>\n

Theater director Anne Bogart has a wonderful perspective on the issue as it relates to live theater, says she:<\/p>\n

The theater is what happens in the space between spectator and actor. It is an art form completely dependent upon the creative potential of each audience member in relation to the events on stage. Without a receiver, there is no experience. The receiver completes the circle with his\/her own experience, imagination, and creativity.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m looking forward to the exploration with so many dear colleagues and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m preparing this week to host the bi-annual alumni conference for the master’s degree I direct in Arts Administration. It’s always such a joy to welcome back graduates, to learn from them about their work, and to explore together a theme or trend that’s rising in our collective industry. Our theme this year, ”The Rise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}