{"id":1948,"date":"2013-08-13T18:44:35","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T01:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2013-08-13T18:51:21","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T01:51:21","slug":"audience-development-is-retarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2013\/08\/audience-development-is-retarded\/","title":{"rendered":"Audience Development is Retarded"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>Dumb, Invalid,\u00a0Retarded, Slow, Brain- Damaged,\u00a0Psycho, Crazy, Insane, Wacko, Nuts,\u00a0Handicapped, Physically Challenged, &#8220;Special,&#8221; Deformed, Cripple, Gimp, Spastic, Spaz, Wheelchair-bound, Lame&#8230; \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Please\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.miusa.org\/ncde\/tools\/respect\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE<\/a> for an excellent overview of respectful disability language.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2055 alignleft\" alt=\"Neon words\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Neon-words.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Neon-words.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Neon-words-300x162.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The words we use matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Vocabulary doesn&#8217;t just express our beliefs. \u00a0It shapes our understanding. \u00a0Just as our imaginations are propelled by the rich concepts conveyed by a single word, so too is our capacity for advancement <em>constrained<\/em> by vocabulary that reinforces outmoded and hurtful beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>(Just ask Paula Deen.)<\/p>\n<p>I ask you: \u00a0<strong>What commonly-used words or phrases constrain the forward-thinking of leaders of arts &amp; cultural organizations?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I call out these few, and invite you to leave a reply <strong>(BELOW)<\/strong> to add to the list.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h2><strong>&#8220;Our&#8221; Audience<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>You serve an audience but an audience is not something you own. \u00a0I&#8217;ve written on this before: \u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2013\/02\/the-myth-of-our-audience\/\">The Myth of &#8220;Our Audience<\/a><\/em><\/strong>&#8220;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h2><strong>&#8220;Patron&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Nonprofit organizations (and especially our auditors) go to great lengths to distinguish between marketing &amp; development, earned revenue &amp; contributed revenue, ticket sales &amp; donations. \u00a0However, our words fail to differentiate between the obvious difference in motivations and expectations of people who (per the dictionary.com definition) are either:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>a\u00a0person\u00a0who\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0customer,\u00a0client,\u00a0or\u00a0paying\u00a0guest especially\u00a0a regular\u00a0one,\u00a0of\u00a0a\u00a0store,\u00a0hotel,\u00a0or\u00a0the\u00a0like, and<\/li>\n<li>a person who supports with money, gifts, efforts or endorsement an artist, writer, museum cause, charity, institution, special event of the like: \u00a0a patron of the arts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">For what it&#8217;s worth, I prefer to call a ticket buyer or visitor a &#8220;guest&#8221; rather than a patron, as that word more more directly addresses the nature of relationship that must be nurtured.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h2><strong>&#8220;Sustainability&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Environmental sustainability is its own virtuous buzzword, but what does that word mean to arts &amp; cultural organizations? \u00a0Too much talk of &#8220;sustainable business models&#8221; suggests that &#8220;sustainability&#8221; is an organization&#8217;s highest virtue. \u00a0But that&#8217;s an absolutely incorrect assertion. \u00a0Let&#8217;s be clear: \u00a0sustainability should describe the MINIMUM of what a healthy organization should achieve. \u00a0(If you were working out at the gym, you might recognize an equivalent meaning in the term &#8220;core strength.&#8221;) Sustainability is the solid foundation from which a healthy organization operates, but it&#8217;s far from the culmination of all that is possible or desirable. \u00a0 Here&#8217;s a suggestion: subtly substitute the words &#8220;vibrant&#8221; or &#8220;vital&#8221; \u00a0the next time someone utters &#8220;sustainable&#8221; &#8211; and see if the conversation doesn&#8217;t immediately proceed in a more uplifting and productive direction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h2><strong>&#8220;Outreach&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps it wasn&#8217;t originally intended this way, but the term &#8220;audience outreach&#8221; seems to connote an antiquated and patronizing relationship in which an arts organization is &#8220;up there&#8221; &#8211; and outreach referred to efforts to go &#8220;down to the people&#8221; in an effort to &#8220;bring them up&#8221; to an enlightened level. \u00a0Time to retire the word. \u00a0It&#8217;s just ill-fitting terminology for the nature of contemporary relationships between people and their arts &amp; cultural experiences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h2><strong>&#8220;Audience Development&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The phenomenal success of the <strong>GOT MILK?<\/strong> campaign, launched in 1993, fueled numerous other &#8220;awareness&#8221; campaigns, including several for arts &amp; cultural participation. \u00a0To be clear, I am not opposed to collaborative advertising campaigns, but &#8220;audience development&#8221; deserves a definition greater than &#8220;awareness campaign.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At the moment, I favor the term <strong>&#8220;Audience Building&#8221;<\/strong> as a substitute for both &#8220;outreach&#8221; and &#8220;audience development&#8221; because it has the opportunity to be presented as a whole-organization priority rather than as a task delegated to the marketing department. \u00a0Even so, it&#8217;s an imperfect solution. \u00a0The phrase positions arts &amp; cultural administrators as the agents of &#8220;construction&#8221; and audiences as variously-sized and multi-colored building blocks that exist for us to stack as we see fit. \u00a0I&#8217;m still searching for a word that reflects the idea that arts &amp; cultural organizations serve, respond &amp; adapt to the evolving interests and expectations of the people who comprise its community.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s think on that further, too.<\/p>\n<p># # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dumb, Invalid,\u00a0Retarded, Slow, Brain- Damaged,\u00a0Psycho, Crazy, Insane, Wacko, Nuts,\u00a0Handicapped, Physically Challenged, &#8220;Special,&#8221; Deformed, Cripple, Gimp, Spastic, Spaz, Wheelchair-bound, Lame&#8230; \u00a0 Please\u00a0CLICK HERE for an excellent overview of respectful disability language. The words we use matter. Vocabulary doesn&#8217;t just express our beliefs. \u00a0It shapes our understanding. \u00a0Just as our imaginations are propelled by the rich concepts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[26,34,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-innovation","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-strategy","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}