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Hannah Grannemann on Audience Experience

Marketing

Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome

June 18, 2025 by Hannah Grannemann 7 Comments

An audience sits in an auditorium facing a stage with a red curtain.

I write regularly on my website hannahgrannemann.com and also on LinkedIn. Find me there, too, and thanks for reading Row X! What happens when opera tickets suddenly drop in price? Spoiler alert: we know exactly what will happen.   Opera Philadelphia offered $11 ticket initiative from the 2024-25 season, where they're offering pay-what-you-can tickets, starting at $11. The result? Ticket sales surged by more than 25% compared to previous seasons. The diversity of the audience … [Read more...] about Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome

Kennedy Center audiences vote with their feet. What happens next?

June 4, 2025 by Hannah Grannemann 6 Comments

Photo of the Kennedy Center at dusk with Pride lights glowing

Boycotting is alive and well as a protest tactic. Based on ticket sales figures leaked to The Washington Post, Kennedy Center audiences are voting with their feet and staying away. Sales appear to be cratering. Here's the damage: The Center’s constituent arts organizations are suffering as well, with the National Symphony Orchestra’s subscriptions down 28% and the Washington National Opera down 25%. It’s just two weeks into the subscription campaign, but the staffer who provided the … [Read more...] about Kennedy Center audiences vote with their feet. What happens next?

A Christmas Carol as an Arts Marketing Parable

December 22, 2024 by Hannah Grannemann Leave a Comment

Dark blue door with a door knocker and a Christmas decoration with pine cones

The marketing plan was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. You're the marketing director of a theater. It was your plan, but you knew it was dead. It's a Wednesday afternoon and the mid-week matinee happening in the theater two floors down was half-full. You can hear over the monitors the actors trying desperately to get the audience to laugh, but it just wasn’t working. You check the sales dashboard in your CRM and the social media accounts. Your Instagram post … [Read more...] about A Christmas Carol as an Arts Marketing Parable

It’s all about the Vibes: Lessons from the election for arts marketers

October 29, 2024 by Hannah Grannemann Leave a Comment

What can we learn about arts marketing from how people consume information about elections? Here are three observations: The 2024 Presidential election has been called the “vibes election”. Believe me, I wish people didn't just vote based on vibes and everyone spent serious time looking at high quality, factual information to inform their vote. But looking at the reality of how some people consume information, let's see what we in the arts can do to get more people in to experience art so … [Read more...] about It’s all about the Vibes: Lessons from the election for arts marketers

5 reasons declining media coverage of the arts isn’t the problem

February 29, 2024 by Hannah Grannemann 6 Comments

At the end of a long list about why audiences are shrinking, a burned out, defeated arts manager's last bit of ire will be directed at the declining arts coverage in the mainstream media. It will be the final gasp of their venting session. Then their voice will trail off, they’ll throw up their hands, and reach for their glass of bourbon.  An anecdote from an artistic director of a “struggling theater in Florida” was the centerpiece of a story by Cara Joy David’s latest piece for Broadway … [Read more...] about 5 reasons declining media coverage of the arts isn’t the problem

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About Hannah

Assistant Professor and Director of the Arts Administration Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). She began writing for ArtsJournal.com in 2020 as a guest editor on Lynne Conner's blog We the Audience and began writing Row X in 2021. More about Hannah can be … [more] about About Hannah Grannemann

About Row X

White iPhone with QR Code, ArtsJournal Logo and Row X

Row X is where audience experience meets artistic practice and business strategy of arts organizations. The goal of the blog is to explore the sweet spot where these three interests overlap. Audience experience is often seen as the purview of the marketing department until the point that the … [more] about About Row X

Recent Posts

  • Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome June 18, 2025
  • Kennedy Center audiences vote with their feet. What happens next? June 4, 2025
  • A Christmas Carol as an Arts Marketing Parable December 22, 2024
  • Row X Wrapped December 6, 2024
  • It’s all about the Vibes: Lessons from the election for arts marketers October 29, 2024

Recent Comments

  • antonio c. cuyler on Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome
  • rosanne soifer on Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome
  • antonio c. cuyler on Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome
  • Hannah Grannemann on Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome
  • antonio c. cuyler on Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome

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