Audience Engagement in the Performing Arts: A Critical Analysis - Hardcover

by Ben Walmsley (Author)

This book explores the concept of audience engagement from a number of complementary perspectives, including cultural value, arts marketing, co-creation and digital engagement. It offers a critical review of the existing literature on audience research and engagement, and provides an overview of established and emerging methodologies deployed to undertake research with audiences. The book focusses on the performing arts, but draws from a rich diversity of academic fields to make the case for a radically interdisciplinary approach to audience research.

The book's underlying thesis is that at the heart of audience research there is a mutual exchange of value wherein audiences ideally play the role of strategic partners in the mission fulfilment of arts organisations. Illustrating how audiences have traditionally been side-lined, homogenised and vilified, it contends that the future paradigm of audience studies should be based on an engagement model, wherein audiences take their rightful place as subjects rather than objects of empirical research.

Back Jacket

This book explores the concept of audience engagement from a number of complementary perspectives, including cultural value, arts marketing and co-creation. It offers a critical review of the existing literature on audience research and an overview of established and emerging methodologies deployed to undertake research with audiences. The book draws from a rich diversity of academic fields to make the case for a radically interdisciplinary approach to audience research.

The book's underlying thesis is that at the heart of audience research there is a mutual exchange of value wherein audiences ideally play the role of strategic partners in the mission fulfilment of arts organisations. Illustrating how audiences have traditionally been side-lined, homogenised and vilified, it contends that the future paradigm of audience studies should be based on an engagement model, wherein audiences take their rightful place as subjects rather than objects of empirical research.

Author Biography

Ben Walmsley is Associate Professor in Audience Engagement in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK and Director of the Centre for Cultural Value. Previously, Ben was Producer at the National Theatre of Scotland and an Assessor for Drama for Arts Council England. Since 2014 he has been the Academic Director of the Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Programme, now one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. He is also Co-Editor of Arts and the Market.