 TargetingYour Audience Donna Walker-Kuhne discusses the importance of marketing to diverse audiences. Special attention is given to theaters and dance companies that produce diverse shows on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in multi-cultural communities. |
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Targeting Your Audience
The production of art and culture is a multi-billion dollar industry in the U.S. alone. There is a need for a concise framework that outlines how to communicate and build bridges with diverse audiences to access cultural products. With the increase in immigrants from European, Mexico, African and Asian countries and the necessity of involving them as audiences and patrons of art and culture, the breadth of these efforts is far reaching. Newsweek Magazine (9/18/00) notes the Age of Color and that over the past 40 years specifically, the national conversation about race must be broader. "The definitions of race and ethnicity have rarely been more fluid with over 30 Census categories. By 2010, Latinos, will outpace blacks as the nation's largest minority population. By 2020 the number of people of Asian descent will double from 10 million to 20 million. By 2050 whites will make up a slim majority - 53 percent".
I firmly believe that the arts are the only pure vehicle we have in today's society that cross cultural and ethnic barriers and allow people to transcend their differences. Today, more than ever, the need to bridge misunderstandings, erase social strife and celebrate diversity is quite apparent. It is through such diversity that we can appreciate the differences of our humanity. If we expect people to support, enjoy and learn from the arts, we must create an environment that is warm, open and relative to unique cultural experiences.
