Arts Intranet

Context is king.  I know, I know.  You thought content was king. Nope, it’s context.

It’s an honest mistake.  Content is incredibly important to arts marketing.  But context makes sure that we’re getting the right message (and content) to the right patrons via the right medium at the right time.

Strategic planning is a key component of building a sustainable, effective arts organization. I believe that to the core of my professional soul and when the arts field began moving in that direction about 10 years ago, it was a relief.

As a consultant, I’ve worked with numerous groups over the past twenty years on transitioning from annual to strategic planning and for a number of years those projects produced terrific results; but somewhere along the way, the field became awash in a sea of theory and visioning to a point where a critical skills gap began to emerge.

Every empty seat in a theatre isn't simply lost revenue; it's a lost opportunity to tackle one of the biggest challenges we can expect to face in the arts and culture business today - talent development.

I am not an expert by any means on the process or state of arts funding in America, but I can clearly see the dysfunction in our government at all levels. In today’s education system, there is a significant lack of equity regarding access to a quality arts education, often due to the location of the school. 

There are two questions that are on many of our minds these days:

1. How can we create a holistic vision of our interdisciplinary work and lives?
2. How do we extend our creative impulses into marketing our art?

Hi, I’m Lena, and I’m MAD. I do marketing, art and development work.

Your users are telling you that your website is broken. They’re telling you what content they like and what they don’t. They tell you who they are and what they need. They’re even telling you how to prioritize your web initiatives. You have their stories and the ability to listen to them. Those stories, of course, are contained in your data.

Web analytics is often defined and accepted as measurement and reporting – numbers that tell us about traffic volumes and website performance. Although measurement is one of the more powerful components of digital (the ability to cheaply measure things in fine detail, with high accuracy, and in a real-time basis should not be overlooked), that on its own does not define analytics.

Just this October, our venue presented Orpheus in the Underworld (Virginia Opera) that got a rave review in a major newspaper.  But, by the time the review hit, the set was struck and it was too late for those readers to see the production. This is our challenge every week. Our audience members leave feeling inspired. We receive fantastic feedback immediately about our programming. Presumably, they leave our venue and tell their friends about their recent arts experience. The word is spreading! But, the artist was only on our stage for one night or at the most one weekend. The buzz is too late to sell those tickets and engage more audience.