Your secret weapon for driving change
Struggling to rally support for change at your arts organization?
If your key stakeholders don't see the writing on the wall, driving change is an impossible task.
Like change expert John Kotter said, "Without an organization-wide sense of urgency, it's like trying to build a pyramid on a foundation of empty shoeboxes." 😳
What’s the best way to build that shared urgency? Cold, hard data.
Here’s some cold, hard data for you:
Since 1982, U.S. opera audiences have plummeted 77%. Classical music audiences in the U.S. have declined 65%. Other disciplines aren’t far behind.
Want to see how this played out over the decades? (Because it didn’t all happen in 2020.)
The National Endowment for the Arts has compiled forty years of attendance and demographic trends—and I’ve distilled that data into 40 pages of graphs for you.
What you find in this data dive may be unsettling. But sharing these stats with your board, team members, and donors is a crucial first step toward motivating truly impactful shifts in strategy.
Bring this deck to your next board meeting to showcase industry-wide declines, demographic data, and discipline-specific changes alongside societal factors in the United States.
Start building the urgency needed to drive meaningful change at your organization.
Because this project required such extensive research, there is a small fee to download. If you’re a BIPOC arts leader, please ask about the 50% discount code.
Get the data here
WHAT’S INSIDE:
Section I: Trends by discipline
Arts attendance overview 1982-2022
Art museums & galleries attendance 1982-2022
Ballet attendance 1982-2022
Classical music attendance 1982-2022
Craft fair attendance 1982-2022
Jazz attendance 1982-2022
Musical theater attendance 1982-2022
Opera attendance 1982-2022
Parks & monuments attendance 1982-2022
Theater attendance 1982-2022
Section II: Rates of change across the decades
1982 baseline
1982-1992
1992-2002
2002-2008 (Financial crisis)
2008-2012 (Recession fading)
2002-2012
2012-2017 (Financial recovery)
2017-2022 (COVID-19 pandemic)
1982-2017
2008-2012
1982-2022
Section III: Demographic trends
Ballet audience demographics
Classical music audience demographics
Jazz audience demographics
Latin music audience demographics
Musical theater audience demographics
Non ballet dance audience demographics
Opera audience demographics
Theater audience demographics
Section IV: Societal factors
Trends in technology: Computers & smartphones
Trends in technology: Internet & social media
Trends in arts education
Demographic shifts in the United States