Audience Development

Monday, March 7, 2022
5:00pm - 8:00pm ET

Format: Online
Location: Zoom
Intended Audience: Marketing and development professionals from A.R.T./New York member organizations of any size.
Participation Level: High - Participants will be split into breakout rooms for small group work.

This workshop will present tangible strategies on ways to build and expand multicultural audiences for the arts. In this discussion, we will also highlight community engagement and why we need both efforts to engage audiences. The workshop includes an overview of national trends on engaging diverse communities including the following topics: 

• impact of immigration
• generational marketing
• ten tools for building communities, and
• social media and the impact of press, publicity, and advertising on multicultural audiences.

Participants will break up into workshop groups and prepare a draft of an outline that maps tactics to engage a diverse audience. Groups will present outcomes and conclude with a summary of the discussion and action steps moving forward.

Donna Walker-Kuhne is an award-winning thought leader, writer, and strategist for community engagement, audience development, and social justice.  She is President of Walker International Communications Group, a 30-year-old boutique marketing and audience development consulting agency. She provides consulting services to numerous arts organizations throughout the world and has generated over $22m in earned income. She is also Senior Advisor, DIversity, Equity Inclusion at New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Currently, her portfolio includes social justice initiatives and Equity Diversity Inclusion workshops. She is a veteran of over 22 Broadway productions and her nonprofit clients include Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York State Council on the Arts, and Seattle Theatre Group. She is co-founder of Impact Broadway, a multicultural project that engaged over 900 students as audience members for Broadway with the goal to empower this community to be economic drivers of new audiences for the Broadway Theater district. She is a lecturer and keynote presenter for international arts conferences in Moscow, Russia, Bloemfontein, South Africa, and Australian Arts Conferences. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and Columbia University. She is the recipient of 50 awards including the 2019 League of Professional Theatre Women Rachel Crothers Leadership Award. Her first book, Invitation to the Party: Building Bridges to Arts, Culture and Community, was published in 2005, and she just completed her second book, Champions for the Arts: Lessons and Successful Strategies for Engaging Diverse Audiences. She has a weekly blog, "Arts and Culture Connections," that explores cultural efforts to expand diverse audiences.

All A.R.T./New York workshops, roundtables, and trainings feature automated captioning provided by Zoom. ASL interpretation and CART captioning services are available by request; requests must be made at least 5 business days before the event. For requests, accessibility information, or other accommodations please contact David Shane at [email protected].