Engaging Your Audience During and After COVID-19

Recorded On: 07/17/2020

Overview
Speaker(s)

About this Webinar

COVID-19 has pushed our arts organizations and individual artists to the edge. Some have shut down for the short term in hope of securing the future; some have quickly pivoted to online content; many have grappled with what it means to serve their missions and audiences during a pandemic while remaining (hopefully) solvent and (hopefully) vital even amidst massive uncertainty and reduced capacity. Questions abound as arts organizations consider our audiences: How can we engage our audiences now so that they are still there when things are “back to normal?” How do we serve audiences in a way that makes sense for our mission when we can’t gather or do typical programming? What factors will influence audiences’ return to our events? This webinar will tackle these questions and more. We will review the tenets of strong audience development we can lean on that haven’t changed; explore approaches and frameworks to help us think about and understand our audiences in ways that can guide our programming and/or communication; and check-in with the most recent data for big-picture clues that can help inform our planning.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will review best practices in engaging audiences during COVID – and any time!
Participants will be able to apply frameworks for serving audiences, like “jobs to be done,” to their organizations and situations.
Participants will be acquainted with current data regarding audiences and COVID, and where to find updated information as insights evolve.

For organizations or individuals who are currently facing financial hardship and wish to participate, please use this discount code for a reduced registration fee of $25: ArtsUCOVID

Sara Leonard

Founder,

Sara Leonard Consulting, LLC

Sara R. Leonard is an arts management consultant, researcher, and educator specializing in audience building, strategic planning, and leadership & team development. With more than fifteen years of experience in nonprofit management, extensive work for and with arts organizations, an MA in Arts Administration, and a BA in theatre, Sara develops the capacities of arts and cultural organizations to fulfill their missions and be vibrant and vital parts of their communities. As Founder and Principal of Sara Leonard Consulting, LLC, her clients nationwide represent a diversity of artistic disciplines from theatre to fiber arts, presenting and producing organizations, arts councils, and more.

In addition to working directly in partnership with client organizations, Sara furthers her commitment to capacity building in the cultural sector by offering workshops, presentations, and webinars for national, regional, and local conferences and organizations that have included the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention, the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, South Arts, Georgia Presenters, Maryland Presenters, and others. Her most frequently requested workshops are on audience development, plan creation, and team and leadership building.

Sara complements her client-facing work with research both independently and, formerly, in cooperation with MBK Analytics, with whom she co-authored the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2015 report When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance. Sara and her collaborators also performed the Planning Study and Pilot Test for the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts for the National Endowment for the Arts. These projects build on her award-winning graduate research, which developed a community-generating approach to audience development for the nonprofit arts.

Sara is an adjunct faculty member and graduate thesis advisor for Goucher College’s MA in Arts Administration program.

Learn more about Sara and her work at: www.saraleonardconsulting.com.

Twitter: @saraleonard

Instagram: @artsadminnerd