“First, they created a shared sense of purpose that kept an audience-engagement program front and center for leaders and staff, thus enabling the initiative to permeate a wide range of an organization’s activities. “Taken together, these practices promoted audience engagement in two ways,” the report says. Not every institution that was studied adopted each practice but, generally speaking, the more practices used, the greater the success achieved.

Determining what barriers had to be removed for new members to become engaged.

Making sure the organization’s leaders and staff members understood and embraced the strategy and their roles in it and.

Using market research to understand the audience’s views.

Identifying a target group that made sense for the organization.

Based on case studies of 10 arts organizations that undertook audience-building projects as part of The Wallace Foundation’s Wallace Excellence Award initiative, this guide pinpoints nine successful practices projects had in common, including:

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