Report finds good, bad in shift to online arts promotion

By Stephan Salisbury, Inquirer Culture Writer
Posted: January 04, 2013

The Internet and digital technology have had a huge and ongoing effect on how arts organizations reach their audiences, manage operations, determine programming, deploy resources, and raise funds, according to a new report from the Washington-based Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, released Friday.

The more than 1,200 U.S. arts organizations polled agreed that technology and the Web have worked to broaden "the boundaries of what is considered art."

Many of the 1,244 organizations, drawn from recipients of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, also said that use of websites, mobile apps, video streaming, and the like have strained resources, and they complained that funders have been slow to support tech and social media-based projects.

"Often, by the time grants are awarded . . . the market has shifted and the original idea needs to be modified or scrapped," one respondent noted. "This requires entrepreneurial approaches that many funders aren't comfortable with, i.e. rapid pivots and radical changes in strategy."

Some of the key findings laid out in the 66-page Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies report include:

83 percent of the organizations say the Internet and digital technologies have made their audiences more diverse.

81 percent say these technologies are "very important" to their organizations for promoting the arts.

78 percent say these technologies are "very important" for increasing audience engagement.

64 percent say digital technologies are "very important" for fund-raising.

63 percent say digital technologies are "very important" in making efficient use of resources.

At the same time, 74 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that "the Internet and related technologies have created an expectation among some audiences that all digital content should be free."

And 71 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that "digital distractions such as ringing cellphones and audience-member texting are a significant disruption to live performances."

Contact Stephan Salisbury at 215-854-5594, ssalisbury@phillynews.com, or @SPSalisbury on Twitter.

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