Audiences now crowdsource their choices and the line between arts patrons and participant is thinning.
19 Feb 2014
Sarah Ward
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Writing and Publishing
Who patrons listen to, what they say, and how organisations can remain a part of that conversation forms the new frontier of arts marketing.
This transition has been dubbed the changing culture of culture by Edinburgh-based consultant Hannah Rudman, and marks the evolution of consuming the arts from a passive past-time to participatory behaviour. Technology is the motivator, as digital mechanisms continue to infiltrate and proliferate. In the online world, what someone posts and shares is becoming as influential as what they see and do. Patrons no longer rely solely upon official channels for information; their recommendations are sought from peers, not promotion, as they increasingly crowdsource their experiences.
Sarah Ward is a freelance film critic, arts and culture writer, and film festival organiser. She is the Australia-based critic for Screen International, a film reviewer and writer for ArtsHub, the weekend editor and a senior writer for Concrete Playground, a writer for the Goethe-Institut Australien’s Kino in Oz, and a contributor to SBS, SBS Movies and Flicks Australia. Her work has been published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Junkee, FilmInk, Birth.Movies.Death, Lumina, Senses of Cinema, Broadsheet, Televised Revolution, Metro Magazine, Screen Education and the World Film Locations book series. She is also the editor of Trespass Magazine, a film and TV critic for ABC radio Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and has worked with the Brisbane International Film Festival, Queensland Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival. Follow her on Twitter: @swardplay
