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Do School Group Visits Correlate With Adulthood Attendance to Cultural Entities? It’s Not What You Think. (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Are people who visit museums or performing arts organizations as children more likely to grow up to be cultural organization attendees than those who do not visit at all? It depends on how and with whom they visit. Unfortunately, research shows that cultivating cultural supporters is not as straightforward as simply getting kids in the door. These data outcomes might make you uncomfortable – but they also have a potentially valuable lesson for how to cultivate the next generation of cultural organization devotees. Did you know that over 62% of adult visitors to exhibit-based organizations (e.g., museums, zoos, aquariums, gardens,
Differentiated, Variable, and Dynamic Pricing? What Cultural Entities Need to Know - Colleen Dilenschneider
What are the differences between these pricing models? How is the market responding to them for cultural organizations? What is working well, and what is backfiring? Let’s talk about it – with data. Pricing models are currently dominating a lot of management discussions in cultural organizations. And it makes sense: Business disruptions relating to the pandemic remain fresh in many executives’ brains and underscore the need for organizations to think strategically about their business models. And recent financial challenges have motivated boards of trustees and leadership teams alike to critically evaluate engagement strategies, revenue models, access program efficacy, and community
The Causes Likely Visitors Care About Most as We Enter the Election Cycle (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
As cultural organizations gear up to grapple with engagement and development strategies in light of potential shifts in our audiences' attention bandwidth and giving priorities, IMPACTS Experience has been tracking the causes that Americans – and especially likely visitors to cultural organizations – care about most.
How Racially and Ethnically Representative Are Visitors to US Cultural Organizations? (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Self-identified racial and ethnic representation at US cultural organizations has increased since the pandemic, but there’s still a lot of work to do. It’s time for a data update. It probably won’t surprise you: Museums and performing arts organizations do not always succeed in engaging audiences representative of the population of the United States. But just how close are we to achieving onsite participation that mirrors our communities? We have the answers, segmented for aquariums, art museums/centers, botanic gardens, children’s museums, history museums/sites, natural history museums/sites, science centers/museums, zoos, live theater, symphony/orchestras, and other performing arts organizations. Racial and ethnic diversity is but one of many elements contributing to inclusive and representative audience participation, and it’s far from the only factor influencing negative substitution and shrinking audiences. By focusing this particular article on representative participation, we in no way intend to imply that ethnicity and race are the only areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion that merit thoughtful consideration. Far from it! (This said, attaining goals relating to representative onsite participation generally correlates with the need for cultural organizations to engage younger audiences as younger generations tend to be more diverse than more senior generations in the United States.) As
How Welcoming Are Cultural Organizations According to BIPOC, Millennial, and Child-Free Guests? (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Cultural organizations are perceived as more welcoming than they were before the pandemic, but there’s still important work to do. Here’s the data concerning welcoming perceptions for aquariums, art organizations, botanic gardens, children's museums, history organizations, natural history museums, science museums/centers, zoos, symphonies, theaters, and other performing arts organizations. We kicked off the half-year mark of 2023 by sharing projected annual attendance through 2024 for eleven types of cultural organizations in the United States, including both exhibit and performance-based entities. The outcomes begged a host of questions for readers, and chief among them was this: Why aren’t attendance projections increasing more significantly? One of the key reasons is due to a phenomenon known as the negative substitution of the historic visitor. People who look, think, and act like the kinds of people who currently attend cultural organizations are exiting the US market (i.e., by way of death, relocation, or migration) faster than they are being replaced. In other words, cultural organizations are not expanding their audience profiles fast enough to sustain greater attendance. Expanding audience profiles is critical to maximizing market potential. All of this leads us to today’s article on understanding welcoming perceptions among certain audience subsets. At IMPACTS Experience,
What Population Shifts Mean for Long-Term Attendance to Cultural Organization Types (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Expanding audiences isn’t only a diversity and inclusion action item – it’s a business imperative. Here’s the updated research on how cultural organizations need to expand audiences to sustain long-term attendance. Welcome to our second KYOB+ article exclusively for subscribers!Read more by subscribing ›
2023 & 2024 Expected Attendance: Data for Eleven Cultural Organization Types - Colleen Dilenschneider
Here are the expected years 2023 and 2024 attendance levels to aquariums, art museums, botanic gardens, children’s museums, history museums, natural history museums, science museums, orchestras, theaters, other performance entities, and zoos – quantified individually by organization type. Welcome toRead More ›
Exciting Changes Coming Next Week! Featuring More Specialized Data For Your Organization - Colleen Dilenschneider
Big changes are coming on Know Your Own Bone next week to allow for deeper engagement, more robust data delivery, tailored industry reporting, and – most importantly – specialized research bespoke for individual cultural organizations! Can you believe that 2023Read More ›
How Do Cultural Employees Feel About Unionizing? (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Here’s the percentage of employees at their respective leadership levels that both support and do not support unionization efforts within exhibit and performance-based organizations – and why. We recently published research from a study aiming to understand the representative andRead More ›
Are Employees of Cultural Organizations Happy? (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
How satisfied are staff members with their workplace, and do these sentiments vary by leadership level? Staff workplace happiness is an increasingly critical consideration. As museum employees contemplate unionization throughout the United States, we’ve observed increasing attention paid to workplaceRead More ›
Shop Talk: How Museum Retail Stores Elevate Visitor Experiences (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
A museum’s retail shop can have a much bigger impact on guest satisfaction than leaders may realize. Here’s the data. Last week, I had the great pleasure of keynoting the Museum Store Association’s MSA Forward conference in Denver. The themeRead More ›
What Do Wealthy Americans Consider Before Joining a Nonprofit Board of Directors? (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Here’s what people with net assets over $50 million in the United States consider before joining the board of a cultural organization. IMPACTS Experience recently published the top considerations of ultra-wealthy Americans before making a gift over one million dollarsRead More ›
What Do America’s Wealthiest Donors Consider Before Making a Gift Over One Million Dollars? (DATA UPDATE) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Here’s what Americans with individual net worth greater than $50 million consider before making a major gift to a cultural organization. Spoiler alert: An organization’s board composition and board giving matters – especially to ultra-wealthy non-board members. We’ve been trackingRead More ›
Marketing or Curating: Which Is More Important for Museums? - Colleen Dilenschneider
It's a trick question. Museums need them both in equal measure. Here's why this perceptual showdown jeopardizes success. Engaging audiences both onsite and offsite is absolutely critical to an organization’s viability because these aspects of engagement make an even more importantRead More ›
Have the Biggest Dissatisfiers Changed for Cultural Organizations? (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
We’ve observed notable changes to perceptions of the guest experience at both exhibit and performance-based organizations since the onset of the pandemic. A critical goal for visitor-serving organizations is to provide a satisfying experience. We see many organizations undertake significantRead More ›
More People Trust Museums Now Than Before the Pandemic (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Museums were more trusted than the daily newspaper before the pandemic – and now they’re even more so. During the pandemic, we watched and monitored as trust in museums (and zoos, aquariums, gardens, historic sites, and science centers, among otherRead More ›
Here’s What Organizations That Recovered Fastest Post-Pandemic Have in Common (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
The cultural organizations leading the industry in attendance recovery seem to have made a similar strategic decision during the pandemic. At IMPACTS Experience, we monitor market potential for the exhibit and performance-based cultural sectors. We originally started publishing this informationRead More ›
The Pandemic Has STILL Shifted the Types of Cultural Entities People Prefer to Visit (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Americans continue to prefer some cultural activities over others when compared to life before the pandemic. Though these new preferences are proving durable, there are important trends to note. It’s time for a data update with fresh insight through theRead More ›
Improving Welcoming Perceptions Increases Willingness to Pay Higher Admission Fees (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Thoughtful onsite initiatives to make people feel welcome are not just a "social good" but an important business decision – and that decision can pay off in multiple ways. At IMPACTS Experience, we’ve long shared the data-informed reality that prioritizingRead More ›
Market Potential by Quarter in 2023: Projected Attendance to US Cultural Entities (DATA) - Colleen Dilenschneider
Based on the latest available data and most recent modeling efforts, here is the overall volume of visitation that the US museum and performing arts cultural sector can reasonably expect in 2023. To kick off the New Year, we areRead More ›
Our Top Ten Most Popular Articles For Cultural Executives in 2022 - Colleen Dilenschneider
Here are the most visited, shared, and referenced articles from IMPACTS Experience in 2022. It’s that time of year, folks! As we all get ready to put 2022 behind us and bring new hopes and plans into 2022, our team at IMPACTSRead More ›