Arts Tour Minnesota
ACHF Arts Access
Minnesota professional artists and arts organizations have more opportunities to tour their work throughout the state. We surveyed the audience at each performance and asked if they were new audiences for this particular artist, and we asked what drew them to this concert (free, outdoor, genre, artist, other). We had a survey response rate of 17%. We also evaluated anecdotal observations of audience demographics and behaviors (such as arriving early to enjoy picnics and conversation). Post-event discussions regarding the series determined that in order to continue to make these concerts enjoyable and successful, the College of Saint Benedict would need to investigate how to increase seating capacity, as the performances often exceeded the capacity of the outdoor amphitheater and surrounding areas.
College of Saint Benedict presented a series of five free outdoor concerts with Monroe Crossing, Tonic Sol Fa, Gypsy Mania, Kevin Kling, and Davina and the Vagabonds. The concerts drew much higher community attendance than we had anticipated or could have hoped for. We projected an audience total of 1,500 (500 per concert), but had a total audience of 3,407. All five concerts had solid attendance. Our intended outcomes were to expand audiences for the presented artists and to offer five high-quality concerts for the St Joseph community during the summer. We exceeded our expectations, as 54% of audiences indicated they had never attended concerts by these artists before, and attendance was exceptionally high at each performance. Based on the attendance and audience feedback, all strategies worked well.
Other, local or private