Selling out, or understanding the value? Arts Marketing in the 21st century

Arts administrators have always needed to possess an odd mix of skills including aesthetic appreciation, dogged precision and good business sense. Once, they were suspicious of references to ‘marketing’ and ‘consumers’ thinking this suggested a selling-out of artistic integrity. There was a belief that their cultural and artistic message was good for you whether you actually enjoyed it or not – like a dose of cod liver oil. They probably preferred the term, ‘audience’, which the website artsmarketing.org wryly observes has its Latin roots in ‘auditory’ – ‘to listen’ and as such suggests “a static, one-way relationship”.