As we transition from one year to the next, we customarily take a moment to reflect on the milestones and changing perspectives, that shaped our work at WolfBrown over the past year. Some of us have shared lighthearted or personal reflections, while others delve into weightier or more broad-ranging topics related to the arts sector as a whole. Some of us look back across decades, while others zero in on the past year or can’t help but look toward what lies ahead in 2025.
Contributions
- The Deconstruction of Storytelling – Alan Brown explores how younger audiences’ hunger for immersive, interactive experiences is driving the reinvention of storytelling in the arts.
- On Transitions – John Carnwath reflects on the nature of transitions in careers, life, and the world, and questions whether we need these markers to measure progress.
- Towards a Framing Approach to Programming – Erin Gold examines how a “programming frames” approach could help orchestras better engage new and existing audiences.
- Evolving Education Pathways – Kathleen Hill explores how students’ attitudes toward post-secondary education and careers are shifting.
- Have It Your Way: The Personalization of the Audience Experience – Alan Kline examines how performing arts organizations are adapting to modern audiences’ demand for personalization.
- The Polarization Bear – Joe Kluger challenges arts leaders to consider their role in a divided society, asking how cultural organizations can respond to political polarization.
- Riding the Triple Raft: Courage, Imagination, and Mutuality in Times of Transition – Dennie Palmer Wolf draws on lessons from Eastern Europe to highlight how courage, imagination, and mutual support help us navigate times of change.
- Leading with Purpose, Not Programs – Surale Phillips shares how the shift from program-centric to purpose-driven marketing fosters deeper audience connections.
- A Super Transition – Congratulations to Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School – Thomas Wolf celebrates the long journey of a beloved music organization to its new permanent home, decades in the making.
The Deconstruction of Storytelling
By Alan Brown
I can’t count the number of years we’ve been talking about diversification of cultural tastes, rising interest in alternative formats and spaces, and the many indications that younger consumers are looking for more interactive and more immersive experiences. This year, we passed the tipping point.
To me, the most notable event of the year was the opening of The Sphere in Las Vegas, a must-see novelty venue for digital storytelling and live events. I attended opening weekend with my colleague, Marco Bruscoli. It is yet another example of the tyranny of sensory stimulation in driving commercial entertainment, and just how far the goal posts have moved.
Don’t look now, but the “younger consumers” we’ve been talking about for the past 20 years are now middle-aged consumers. The same hyper-stimulated, tech-savvy people who grew up playing video games and going to rave parties we now want to sit down, shut up, turn off their devices, applaud politely, and then go home and buy another ticket.
Commercial producers and event discovery platforms such as Fever, meanwhile, have figured out how to engage a broader audience and are laughing all the way to the bank. Museums thumbed their noses at digital installations and missed nearly a billion dollars of economic activity on the back of “immersive Van Gogh.” How is it even possible that orchestras couldn’t figure out to buy a truckload of LED candles from Walmart, turn them on, and sell tickets to an experience called a “Candlelight Concert?” Why haven’t opera companies figured out they can own and operate immersive, for-profit opera-themed lounges where people can book Brunhilde’s table, or Violetta’s table, dress up in elaborate costumes, and enjoy an opera-themed environment without sitting in a darkened auditorium for three hours?
The most important transition I’m thinking about this year is the deconstruction of conventional approaches to storytelling. I am aghast at just how wedded some nonprofit arts organizations are to conventional, passive theatrical experiences. To them, there’s just one way to tell a story. The public, meanwhile, as moved on to embrace a wide array of storytelling approaches – serialized storytelling, deconstructed storytelling, gamified storytelling, dramas played out in virtual spaces with AI-driven characters, and live action role play, to name a few. The creative landscape right in front of our faces is vast and terrifically exciting, if only we could allow ourselves to see it. One bright spot is the opening of Blume Studios in Charlotte.
Rather than just complain, we are actually trying to do something that will lead our sector into a true renaissance of creative invention. Please follow our work at www.immersedinthefuture.com.
On Transitions
As part of an ongoing evaluation of the national Jazz Road grant program, I’ve been speaking with musicians about their career trajectories. The program supports jazz artists who are poised for a significant career leap. The idea is that temporary funding will help facilitate a transition that elevates these artists to a higher rung on the professional ladder.
Talking with both grant recipients and unsuccessful applicants has led me to reflect on the nature of transitions—how they happen in careers, lives, and the world at large. Some transitions are arbitrary markers of time, like the end of one year and the start of another. These moments offer an opportunity to pause and reflect, but they don’t carry much weight by themselves. Other transitions happen at fixed moments, like graduations or opening nights, allowing us to plan for them. Then there are transitions that happen gradually, often without us noticing. For example, one of the musicians I recently spoke with described taking on teaching to fill gaps between gigs, only to realize, years later, that his career has shifted from performance to education without a conscious decision.
Transitions allow for a sort of mental accounting. We tally our wins and losses, post the score, and start a new game. But whether considering recent world events or individual careers, I’ve had to realize that many moments that seemed like transitions are now less clear. I may have been too eager to declare a certain chapter closed, and move on to the next.
Today, I read Taylor Mac’s tribute to Morgan Jenness in American Theatre, which celebrates the latter’s commitment to process over product: “The end never justifies the means, because there is no end. If the past is prologue, how could an ending be anything but a new question? And so there are only means. There is only how we live, the ethical choices we make, and the care we take and give.” If there is no end, are we ever able to look back and see how far we’ve come? Do we need transitions (even if they’re not “real” or permanent) to give us a sense of progress and keep us on course?
Towards a Framing Approach to Programming
By Erin Gold
As of late, we have been grappling with the question, “Is the pool of classical music lovers actually shrinking?” While we know that ticket revenues are still not back to what they were pre-pandemic, our research tells us there are still thriving communities of both aficionados and “casual listeners” who enjoy classical music but don’t know a lot about it. In our research on concert format preferences, we’re beginning to see a penchant for format choices (e.g., educational formats, relaxed formats, late-night formats, etc.). In turn, this has forced us to grapple with the question of whether the typical concert experience offered by most orchestras is fading in relevance and, therefore, not serving the needs of a larger and larger slice of the marketplace.
One possible solution we’ve been testing with several orchestras is the concept of “programming frames.” A programmatic frame is a strand of artistic programming that stretches across seasons and promises an exploration of a theme, format, or aesthetic idea. The frames approach, if successful, allows concertgoers to develop affinities with one or more frames.
Our preliminary research suggests that a “frames” approach to conceptualizing programming will help audience members say “Yes” to programs they otherwise wouldn’t choose. This is especially true for audience members who are less familiar with classical music and do not have the depth of knowledge that would allow them to pick concerts based on program details.
While there is still more research to be done, we are hopeful that orchestras and other types of arts organizations might begin to transition some of their programming towards a frames approach in hopes of capturing the interests and imaginations of a broader swath of music lovers. If they can, we may be heading towards a day where audience members won’t need to know if Sibelius or Shostakovich is on the program because they’ll instead be looking forward to a musical journey.
Evolving Education Pathways
Students’ attitudes towards post-secondary training and careers are changing. Are the respective industries changing fast enough to meet their expectations?
Through our work with the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Internship (BAI) program, questions like the one above are more than just a series of headlines for me—they are a wrinkle in how we approach understanding the program’s impact on interns.
The BAI program is an eight-week, intensive experience for rising high school seniors that blends hands-on experience working at arts and culture organizations with college and professional preparedness workshops. BAI’s School Year (BAISY) program provides high school seniors with the opportunity to work part-time at an arts and culture organization in their city.
Since 2021, I’ve been leading the evaluation of the BAISY program. In addition to collecting survey data, we also interview a sample of interns and their supervisors at the beginning and end of the year. Through these interviews, we learn about the incredible projects interns complete—designing and budgeting visitor workshops, programming the selections for a family short-film festival, curating an art exhibit, creating digital shorts about local artists, etc.; the lessons learned from early professional experiences that go beyond “the typical”; and how interns’ plans for after high school are shaping up.
Within the last two years, conversations with high school seniors have made these plans seem less certain and more sobering.
While Americans overwhelmingly believe in college as a meaningful good, students are increasingly skeptical of the value of a degree, often framing their enrollment decision as a cost-benefit analysis. Delays with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) awards prevent them from truly weighing their options, resulting in several students foregoing private institutions to limit costs. Interest in apprenticeship and alternative credentials is also on the rise, as students are hungry for the opportunity to have a guaranteed profession that leads to a reliable income.
While these trends may challenge higher education institutions, they offer a chance to rethink and broaden the narrowing pathways available to students after high school.
Perhaps what students truly crave isn’t just the guarantee of college, but the freedom to choose their next step: whether it’s college, a gap year, military service, or an apprenticeship. Perhaps they want the right to build a professional path that aligns authentically with their personal goals—whatever they may be.
Have It Your Way: The Personalization of the Audience Experience
By Alan Kline
I remember watching the Seinfeld finale in 1998. I shared that moment with 76 million viewers and the next day we came together to process what we saw, argue about it, and celebrate Seinfeld’s legacy. We didn’t know it was one of the last television series viewing events, a decades-spanning tradition including the finales of The Fugitive, Roots, M*A*S*H* and Cheers. Now, instead of the nation gathering around the TV simultaneously, we watch what we want, when we want. The internet has enabled personalization through all digital entertainment: people listen to podcasts instead of radio, play games on a Steam Deck instead of visiting arcades, and read on tablets instead of in physical books. Our audiences have grown to expect this level of choice and customization, and younger audiences have never known any other way.
At WolfBrown, we have done research into how performing arts organizations can successfully offer personalization through education, formats, marketing, loyalty, and engagement programs. The core artistic experience, however, is generally not customized, and this commonality of experience is one of live arts’ strengths. We are moved together. When properly conveyed, the benefits of connection seem well worth the lack of personalization.
This tension between the need for communal experiences and demand for personalization doesn’t have to resolve as all one or the other though. Many organizations are evolving user-centric experiences. I vividly remember choosing to sit in a ball pit to watch parts of The Hypocrites’ Pirates of Penzance. Here Lies Love encouraged its audience to dance and be a part of the club. New World Symphony’s late-night programs allowed people to come and go as they pleased. Sleep No More broke down the assumption that audiences needed to see everything to experience the work.
Not every performance allows for the same elements of customization, but artists now ask when a piece needs the traditional constraints and when it isn’t served by them. Performing arts and personalization no longer exist as a dichotomy. Audiences and experiences have always been in conversation with one another and more porous boundaries between the two only give opportunity to deepen the meaning of a performance.
The Polarization Bear
By Joe Kluger
While many people will disagree on whether the outcome of the recent Presidential election was positive or negative, there is no doubt that Donald Trump’s slim 1.5% victory margin reflects a politically divided electorate, which would also be the case had Kamala Harris eked out a victory. From the post-mortem punditry, I have heard two seemingly contradictory sentiments. The first is that there is deep political polarization (the Merriam-Webster word of the year) among Americans on a wide range of economic and cultural issues. The second is that the issues which divide us are fewer in number than those which unite us as families, co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Exacerbating this tension are efforts by the media and some politicians to herd us into confirmation bias echo chambers that amplify our divisiveness and discount if not ignore our commonalities.
I have heard many people in the arts and culture sector ask how, if at all, their organizations should react and respond to this public polarization, and to policy changes the Trump administration may enact. While there are no easy answers and every arts group’s circumstance will vary, I think there are some key questions that all arts leaders should address with intentionality, even if their conclusion is to proceed with business as usual:
- Should we use our programs as a catalyst for dialogue among people with differing political perspectives, to increase understanding and reduce polarization? Would panel discussions and talk-back sessions connected to thought-provoking arts programs help bridge the partisan divide or just attract participants who are already open to the messages of those stories?
- Should we use our artistic voices to call attention to Trump administration policies to which we are vehemently opposed or to misinformation in the mainstream media? Is doing so an effective strategy for speaking truth to power or will those concerns not resonate outside the “choir?”
- Should we avoid trying to combat civic divisiveness and, without pandering, undertake apolitical programming that maximizes our appeal to the largest possible audiences, regardless of their political views?
- Should we double-down on our commitment to DEI policies as core values, but modify them if needed to ensure they are not inconsistent with the anti-discrimination implications of the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions processes violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
- How should we prepare to resist and/or adapt to possible decreases in government funding of the arts?
It may seem safer or wiser to take the stance that, as non-profit organizations, arts groups should remain apolitical. But it’s worth recalling that the adage, “the personal is political,” brought awareness to feminism and civil rights causes in the 1960’s. And, as actor Joel Grey said recently about his role as the Emcee in the original Broadway production of Cabaret, “The democratic election of an authoritarian figure, the normalization of bigotry, the complicity of the frightened masses — none of these are new themes. It’s understandable to want to retreat, to find solace where we can, but we cannot afford to look away. History is giving us another chance to confront the forces that Cabaret warned us about. The question is: Will we listen this time, or will we keep laughing until the music stops?”
Riding the Triple Raft: Courage, Imagination, and Mutuality in Times of Transition
An approaching new year in a tumultuous world sends me back to the late 1990’s in Eastern Europe when I was part of a team working on what new, post-Soviet-era, constitutions could mean for young people: their education, their rights, and their citizenship. There I met colleagues who came with long, indomitable histories of resistance and persistence. I think of Jacek, an organizer disciplined for his politics by being sent to teach in a rural kindergarten, who explained how he prized what those years in “exile” taught him about play as a human resource. And Alicja (a host for underground editorial offices during the Solidarity years) who joined Jacek in founding the Center for Citizenship Education that, to this day, champions schools that “equally build the subjectivity of every student.” And Andrzej who, thirty years later, continues Poland’s gutsy history of “flying” universities that moved about, providing working people and women (including Marie Curie) with the chance to learn. Using the humanities as a source of hope, he teaches with the Flying University for University Students, where American professors donate classes for Ukrainian university students, “nourishing the minds and sustaining the spirits of the generation that will lead the country’s reconstruction after the bombing stops.” So, at this year’s end, I think often about these fierce, stubborn, and brave colleagues whose lives, across decades, taught me to board the triple raft of courage, imagination, and mutuality to ride out any circumstance and to thrive through any transition.
Leading With Purpose, Not Programs
This year, we’ve seen an uptick in clients asking us to examine perceptions of their brand through WolfBrown’s surveys and focus groups. I’m sensing a transition is underway, with organizations shifting their marketing and communications from leading with their programs to leading with their purpose. And it’s about time. Leading with programs alone in brand messaging doesn’t reveal “the why” that people connect with most deeply.
Purpose reaches people on a level that’s personal and emotional, aligning with ideals they believe in or want to embrace. This kind of connection is the foundation of a brand, and it’s what needs to undeniably differentiate you from the overabundance of other cultural offering people have to choose from. Purpose (a.k.a. mission) is enduring. This allows organizations to adapt their programming to evolve with their audience while maintaining loyalty and trust.
Our clients are discovering that when a brand message revolves solely around programs, it can become an endless marketing trap. Messaging a brand being about programs doesn’t create the emotional connection humans need to establish a bond with an organization. Programs might attract attendees, but it’s purpose that fosters belonging, trust, identity, and shared values.
From adult and children’s theatre companies to music and theatre festivals, our clients are loosening their over-reliant grip on transactional data analysis and leaning into brand assessment. They’re bravely asking if audiences and community members perceive their brand the same way their artistic and organizational leadership does. This takes a willingness to be vulnerable. And it’s paying off. I encourage you to think about how your own brand connects with its purpose—so you, too, can experience those powerful “aha” moments.
A Super Transition – Congratulations to Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School
It took almost 65 years and eight and a half million dollars, but an organization I love finally has its own home. The organization started as a seven-concert summer chamber music series in Camden, Maine, founded by teenage musicians in the early 1960s. I was one of them.
Performances took place in the parish hall of a local church and later in a restored historic opera house. The organization had no office. It didn’t need one because there was no staff! The first year’s budget was a little over $2,000. We figured we would give it a go for a couple of years. After all, it was a chance to play concerts in the summer when we weren’t in school.
Today, Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School presents dozens of concerts (including most recently this fall, a piano recital by Emanuel Ax), and it boasts a community music school serving over 350 students from over 40 local towns, more than half on scholarship. It is considered one of the most important musical organizations in the state.
And at last, the organization has its own home—a beautiful historic building that was once a church.
The building has been expanded and converted a number of times with the most recent renovation creating a concert hall, numerous teaching studios, administrative offices, and a beautiful garden. At least as important in this busy seaside tourist destination, it boasts a parking lot for 40 cars.
Congratulations to everyone in this small community who made it happen!