The Idea of Audience: Artists and the Task of Audience Development in the Era of Creative Industries

What sort of relationship do artists want with their audience? What kind of role do they imagine for the performing arts in their community?

Under the “creative industries”, the audience relationship has been increasingly defined and shaped by marketing and/or institutional interests. Wedged between the competing needs of the market, and their belief in the power of art to positively impact their communities, many artists and arts workers are caught in what Julian Meyrick describes as a “con...