References

Bernstein, J.S., 2007. Arts marketing insights : the dynamics of building and retaining performing arts audiences [online]. San Francisco: Jossey-bass.

Bradshaw, A., Kerrigan, F. and Holbrook, M.B., 2010. Challenging conventions in arts marketing. In: O’Reilly, D. and Kerrigan, F., eds. Marketing the arts: a fresh approach. Abingdon: Routledge. 5-17.

Brian, T., 2014. Brian Tracy Success Library: Marketing. AMACOM Books.

Butler, P., 2000. By Popular Demand: Marketing the Arts. Journal of Marketing Management [online], 16, 343-364.

Consoli, G., 2014. The Emergence of the Modern Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective on Aesthetic Experience. Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism [online], 72 (1), 27-55.

Goldman, A., 2013.The Broad View of Aesthetic Experience. Journal of Aesthetic & Art Criticism [online], 71 (4), 323-333.

Hangman, G., 2005. Aethetic experience: beauty, creativity, and the search for the ideal. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi.

Hill, L., O’Sullivan, C and O’Sullivan, T., 2003. Creative arts marketing [online]. 2nd edition. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Holden, J., 2009. How we value arts and culture. Asia Pacific Journal of Arts & Cultural Management, 6 (2), 447- 456.

Hombury, C and Jozic, D., Kuehnl, C., 2015. Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science [online].

Kerrigan, F., Fraser, P and Ozbilgin, M., 2004. Arts marketing [online]. Oxford; Boston, MA: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Machon, J., 2013. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in contemporary performance [online]. Palgrave Macmillan.

Mehmetoglu, M and Engen, M., 2011. Pine and Gilmore’s concept of experience economy and its Dimensions: An Empirical Examination in tourism. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism [online], 12 (4), 237-255.

O’Reilly, D. and Kerrigan, F., 2010. Marketing the arts. In: O’Reilly, D. and Kerrigan, F., eds. Marketing the arts: a fresh approach. Abingdon: Routledge, 1-4.

Pine, J and Gilmore, J., 1999. The Experience economy: work is theatre and every Business a stage. Boston, Mass : Harvard Business School Press.

Punchdunk., 2000. Company Structure [online]. Available from:      http://punchdrunk.com/company [Accessed Date 1^st November 2015].

Radbourne, J., Glow, H and Johanson, K., 2014. Audience Experience [online]. Intellect Ltd.

Radder, L and Han, X., 2015. An examination of the museum experience based on Pine and Gilmore’s experience economy realms. Journal of Applied business research [online], 31 (2), 455-470.

Shunt., 1998. Shunt About [online]. Available from: http://www.shunt.co.uk [Accessed Date 1^st November 2015].

Skold, D., 2010. The Other Side of Enjoyment: Short-circuiting Marketing and Creativity in the Experience Economy. Organization [online], 17 (4), 363-378.

Smith, R., 2015. 451 Play Bournemouth Arts Festival. [photograph]. Bournemouth Arts Festival: Rose Smith.

Smith, R., 2015. 451 Play Bournemouth Arts Festival. [Video]. Youtube. Available From:https://youtu.be/9Z4rCxKacuE[Accessed 1^st November 2015].

Soloman, M. R, Marshall, G. W and Stuart, E. W., 2013. Marketing;Pearson New International Edition. Pearson.

Walmsley, B. and Franks, A., 2011. The audience experience: changing roles and relationships. In: Walmsley, B., ed. Key issues in the arts and entertainment industry. Woodeaton: Goodfellow, 1-16.

White, G., 2012. On Immersive Theatre. Theatre Research International, 37 (3), 221-235.

Final Question

This blog has covered a variety of arts marketing aspects. How value and culture affect the arts market and how interactive marketing plays a big part in getting participants to attend. This also links the need for the marketing to be more of an actual experience as well as the event experience itself. Immersive theatre and aesthetic experience are an important part of arts marketing to draw participants.

I would like to leave you with this question:

Has this Blog affected how you look at art experience in the future?

Pine and Gilmore

Figure 3: Diagram showing Pine and Gilmore’s 4 realm theory (The Experience economy: work is theatre and every Business a stage 1999)

Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) model is made up of four realms see Figure 3, which look at individual’s experiences and how they absorb them either passively with entertainment or activity with education. The other two realms look being passively immersed in the aesthetic and escapism environment. Radder and Han (2015) have researched further into the four realms and really examined the escapist and aesthetic experiences. They go on to stay that if participants don’t have these two experiences met they wont have a good experience over all, and that age effects how the two experiences are being met. Mehmetoglu and Engen (2011) have gone on even further to say that participant experience comes from how they tell stories about the event after it has happened. This applied to me as after I had seen the 451 play I came home to tell everyone about what had happened.

The 451 play fits into the Pine and Gilmores (1999) four realms, as I would have said before I went to the play that my experience would have been for entertainment only, but now that I have attended, I would say that the experience is definitely more of an aesthetic one. Consoil (2014) talks about how the aesthetic experience require the participant to be able to mind read and think for themselves to reach their own advanced conclusion about their experiences.  This was represented in the 451 play when we were shown a pile of books being burnt, with one of the actresses saying that should we burn her as she knows the book. Which I think very a profound thing to say and really got me thinking about what I read and the educational purpose this play is trying to convey to it audience. Goldman (2013) takes a different slant on this theory by saying that there are two facts that make up the aesthetic experience and they both have to be present for the experience to be aesthetic. The first one is cognition and the other is moral. Hagman (2005) has taken yet another spin on the aesthetic experience saying the problems may lie in the fact that there is a lack of research on the origins of aesthetic experience. This is what I felt when the main character was taken to a dream like state. At this point in the play, there were fireworks on the top of aerials making the sky look as if there was a great mesmerizing star in it, which played with my imagination.  

"451 Play" Smith (2015)

Immersive Theatre

The immersive theatre is part of the experience economy. Two companies in London have done this very well, one the Shunt (1998), which is a non-profit company that getting backing from Arts Council England. They are a group of actors that put on live shows around London in unusual places. The other is Punchdrunk (2000), which is also part of the Arts Council England and can be described as the pioneering company that changes the way audiences see their shows. White (2012) has stated that the immersive theatre has become adopted by many to develop new ways of performing to an audience to make them participants of the experience.

My experience from the 451 started like this; from the first second that I started walking down the street, I could see lights in the distance and hear the beat of the music, building my anticipation. This is when my question started of what was going to happen next; I had stayed away from reading any synopses to try and see if I could capture the story from what was going on around me. Machon (2013) looks at the immersive theatre as a way for people that don’t see themselves as theatregoers, but are drawn to the experience because they enjoy a more alternative performance. She then goes on to discuss how the immersive theatre is advertised using unusual methods, and they heavily rely on word of mouth. This was very much the case for me when it came to the 451 play as I don’t think I would have heard about it other wise.

An interesting way of looking at how young people push to attend theatre events is what Radbourne (2014) says that with immersive theatre young peoples cultural experience need to be enhanced. I do think that it was interesting that there were so many young people at the 451 play.

Figure 2: Photograph from 451 Play (2015)

Being immersed in a play is one way of describing what the experience economy is about. Walmsley and Franks (2011) look at the experience economy as a way of evoking the audience to get involved with their surroundings and how the event organiser are the gatekeepers and facilitators of experiences. From my experience at the 451 when I arrived was, I walking in to the crowd I was given part of a book that had been marked Banned. Then part way into the performance a male actor performed a monologue. The reaction from the crowd was to walk toward him, passing any pieces of the Banned books forward to be burnt in the fire see Figure 2. He asked in his monologue several questions to the audience, which we all answered, making us feel like part of a mob, there for a common cause. Bernstein (2007) looks at the behavior of audiences and how there has been a dramatic change in how participants interact with what is goes on around them. This would explain why during the play I felt the need to respond to the questions. Skold (2010) looks more at the effects immersive experience has on the economy, and how these factors such as ethics, policies and finances can effect how the organizes puts on events. The 451 play economy factors that I think they should have taken in to consideration is play was a free event. Crowd control was crucial for the organisers to take in to consideration, as they did not know how many people would be in attendance. On the other hand Hombury (2015) looks at if there is good experience for participants then in the long term the organisation will build customer-loyalty, and if customer experience management is done correctly then this will also build loyalty. Organisers need to market their art in a way that consumers will want to consume it.