Culture Works, the arts funding and service agency for the Dayton region, announced today that it has been awarded $22,800 through the Greater Dayton Cultural and Arts Initiative Fund of The Dayton Foundation to facilitate a market research effort designed to gather intensive information on cultural participation in the region. 

“We appreciate the recognition of The Dayton Foundation that research of this nature can prove invaluable to our local cultural organizations as they attempt to reach a broader audience and patron base,” said Martine Meredith Collier, Culture Works president & CEO. “As organizations struggle with decreasing marketing budgets, being able to target their marketing dollars more effectively assumes an even greater importance. Additionally, this kind of research can be a first step to a larger cultural planning initiative in the future.”

AMS Planning and Research, well-known nationally for their planning and research services to the arts and entertainment industries, will provide the field research for this project.  Prior to the development of an on-line survey, they will develop detailed demographic profiles to determine primary and secondary market areas, build a custom profile of the current cultural participants, and identify motivators and barriers to cultural participation. 

At the conclusion of this project, cultural organizations should have a clearer picture of:

• Audience and visitor characteristics in terms of demographics, lifestyles, and family lifecycle
• The approximate population of “cultural participators’ in the area and what percentage already attend (market penetration)
• Where more of them can be found, most efficiently, and which market segments show the greatest propensity for arts attendance/involvement, but are not currently attending or participating (market potential)
• Which segments are not attending at all

“AMS will be utilizing email lists unrelated to current Dayton area arts participation to identify non-attendees,” said Collier, “but they also hope to be able to have access to digital ticket buyer, member, and donor lists from the Dayton region’s arts and cultural organizations to gain the most accurate information possible.”

Any organizations interested in participating must have their email listings to Culture Works in digital format by September 19.  Contact Collier at mcollier@cultureworks.org for more information.

“We plan to move very quickly on this project,” said Collier, “and anticipate having findings available by late October.”