Breakfast Club: Diversifying Audiences - A Focus on the Hispanic /Latino Communities

As traditionally older, white audiences are aging faster than the general population, many arts organizations have begun to alter some of their marketing and programming to try and attract younger, more diverse audiences.  In Greater Philadelphia, where residents of color will account for virtually all of the population growth by the year 2020, finding new and effective ways to engage this important part of the market is crucial to our cultural venues’ future survival.  

According to Research into Action, the Cultural Alliance's recent report on cultural participation, Hispanic and Latino communities in particular represent a significant market opportunity. In fact, Latinos and Hispanics reported some of the highest levels of cultural engagement in the region.  In many cases however, this engagement occurs outside our mainstream cultural venues. As arts organizations then, what can we do to welcome and attract more Hispanics/Latinos into our venues?  How can we create programs that are more relevant to a demographic that is so diverse in its range of national and cultural origins and traditions? What are the keys to building long-term, sustained relationships?

Join us for Breakfast Club as we seek answers to these questions, learn best practices from other arts organizations and explore new ways to segment this multi-faceted demographic through three selected readings:

• Chapter 6 from the book, Entering Cultural Communities:  Diversity and Change in the Nonprofit Arts, by Morris Fred and Betty Farrell
• Arts, Culture and the Latino Audience, a report by the Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture
• Arts Institutions Cultivate Latino Audiences as Traditional Base Dwindles, an article by Erica Demarest

All Breakfast Club attendees are asked to read the readings in advance of the session and to come prepared to discuss them. A link to download the readings will be included in your event registration confirmation.

Breakfast Clubs are supported by The Wallace Foundation and The Philadelphia Foundation and are a program of the Cultural Alliance’s research and marketing initiative Engage 2020. Engage 2020 is sponsored by a lead grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, with additional support from The Wallace Foundation and The Philadelphia Foundation.