Professional Development: Consulting Programs: Arts Marketing/Audience Development Program: Seminar and Consultations with Deborah Obalil

In a seminar on December 3, 2001, Deborah Obalil, Executive Director of the Arts Marketing Center of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, discussed how to develop marketing strategies and language that effectively translate an organization’s mission to potential arts consumers in order to attract and retain new audiences.

During the seminar, Ms. Obalil outlined the Arts Marketing Center’s codified marketing strategy, which indicates several key questions that organizations should ask themselves in order to build new audiences over the long term. She used data from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s research on arts consumption in Philadelphia to describe the process of segmenting the market and to help organizations identify and understand who their potential consumers might be. Finally, Ms. Obalil broke down the characteristics of heavy, medium, and light arts users in Philadelphia to help organizations understand how to develop efficient and effective marketing strategies to appeal to these different segments.

Fifty-three representatives of 38 diverse arts and cultural organizations, including grantees of PMP and Dance Advance, GPCA member organizations, and roster artists with Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, attended the seminar. Throughout the following week, Ms. Obalil met individually with representatives of 19 Philadelphia Music Project applicants and grantees to discuss each organization’s marketing strategies and goals and methods for audience development.

During Ms. Obalil’s tenure at the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, she presented the Advanced Training Program, an intensive marketing training designed specifically for arts organizations; consulted with individual arts organizations on issues of audience development and earned income; directed all research projects undertaken by the Center; and managed the Center’s 20-member Steering Committee. She authored the report Barriers and Motivations to Increased Arts Usage Among Medium and Light Users and edited Diversifying Chicago’s Arts Audiences: A Progress Report, both published by the Arts Marketing Center. She also directed the development of smARTscope, a comprehensive management appraisal process specifically designed for arts organizations. She has presented seminars on marketing planning, generational marketing, marketing research, public relations, and customer service for arts organizations throughout the nation. Ms. Obalil has since moved on to direct the Alliance of Artists’ Communities in Providence, Rhode Island.