Hi team,

Further to my references in the teams meeting earlier this week about the audience project Amy Maiden and I have been developing, I’m happy to confirm that Creative Australia has agreed to fund it! Off the back of the work we did with Amy with her keynote and workshop at APAX, originally the project was designed as an Audience Summit (an evolution and more urgent conversation than the previous CA Marketing Summits) – as Amy and I interrogated the problem more deeply, we came to a place where a “whole of sector” gathering to discuss the problem of audiences wasn’t going to move us meaningfully forward, so instead have landed on a series of roundtables to be delivered to bring together strategically-minded thinkers to develop a plan for what WILL move us meaningfully forward. (us = sector, government, audiences, etc)

Much of this is based on the need to re-centre audiences – or as Amy puts it “audience-centric thinking”.

I’m providing some background detail below for everyone’s information. At this stage, I don’t expect there to be a draw on the team’s time in the planning of this – outside of some comms and a few forms! – but I wanted to let you all know what’s happening. We are still a couple of weeks away from announcing this work to the membership and broader sector, so please keep on a close hold for now.

There’s no obligation to read the below in full or digest this information; I’m sharing for anyone who is interested in this other work PAC is doing. Audiences are likely to be a key part of our next Strategic Plan and I will be referencing a lot of this work in the upcoming “advocacy roadshow” trip to start shifting the focus equally towards “demand” as much as it currently focusses on “supply” in the eyes of government/funders.

Look forward to sharing updates with the team as they come in. If you have capacity and would like to be more deeply involved in this work, let me know.

Thanks

Katherine

Background and context

Australia’s arts and culture sector is experiencing a period of significant transition. Audience behaviours have shifted rapidly, participation levels are under pressure across many artforms, and the skills required to build and sustain audiences have changed materially. At the same time, the sector is facing a quiet but growing workforce challenge. Marketing and audience development talent is leaving the industry, capability gaps are widening, and many organisations are struggling to respond to change with limited resources, fragmented data, and inconsistent support structures.

Despite widespread recognition that audiences are central to sustainability, growth, and relevance, the sector lacks a shared understanding of:

• What is actually driving audience disengagement
• Where the greatest structural and capability challenges sit
• What forms of intervention would genuinely help at both strategic and operational levels.

Before investing in new programs, frameworks, or national initiatives, there is a need for the sector to pause and collectively interrogate the problem.

Purpose of convening

This initiative proposes a deliberate national convening of arts and culture leaders to have an honest, informed conversation about audiences.

The purpose is not to prescribe solutions, but to:

• Create a shared diagnosis of the current audience challenge
• Surface lived experience from across the sector
• Test assumptions about what support, investment, or structural change would be most valuable
• Build alignment and momentum for whatever comes next

The outcomes of the convening will be shaped by the conversation itself.

Why now

Audience decline, and workforce attrition are structural challenges, not temporary disruptions. Without a shared understanding of the problem, the sector risks continuing to invest in fragmented, well-intentioned activity that does not deliver impact. This convening represents a considered first step: to listen, to align, and to determine what will genuinely support a sustainable, audience-centred future for Australian arts and culture.

What this convening is (and is not)

This is not a conference, training program, or policy announcement.

• There are no pre-determined outcomes
• There is no assumption of sector consensus
• There is no commitment to a specific post-event initiative.

Instead, this is a facilitated, conversation designed to support depth, candour, and practical insight.

It recognises that the most effective next steps cannot be designed in isolation, but must emerge from collective understanding and sector buy-in.

Possible next steps

Any outcomes or follow-on activity will be determined by the participants. Depending on what emerges, next steps could include:

• Ongoing mechanisms for sector connection and knowledge-sharing
• New approaches to professional development or capability building
• Shared research, tools, or infrastructure
• A longer-term pathway toward national alignment on audience strategy

These possibilities are indicative only and not commitments. However, it is an intention that the key insights would be shared with industry.

Key themes

The convening will span both strategic leadership perspectives, and operational realities. Topics would be built around 5 strategic pillars:

1. The Evolving Audience Landscape

How are long‑term shifts in public expectations, cultural participation and community identity creating new challenges and misalignments for artistic, organisational and audience planning?

2. Sector Capacity and System Barriers

What structural constraints (financial, workforce, governance, technological) limit organisations’ ability to respond to changing audience behaviours, and where is adaptation most urgently needed? How could economies of scale and/or sector collaboration support this? 

3. Redefining Audience Development for the Next Decade

How should the sector collectively reimagine “audience development” to encompass relevance, inclusion, participation, digital engagement and long‑term value creation?

4. Workforce Sustainability and Capability Gaps

What is driving the loss of marketing and audience professionals, and what capabilities and conditions are required to sustain and grow a skilled workforce?

5. National Levers, Shared Learning and Strategic Coordination

What interventions (national strategy, shared infrastructure, capability building, research and cross‑sector learning) would make the greatest impact, and how should they be structured?

Format

Phase 1: Roundtables

4 x day long, roundtable conversations - - a cohort will be invited from across the sector, with an emphasis on diversity of role, scale, geography, and artform. Participant numbers will be intentionally limited to approximately 15 per session support productive conversation.

Notes from these sessions will be kept, distilled into key insights and opportunities and used to inform the following sessions. After all roundtables, a phase 1 report will be tabled with key stake holders, the key insights of which will be stress tested in phase 2.

Phase 2: Cross-Cohort Synthesis (Online – approx. 2 hours)

• A facilitated digital session bringing all cohorts together to:
• Share key insights from each room
• Identify alignment and friction points
• Agree on 3–5 sector-wide priorities
• Determine next steps or action pathways

A full report and recommendations will then be shared with participants and stakeholders.

Identifying the cohorts

A select group of participants will be approached directly, while the remaining cohort will be confirmed through an open Expressions of Interest process.

Applicants will be asked to supply information in that process:

• About you: Your role, organisation, and how your work intersects with audience strategy or organisational planning.
• Top strategic challenges: The three most significant barriers to growing, diversifying or sustaining audiences.
• High‑impact opportunities: The three most valuable opportunities, innovations or system‑level shifts that could strengthen audience development.
• Your contribution: The expertise, perspective or experience you would bring to the convening.
• Your motivation: Why you want to participate and what outcomes would be most valuable for your organisation.

Participants will be highly curated and EOIs will be reviewed by PAC, Amy Maiden and two representatives from Creative Australia.

END

Katherine Connor

(she/her)

Executive Director | PAC Australia | +61 (0) 419 428 412 | paca.org.au

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