“More Greater Grand Forks residents say they are likely to attend live performances of music, dance or theatre than sporting events”

~2005 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts

The Greater Grand Forks Marketing Services Partnership is Hosting the Following Events

A Presentation on Public Participation in the Arts, from 8:30-10:30am, and Continuous Learning: Audience Research Methods and Practice Workshop, from 11:00am-12:30pm. Both events are free and open to the public, and will take place on Wednesday, December 7, at the James C Ray Idea Lab, located at the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, 4200 James Ray Drive on the UND Campus.

The presentation will highlight the results of the 2005 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts research project.  The research, conducted over the second and third quarters of 2005, measures the opinions and perceptions of area adults (regional and metro) as well as UND students concerning interest in the arts and participation in area activities.  The research provides some key observations to expanding and marketing our current cultural community and establishing ourselves as a destination city.  The results have implications for arts policy in the Greater Grand Forks area, and should be of interest to elected officials, service groups, arts agency leadership, university leadership and the media.  The presentation will include a presentation of findings by Cordell Fontaine, Director of the UND Social Science Research Institute.  Also joining the conversation will be Alan S. Brown, of Alan S. Brown and Associates (bio below). Brown is a noted author, researcher and management consultant in the nonprofit arts industry and has studied audiences, visitors and patterns of cultural participation in almost every major market in the U.S.

Following the presentation and a short break, Brown will lead a workshop on “Continuous Learning: Audience Research Methods and Practice.”  The workshop will run from 11:00am-12:30pm.  Audience and visitor research is a key learning activity for arts managers and board members, providing essential information upon which to base marketing and other decisions.  This workshop will cover a range of audience and market research techniques including surveys, focus groups, analysis of customer data files and other innovative approaches to understanding how and why people do arts activities, and how they make decisions about cultural outings.  Examples from a variety of actual studies will be used to illustrate different types of research.  Participants will learn how to go about organizing a research effort and how to ensure that results are useful.  Time allowing, participants will meet in sub-groups to tackle real marketing problems using case-studies.

Both events will be held at the James C. Ray Idea Lab, at the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, on the UND Campus (4200 James Ray Drive
Grand Forks, ND).  Both events are free of charge and are offered by the Greater Grand Forks Marketing Services Partnership, a community wide effort to increase awareness of arts and cultural events through sophisticated marketing.  The Partnership is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded to the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Dakota.

Please RSVP to each presentation individually email ben@benklipfel.net or call the Partnership at 777-0856. You can also request an advanced copy of the research materials.

This research gives greater insight as to how to improve the cultural identity of our community, and Brown’s presentation is a unique opportunity!  Please join us next Wednesday, from 8:30am until 12:30pm at the Idea lab.