A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to hang out with more than 200 professionals of a tech firm at their Friday afternoon “town hall” meeting. Over beers and snacks, I had the chance to showcase highlights of the local arts scene. At one point, I asked them how many had visited our arts center recently, fully expecting a smattering of hands. Instead, more than half shot up their arms. I was surprised.
The company’s co-founder explained to me that many of the firm's programmers and project managers came from the visual and language arts fields and that many were still pursuing their art in addition to their tech-based day job. I had stumbled upon a growing but seemingly under-targeted audience and a potential set of supporters for arts organizations.
Michael Litt, co-founder and CEO of Vidyard, wrote about his preference for hiring arts-oriented workers. He discussed the creativity and abilities to design “what people want” that those who have studied or practiced creative arts possess. The praxis of understanding the role of the audience seems obvious as a key skill for technology workers -- but somehow it feels as if those of us in the arts nonprofit spaces have yet to catch up. In order to engage and ultimately build relationships with technology-oriented people, I’ve been exploring a few themes lately that seem to quickly establish a closer rapport.
Talk in the language of experiences -- not events.
With technology providing so many choices and available through so many devices, the idea of an “event” takes on an obligatory feel. Why get dressed, drive someplace and make an evening’s commitment to an event when an evening at home is both easier and potentially provides far more choices?
Arts organizations and marketers must play to the ultimate offer that an evening at the arts can provide -- a genuine experience that will occur only one time in that exact form. The fleeting and intense nature of an experience in the arts provides a clear contrast to other offerings. And a real experience becomes more attractive as virtual experiences increase.
Create multiple pathways into the institution.
Great websites find multiple ways to get you to become a regular user. Whether it's through a messaging platform, the display of stunning visuals or the curation of great content -- these are but a few of the entry avenues well-established technology platforms invite their audience to join.
Arts organizations should push hard to develop a similar approach of “multiple front doors” by which tech folks can enter for the first time. Technology fundamentally puts power in the user's hands -- not the tech company. Arts organizations must leave behind the notion of an obligation to attend due to institutional expertise or a “good for you” presentation and, instead, allow audiences to find the arts and experience it in varying ways.
Showcase the ways to learn based on the patrons' terms.
Technology firms are based, in part, on the notion of learning through the interaction with technology. Data is trivialized but knowledge and skill obtainment have become both premium and limitless. A key for arts organizations, especially those in the visual arts, is to provide clear and non-trivial platforms for self-discovery and learning by audiences.
The sharing of knowledge gained and of non-obvious insights garnered are key currencies to be exchanged. The rise of cookies and easter eggs (hidden gems embedded in code or film) as items to search for and discuss provide a basis for ideas in the visual arts. More generally, the premium on good storytelling and beyond-the-obvious presentations can be the means for deep relationships between the arts leaders and organizations that master these approaches quickly.
Remember, immersion is the ultimate goal.
Any game designer will tell you that the ultimate goal of game design isn’t to design a game that is tough to win but is impossible to stop playing. In Nir Eyal's TED Talk, he showcases the techniques video game makers use to develop habits among their players. Immersion is the gold of technology -- you are so entranced by the experience that you want it to continue.
Artistic presentations have the power to transfix and that expectation should be set and reinforced throughout the arts experience. From the resilience of opera to the infinity rooms of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, immersive experiences are the ones that create lines and buzz for the arts among the technology-faithful -- both workers and users.
Approaching the arts as an engine of creativity in the commercial space has never been more important than it is today. Now it’s up to arts nonprofits to find ways to reclaim and restore the bonds with their former practitioners who now inhabit technology companies across the world.
