How to work with conservative communities

From Benalla to Mandurah, communities can be resistant to change. The solution is to listen to their concerns.
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Communities can react angrily to changes in a once-familiar program. Image: www.blurrent.com

For some arts organisations, the struggle is not to find and connect with new audiences, but to coax rusted-on audience members to accept the inevitability of change. Subscribers and regular visitors to a gallery or performing arts centre can easily grow accustomed to a familiar program of events and exhibitions, creating challenges for new staff members determined to shake up increasingly stale or moribund programs.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts