Category: AUDIENCE

NEA Releases Results Of Latest Survey Of Public Participation In The Arts

Among the key findings: 74% of American adults engage with the arts via electronic media, 54.3% attend arts events, and 53.7% create or perform art themselves. Three states, D.C. and metro Cleveland have particularly high rates of attendance at performances, while Vermont, Montana, and metro Dallas lead in art show attendance, and nearly 90% of adults in greater Philadelphia and Baltimore engage with the arts via electronic media. – National Endowment for the Arts

How Rotten Tomatoes Actually Works

A key point that many people don’t realize is that the site does not use any algorithms: each review that goes into a movie’s or TV show’s Tomatometer score is read and evaluated by a human curator. “In a world of endless choice, on an internet increasingly dictated by predictive algorithms that recommend ‘for you,’ Rotten Tomatoes represents something more analog. And it raises the question: What’s the best way to choose? Or, more to the point, who do you trust?” Reporter Simon van Zuylen-Wood spent a couple of days at the Rotten Tomatoes to learn just how the site operates. – Wired

Shows That Won’t Let You Back In If You Leave Make It Hard For Physically Challenged People

Sitting through a show of that length might seem manageable enough if you’re young and in good health, less so if you have a medical condition like Crohn’s disease or other hidden disability, you’re pregnant or you’re experiencing the menstrual equivalent of the elevator scene in The Shining. If someone leaves during a performance, it’s usually because they don’t have much of a choice. – The Stage

What Has Happened To Audiences? Have They Forgotten How To Behave In Theatres?

The woman next to us very politely turns round and shushes them. It does no good. They are out for the afternoon, they are going to make a loud and long fuss over a Capri Sun and they are going to keep talking about their hunger levels for the entire performance. It’s not long before another woman brings her mobile phone out and starts taking photographs of the stage. – The Herald (Scotland)

To Research How To Make A Better Museum, Ask Kids

Says one designer who experienced many a test lab with kids and families at London’s V&A: “A nine-year-old said: ‘Objects have rights.’ The phrase has stuck. It captures both the need to conserve objects and to consider them as active participants in the museum experience. It has brought the collection alive, allowing us all to imagine and design around objects’ ability to talk to visitors and to each other.” – The Observer (UK)

Movie Theatres With Shaking Seats Are Gimmicky – And Also A Good Education In Filmmaking

Basically, The NYT says, you could easily tell how bad Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was by going to a theatre with 4DX technology. The experience “should really be considered an intellectual exercise. Sure, the wind occasionally makes it hard to hear dialogue, and the flashing lights take you out of the movie when they light up the theater’s walls. But a lot of thought is required to artfully complement a film by adding multisensory elements. Especially when the film itself lacks artfulness.” – The New York Times

What A ‘Narrative Performance’ Is – And What It Can Do For An Audience

Helen Shaw breaks it all down: “Our critical function operates differently with the storyteller than with scene-player, because we immediately wonder about truthfulness. … The narrating performer demands the close involvement and even participation of her audience, and so our belief and ability to be persuaded (and betrayed) are her main tools.” – Vulture