Abstract

In a digital age, everyone is a creative producer, a publisher and distributor – from Facebook posts to YouTube videos. Creative production and knowledge distribution has been changed forever by social media and Web 2.0 technologies. This chapter explores how this new operating environment has generated both challenges and opportunities for the arts managers and arts organisations. Two core shifts in audience engagement and audience development are examined, namely a move towards open and collaborative relationships with audiences, and the rise of diverse voices claiming space within arts venues from theatres to galleries, establishing new ways of engaging with emerging and traditional art forms.