Audience Engagement and the Role of Arts Talk in the Digital Era

This book offers readers an understanding of the theoretical framework for the concept of Arts Talk, provides historical background and a review of current thinking about the interpretive process, and, most importantly, provides ideas and insights into building audience-centered and audience-powered conversations about the arts. The ruling idea of Arts Talk is a simple one: audience pleasure is deeply tied up with the opportunity to interpret the meaning and value of the arts, and this pleasure is enhanced significantly when interpretation is made social. Conner analyzes the robust arts audiences of the past along side contemporary participatory cultures to model a new paradigm for arts appreciation centered on audience-powered conversations, both live and digital. Topics discussed include learning and cognition in arts reception and the form and function of productive talk in the digital era. This book is a valuable resource for arts workers and audiences wishing to explore the environmental, social and psychological conditions that allow us to engage meaningfully with the arts "Lynne Conner offers a deep dive into an essential question for anyone who creates, curates, manages, or supports the arts: What makes arts experiences meaningful? Through wide-ranging scholarship and practical connections, this book is an art-lover's field guide to clearer thinking, richer listening, and more resilient practice."--Andrew Taylor, Assistant Professor of Arts Management, American University, USA, author of The Artful Manager "What if the past 75 years were a mass culture bubble from which we're only now emerging? Perhaps the digital revolution, as empowering and startlingly new as it is, is most powerful when it helps us return to and build on long-held enduring values. Lynne Conner's historically-steeped perspective on how communities have traditionally interacted around culture is an insightful and particularly useful take on constructing a framework for sharing culture in the digital age." - Douglas McLennan, Editor and Founder of ArtsJournal.com "Lynne Conner's Audience Engagement and the Role of Arts Talk in the Digital Eracis a path-breaking book about cultural consumption and engagement. What do works of art and culture actually mean to their audiences, and, more importantly, what is the process by which these meanings are created, extended, and deepened? Conner's analysis reveals the deeply social nature of engagement with art. When we have to express our ideas, respond, and deliberate with others, our connection with art becomes more meaningful, and, Conner argues, more pleasurable." - Steven Jay Tepper, Associate Professor of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, USA, and Associate Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy Front Matter....Pages i-ix Preamble: We the Audience....Pages 1-13 Front Matter....Pages 15-21 Road Map to Pleasure....Pages 23-38 Eras of Social Interpretation....Pages 39-65 Geographies of Social Interpretation....Pages 67-95 Front Matter....Pages 97-99 Building Audience Learning Communities....Pages 101-116 Fundamentals of Productive Talk....Pages 117-135 Arts Talk....Pages 137-168 Conclusion: The Pleasures of Interpretation in the Live | Digital Era....Pages 169-173 Back Matter....Pages 175-209