International Network for Audience Research in the Performing Arts (iNARPA)

尽管全球观众在支持和赋予表演艺术意义方面发挥着至关重要的作用，但对观众的研究仍然零星存在；受方法不安全的限制；并被积极偏见的主张所损害。目前还没有专门研究艺术观众研究的国际研究网络。这个新的网络将填补这一空白，并将新兴的观众研究领域的顶尖学者与观众、艺术家、艺术工作者、资助者和战略机构聚集在一起，探讨和辩论与表演艺术中观众参与的价值和影响以及捕捉这种影响的新兴方法有关的问题。随着下一代艺术观众的成熟，观众发展、大数据、共同创作、参与、数字参与和直播等驱动因素继续对艺术产生影响，观众的行为和期望正在发生变化。该网络将追踪这些驱动因素对观众体验的影响，并探讨对艺术家、艺术组织和政策制定者的影响。由于受众研究是一个全球性的现象，并且由于受众研究目前缺乏任何一种学术家，这将是一个国际网络，包括在利兹和墨尔本的一系列活动。英国和澳大利亚在表演艺术观众研究领域拥有小型学者集群，这是两国共同的优势。在最初的两年网络计划中，这些学者将与从业人员和观众以及在该领域工作的美国高级学者和从业人员一起工作。该网络最初将承诺在2017年1月至2018年12月期间组织四项关键活动：1。在利兹大学表演和文化产业学院举行的为期半天的范围界定研讨会，旨在解决表演艺术中关于文化价值的方法和问题的观众研究面临的关键问题和挑战。在利兹大学举行的为期一天的研讨会，旨在通过简短的研究和挑衅论文将受众利益相关者群体带入对话。研讨会将围绕新兴的定量和定性听众研究方法及其潜在的互补性展开。在澳大利亚迪肯大学传播与创意艺术学院举行的为期一天的研讨会，旨在为一本同行评议的杂志的一期特刊做准备，讨论新兴的受众研究方法。本次活动的主题是如何捕捉和“了解”表演艺术的价值和影响。一次圆桌会议，总结经常出现的主题和想法以及网络正在发展的规划，并最后确定传播活动和研究成果。这些活动将由专门的网页和博客提供支持，这将鼓励和促进参与者的参与和面对面活动之间的辩论。虽然这个网络将主要关注表演艺术，但它将吸引来自相关领域和艺术形式的学者和实践者。这样做的理由是，即使在受众研究的边缘领域，学者和实践者也经常被分割成艺术形式的孤岛，因此无法交叉滋养思想，交流新兴的方法和知识。随着艺术部门在“体验经济”的新社会，政治，文化和技术环境中努力定位其角色和地位，现在是重新关注观众参与和观众的问题和现象，并利用跨学科思维潜力的理想时机。这也是一个合适的时机来回顾和质疑艺术营销方式的遗产，可以说，自20世纪80年代的新自由主义政治以来，这种营销方式促进了艺术的逐渐商品化和贬值。

Despite the vital role that audiences play across the globe in supporting and giving meaning to the performing arts, audience research remains sporadic; limited by methodological insecurity; and compromised by claims of positive bias. There is currently no international research network dedicated to audience research in the arts. This new network will address this gap and bring together leading scholars in the emerging field of Audience Studies with audiences, artists, arts workers, funders and strategic agencies to explore and debate issues related to the value and impact of audience engagement in the performing arts and to emerging methods of capturing this impact. As the next generation of arts audiences matures and drivers such as audience development, big data, co-creation, participation, digital engagement and live streaming continue to impact on the arts, audience behaviour and expectations are changing. This network will trace the impact of these drivers on the audience experience and explore the implications for artists, arts organisations and policymakers. As audience research is a global phenomenon, and because Audience Studies currently lacks any kind of scholarly home, this will be an international network comprising a series of events in Leeds and in Melbourne. The UK and Australia share the common benefit of having small clusters of academics working in the area of audience research in the performing arts, and over the course of this initial two-year network plan, these scholars will be joined by practitioners and audiences, as well as by senior US scholars and practitioners working in the field. The network will initially commit to organising four key events between January 2017 and December 2018:1. A half-day scoping workshop held at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries (University of Leeds) designed to flush out the key issues and challenges facing audience research in the performing arts regarding methods and questions of cultural value.2. A one-day symposium at the University of Leeds designed to bring audience stakeholder groups into dialogue through short research and provocation papers. The symposium will be themed around emerging quantitative and qualitative audience research methods and their potential complementarity.3. A one-day colloquium held at the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University, Australia - designed to cross-fertilise thinking in preparation for a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal on emerging methods of audience research. The event will be themed around ways of capturing and 'knowing' the value and impact of the performing arts.4. A round-table event summarising recurrent themes and ideas and planning for the ongoing development of the network as well as finalising dissemination activities and research outputs. These events will be supported by a dedicated webpage and blog, which will encourage and facilitate participant engagement and debate between the face-to-face events. Although this network will focus predominantly on the performing arts, it will draw in scholars and practitioners from related fields and artforms. The rationale for this is that even within the marginal field of Audience Studies, scholars and practitioners are too often fractured into artform silos and fail therefore to cross-fertilise ideas and exchange emerging methods and knowledge. As the arts sector grapples to locate its role and position in a new social, political, cultural and technological environment within an 'experience economy', now is the ideal time to refocus attention on issues and phenomena of audience engagement and spectatorship and to harness the potential of inter-disciplinary thinking. This is also a fitting time to review and question the legacy of the arts marketing approach, which has arguably facilitated the gradual commodification and devaluation of the arts witnessed since the neoliberal politics of the 1980s.