Source: Jazz Arts Group
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus (JAG) to create a national model for building jazz and music audiences, entitled the Jazz Audiences Initiative.
The 21-month project, which spans November 1, 2009 through July 31, 2011, will enable the Jazz Arts Group to research and test new strategies for overcoming barriers to jazz participation and for building jazz audiences through more targeted marketing and programming efforts. The initiative will tackle fundamental questions about how and why people engage with jazz. Jazz artists and presenters nationwide will learn new ideas for building audiences and infusing the art form with new energy. In addition, research of this kind has not been conducted by another organization in the United States.
The project will investigate and create deeper understanding of the musical tastes, and perceptions of jazz and music preferences, with particular attention on the language used to describe the music; develop new segmentation models for current jazz audiences and potential jazz audiences; and nurture and sustain a “community of practice” to create opportunities for meaningful discussion between project partners and jazz stakeholders.