The arts are flourishing in our state–but many Coloradans don’t feel like they’re getting the news and information they crave.
That’s one overarching finding from a just concluded, five-month project conducted by the Colorado Media Project with Colorado Public Radio/Denverite and Rocky Mountain PBS, made possible by support from the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and Gates Family Foundation. Together, we took a deep dive into these questions:
How do Coloradans want to know about and engage with arts and culture in our state and how can media outlets and art organizations serve those needs? How do underrepresented communities in particular feel they are being served by arts and culture organizations and media coverage of arts and culture?
The answer: It’s complicated. People feel overwhelmed by information yet feel they aren’t getting what they need from current sources. They long for a sense of community among artists, arts audiences, and arts funders, but struggle to figure out how to build it.
With traditional advertising models for journalism broken, and local media forced to cut back severely on staff and resources, arts coverage has shriveled over the past decade. At the same time, with consumer habits changing toward digital and social media, there’s a glut of largely disorganized information about events available. This reality leaves people feeling overwhelmed, and at a loss about where and how to connect.
We gathered information through a two-pronged approach. The first was a traditional survey of a wide, general audience of Coloradans. Denver-based Corona Insights conducted an online panel survey of more than 2,000 Coloradans. Questions focused on participation and interest in arts and culture, and means of getting information about arts and culture.
The second approach dove deep into the thoughts and feelings of people deeply immersed in Colorado arts and culture. It consisted of a statewide collaborative community listening project led by Hearken, a company that helps organizations better listen to and engage with their stakeholders. The goal of the listening project was to converse with dozens of Colorado residents over the summer about how they engage with arts and culture in our state — and how media outlets and art organizations can best serve those needs.
This worked fueled a community design workshop at Redline Contemporary Art Center on Nov. 4 . About 30 artists, journalists, and community members gathered at the Redline Gallery to devise solutions to issues raised in the research and interviews.
On Friday, Nov. 8, CMP hosted a breakfast at History Colorado to unveil the findings of the five-month project. Corona Insights and Hearken went into detail about the survey and the listening project. Colorado Public Radio and Rocky Mountain Public Media discussed how each news organization plans to use the findings to refine its coverage of arts and culture.
Learn more about arts and culture research and community listening work.