2009-2012: Honing a Digital Approach with Wallace Funds Since then, the company has continued to develop and share digital content with the aim of helping audiences develop a deeper understanding of its work, and more recently, encouraging ticket sales. The tools became more effective each year as the staff learned what did and did not work and adjusted its approach accordingly. This research led it to develop easily accessible audiovisual content that could help audiences better understand what goes into producing opera. The opera used audience research to guide development of a variety of tools and activities and evaluate each tactic post-launch, with annual surveys examining what was accessed, by whom and with what impact. Those efforts were largely focused on deepening participation among those already attending, using technology to create opportunities to interact with the company and its productions. Its use of those tactics was given an early boost by a $750,000 Wallace Foundation Excellence Award, which provided funds for four years of experimentation between 20, as described in this 2015 case study. Seattle Opera, which produces five operas each year for an audience of more than 100,000, was early among arts organizations to use digital and social media to engage audiences.

It does not include a thorough analysis to determine whether the financial benefits of the efforts described are commensurate to their costs. It is one of a series of blog posts exploring how organizations' audience-development efforts fare once Wallace funds run out. This post is an update on a 2015 case study of Seattle Opera's Wallace-funded efforts to determine whether technology can help enhance the opera experience.

Seattle opera