Friction Has Its Benefits

Ursula Hilmar

Vienna’s Burgtheater is doing it! According to a report by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF, Austria’s flagship theatre is listening to what its season-ticket holders have to say about a possible new production of “Romeo and Juliet”.

Until the end of the year, thousands of theatre lovers are thus being given the chance to contribute their ideas and feedback – and they are taking advantage of the opportunity. In Germany it is already customary for many artistic and cultural institutions to benefit from the public’s eagerness to become involved by means of network cooperation. Even though no direct relation has yet been detected between ticket sales and the utilisation of social media tools, as we enter the second decade of the 21st century we can see that the successful cultural institutions are the ones that have no fear of public discussion or of providing insights into highly complex – and highly exciting – production processes, for example by means of the video medium.

KulturKontakt Austria, too, has grappled with the question of how to best use its core competences to participate in and benefit from trends such as “audience development” or “corporate cultural responsibility”. KKA is thus intensively engaged in cooperation projects and platforms. In the media sector, these cover a wide range and include, for example, PR cooperation and joint events, the provision of Austria’s only online event calendar devoted to cultural education, and theme evenings organised in cooperation with other organisations working in the same or overlapping fields. We consider the sharing of information to be part of our mission. But sharing alone is not sufficient.

Therefore, KKA has been adapting its structures and processes so as to integrate the wide range of possibilities for participation. Starting in the spring of 2011, we plan to utilise the potential of the social media. Enabling participation, initiating public opinion polls or voting, providing glimpses behind the scenes, making video contributions about our Artists in Residence: all this constitutes a tremendous challenge! Nevertheless – or for this very reason – we are looking forward to it!

Ursula Hilmar/Head of PR + Marketing