his study examines who is buying tickets to future performances when the future is so unknown. TRG Arts has studied purchase data from 248 U.S. and U.K. performing arts organizations participating in the COVID-19 Sector Benchmark and the results show that while ticket sales have fallen dramatically, it appears the overall demographic of arts consumers is changing.

TRG Arts published its findings to an initial study of 74 clients’ performance return plans in June 2020. An update to that study, expanded to 133 arts and culture organizations across three countries indicates waning optimism for an autumn return to in-person live performances and a formal turn to paid digital programming after shutdowns caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Data always inspires me. It highlights trends and sparks ideas. Our recently released report, “Individual Donations - Is New Philanthropic Income Replacing Lost Ticket Income?” from our COVID-19 International Benchmark, was especially illuminating. It is the first major study to document the economic impact of donation revenue during COVID-19. In this blog post, I outline five inspirations I took away from the report.