In the arts, we have grown used to cycles of crisis and recovery. Inflation, shifting audience behaviors, and rising costs have widened the gap between expenses and revenues. Too often, pricing has been left to habit, fear, or emotion. But pricing does not belong at the margins. Pricing belongs at the center of your leadership.
When pricing decisions are reactive, organizations end up behind: scrambling to “catch up” to inflation, second-guessing accessibility, or defaulting to gut instinct instead of data. When pricing is strategic, it becomes one of the most powerful levers you have for sustainability, accessibility, and long-term growth.
Pricing Is Too Important to Be An Emotional Decision
Pricing is often one of the most emotional decisions an arts organization makes, second only perhaps to programming. Fear of losing audiences keeps prices artificially low. Anxiety about accessibility ties organizations in knots. And governance often reduces pricing oversight to a rubber stamp rather than a strategic review.
It shows up in familiar ways:
- “I wouldn’t pay that, so no one else will.”
- “We never charge over X dollars/pounds/euros.”
- “If we raise prices, people will stop coming.”
- “Low prices are the most important factor to generate new audiences.”
These are not strategies. They are instincts. And while they come from a place of care for audiences, they often prevent organizations from keeping up with running costs, or optimizing prices in line with demand.
The result is that many organizations are perpetually behind inflation and reliant on “catch up” increases that feel riskier than they should. But what if pricing were elevated to leadership? What if leaders approached it with the same rigor they bring to budgeting, or programming?
Leadership Means Owning Your Pricing Strategy
Leaving pricing to chance is risky. Elevating it to strategy is transformational. That means:
- Bringing pricing into strategic review. Not just approving numbers, but asking: What is our pricing strategy? How does it serve both sustainability and accessibility? Here are 10 questions to get you started.
- Monitoring and adjusting continuously. Pricing shouldn’t be “set it and forget it.” It must respond to audience behavior, demand patterns, and market shifts. Start with these 3 key metrics.
- Claiming pricing as a leadership lever. Revenue and mission are inseparable. Without financial resilience, accessibility promises collapse.
And here is the hard truth: if you do not generate sustainable revenue through ticketing, you will end up trying to plug the revenue gap with philanthropy.
As TRG has seen across the sector, subsidizing ticket prices with donations or sponsor support creates fragile revenue structures that collapse when the subsidy ends. Counting on philanthropy to cover lost ticket income is not resilience. It is increased and unnecessary risk. And right now, the sector cannot afford more risk.
Leaders: it is time to claim pricing as the strategic lever it truly is.
Book Your Free Pricing Surgery
Pricing is too important to leave to fear or habit. TRG’s 30-minute Pricing Surgeries are designed for arts leaders ready to test assumptions and uncover hidden opportunities.
You’ll walk away with:
- A sharper picture of where your pricing strategy is working, and where it isn’t.
- Insight into gaps that could be costing you real revenue.
- Tailored, practical steps to turn pricing from reactive to strategic.
