WAC 10×10 Series Aims to Build Fan Base Before Expansion

While total attendance at Walton Arts Center events has increased more than 30 percent since 2007, attendance – and ticket sales – for fine arts performances has dropped to near-depressing degrees.

So said WAC vice president of communications Jodi Beznoska, whose experience at a performance last year by the a capella group Chanticleer was dampened by the amount of empty seats surrounding her.

“I was sitting there in a hall that was less than half-full,” Beznoska said, “and it made me really sad.”

Spurred by that sadness, Beznoska developed a plan to boost attendance at fine arts (Read: classical music, world music, jazz, dance, etc.). The result is WAC’s 10×10 Arts Series, an effort to overcome the two obstacles Beznoska believes are keeping audiences at home.

“First of all, there is a familiarity barrier,” she said, alluding to the fact attendance at more recognizable Broadway-type events and concerts has risen. “Then, if you tell them it’s 50 dollars, they’re never going to come.”

Thus, WAC is offering a series of fine arts shows – running Oct. 8 through April 10 – for which the bulk of the tickets cost just $10. Beznoska said tickets for such shows previously would have averaged $25 to $45, with some going as high as $65 or $75.

“You can sit in the seventh row for 10 dollars and be blown away,” Beznoska said. “The theory is we let people come have an amazing experience and they want to come back.”

Beznoska declined to give specific ticket sales information, but said the response has been positive.

“We’ve sold more tickets in advance of some of these October shows than we did for the entire shows last year,” she said. “It appears people are interested in it and want to get in on it early.”