Advocating Arts to the Public: Outreach and Education in Performing Arts

Nine major performing arts organizations (otherwise known as “Big Nine” or MPAOs) are directly funded by the Hong Kong SAR Government (HKSAR) in Hong Kong. In view of the relatively low attendance rate in performing arts in Hong Kong (Home Affairs Bureau, 2012), there is a pressing need for the performing arts sector to advocate arts to the public and develop audience. Taking a qualitative research approach, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with five cultural leaders in Hong Kong. This study aims to examine the impacts of outreach and education programmes in the MPAOs in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that the outreach programmes can achieve educational goals in various perspectives, such as aesthetics, whole-person development and cultural citizenship. Nevertheless, the immediate impact on audience attendance is questionable and the interviewees of this study suggested that the nurturing of interests should be prioritized. The findings of this study may help the performing arts organizations identify and formulate the outreach and education strategies that best benefit the public and suit the audience development needs.