An empirical investigation of the arts audience experience index

Radbourne et al. proposed an Arts Audience Experience Index (AAEI) which stipulated that performing arts experiences consist of four components: authenticity, collective engagement, knowledge, and risk. Authenticity is associated with truth and believability of a performance. Collective engagement is an audience's experience of engagement with performers and other audience members. Knowledge is concerned with understanding of and intellectual stimulation created by a performance. Risk is the extent to which a performance meets one's expectation, is value for money, and fits with one's self-image. We administered the AAEI to 465 spectators who attended a drama performance and 126 spectators who attended a musical performance. Supporting Radbourne et al.'s framework, confirmatory factor analysis found that audience members could differentiate among the four components of authenticity, collective engagement, knowledge, and risk along the two facets of importance and satisfaction. Regression analyses also showed that satisfaction with these four components contributes meaningfully to the overall evaluation of the performances, although collective engagement was found to be a relatively weaker predictor.