Audience Development for the arts has recently resurged as a significant and indispensable practice, as testified by its designation as a central axis of the European Union’s Creative Europe programme and the growth of relevant literature.

This book explores the complex factors motivating or prohibiting participation in the arts and studies audience development as a way for non-profit performing arts organisations to balance their financial, artistic and social objectives while they function in a challenging contemporary environment.

Focusing on the managerial challenges of opera houses, the Austrian Federal Opera House Volksoper Wien is studied during the Dominique Mentha administration (1999-2003), which was entrusted to implement a new self-governing, efficient and accountable management model for the House.

The book studies the mission, organisation, finances, and artistic and social objectives and challenges of the Volksoper under this new managerial system. Additionally, it presents the results of the first extensive survey of the organisation’s audiences and analyses the profiles, preferences, visiting behaviour and comments of different customer groups during the Mentha era. Accordingly, the programming, marketing, and educational policies of the Mentha administration are assessed from an audience development perspective.

The theoretical premises and case study results discussed in this work lead to the design of a framework for integrating audience development into the structures and practices of non-profit arts organisations.