Run It Like a Business : Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money--Without Losing the Art

Featured on Publishers Weekly 2024 Announcement Issue


TEDx speaker Aubrey Bergauer—“the Steve Jobs of classical music”—reveals how to run a successful arts business in the post-pandemic era, adapting for-profit methods for not-for-profit goals.

In the US alone, the arts are a $763 billion sector whose 100,000+ organizations serve almost every community in the nation. There’s no reason arts organizations should struggle to make ends meet. And now, with arts-tested strategies from Aubrey Bergauer, they won’t. This foolproof guide shows how to reach new levels of engagement—while always putting art first.

Running your arts organization like a business is your path forward to:

• Grow audiences and keep them coming back again
• Make our organizations more inclusive
• Get younger attendees in the seats and on the donor rolls
• Generate millions more dollars in revenue
• Continue to create the art we love—without the stress of figuring out how to afford it

Just because arts organizations are non-profits doesn’t mean they shouldn’t make money; it means the money they make goes back to fund the mission—whether that’s music, visual arts, theatre, dance, or one of many other mediums that enrich our lives.

The for-profit world knows how to achieve success across customer engagement, user experience, company culture, the subscription economy, technology and media, new revenue streams, and brand relevance. Run It Like a Business provides a powerful, proven framework to help all arts organizations revitalize their economic engines and ultimately serve the arts and its patrons.