Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to carry out a longitudinal review of arts marketing research.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks back at the origins of arts marketing research,
identifying the initial areas of interest and traces its development as a recognised research domain.
Findings – Arts marketing research has evolved from being an application of marketing using
long-held principles into a discipline where critical and creative approaches are now being used to
generate more meaningful and actionable arts marketing theory.
Research limitations/implications – Although arts marketing research has developed in terms of
rigour, depth and reach, there is still much unexplored potential to be realised.
Practical implications – The paper shows that effective arts marketing consists of a balance of
addressing artistic needs and customer expectations. The marketing involved must acknowledge the
merits of artistic philosophy, while also addressing the commercial realities of today’s arts world.
Originality/value – Only a very small number of assessments of the state of arts marketing
knowledge have been carried out. The paper develops both a longitudinal analysis of the origins and
growth of this knowledge and provides suggestions for future research.