||| July 29, 2025 by Leslie Shook

Campus Connection: Engaging College Students In The Arts

College students … I have been surrounded by them for 29 years at DePaul University.  They are youthful, demanding, smart, talented, challenging and friendly.  Understandably, they are self-involved, but they are always worthy of our time and energy.  They represent the audience of tomorrow that so many arts organizations are concerned with building.

I am optimistic about the potential for college students to join the arts audience and become lifelong members.

We often ask ourselves:  “What’s the best way to reach students?”  “What programming might attract a young audience?”  “Why would they come?”  “What expectations do college students have about an arts experience?” “If we get them into our venue, how do we get them to come back?”  “Do we have to start over every three or four years?”

I am optimistic about the potential for college students to join the arts audience and become lifelong members.  In a city as large as Chicago with a significant student population, the Arts Engagement Exchange is taking the leap and starting the conversation.  Let’s see what we can learn about this next generation by hearing from them and the people in Student Life who guide them.

I hope you will join The Arts Engagement Exchange at our free Learning Forum Campus Cannection:Engaging College Students in the Arts.  I will be joined by experts in student life and arts organizations that are developing college student audiences.  And we will even have a real life, currently enrolled, college student!  I hope you will join the conversation on August 19th.  All the details you need to RSVP can be found  by clicking here.
 

Tags: Diversifying Audiences, Psychographics, Return on Investment