Researchers, practitioners and government agencies have begun to look to social capital discourse to provide cogent and adaptable rationales for performing arts organisations. Following initial applications in the community arts, this work is now being undertaken across other public cultural and arts policy fields including the performing arts where the provision of cultural infrastructure is traditionally less tied to social service delivery. Using examples from Griffith University's 'Sustaining Culture' research project, this paper identifies theoretical and methodological issues entailed in these recent developments and considers their significance for social capital discourse as a way to conceptualise relations between performing arts organisations and their publics.