People sometimes react to family-friendly research and pilot projects with cynicism, says Catherine Rose. One (nameless) arts manager responded that the idea seemed rather patronising, as we all know about families from our own children, don?t we?
Leaving aside the fact that not all of us have children, it is surprising just how much work has to be done to make an arts venue family friendly.
For the last 18 months a pilot project by Eastern Touring Agency in collaboration with East England Arts has been in progress across the east of England, culminating in a conference and the publication of a handbook for arts organisations, both entitled ?The Family Factor?. The conference and handbook have drawn on a series of research initiatives and practical, venue-based projects. Six visual and performing arts venues formed a steering group: Aldeburgh Productions at Snape Maltings, firstsite in Colchester, the Junction CDC in Cambridge, Norwich Theatre Royal working with Norfolk Arts Marketing, the Old Town Hall Arts Centre at Hemel Hempstead and Wysing Arts in Cambridgeshire. Their projects ranged from programming a series of theatre works for families with children aged 8 to 14, to practical arts workshops for families with very young children, to a website for families looking for arts activities to attend (http://www.norfolkartsevents.co.uk).The project also included a digest of existing research, a survey of family arts provision in the East England Arts region and a series of focus group workshops. These groups will become family forums, which the steering group venues will re-convene as sounding boards for their programming and practice.
?The Family Factor? doesn?t just emphasise the artistic aspects of family provision or the financial reasons for attracting this audience. The venues explored physical environment and resources, customer care and communication. Subsequent experiments included buggy-parking marked out with masking tape in the hallway of firstsite, new nappy-changing facilities at the Old Town Hall and, on a larger scale, the designing and building of large, informative signs at Snape Maltings to direct families? interest from the tourist attractions and shopping into the concert hall, which many visitors do not even realise is there. Some venues laid stress on reaching out to families for whom attending a venue is too expensive or difficult. Although some target groups such as low-income rural families were reached, it often proved difficult to contact and engage them. Outreach projects included working with families attending children?s wards in hospitals and reaching young families through nursery schools.
Communicating with and working closely with family groups through workshops, exhibitions and performances has proved unexpectedly complex. Yet the rewards of reaching out to this audience are easy to see: the engagement of children as young as two in the joys of the arts; the opportunity for jaded and harassed parents and grandparents to have a creative experience with their children; the delighted realisation that work for families can be serious, engaging and fun.
Catherine Rose is a freelance project manager and writer and editor of APe-mail. t: 01234 713057; e: abzx31@dial.pipex.com.
?The Family Factor? is available from East England Arts t: 01223 454400.