Audience development

New figures show a continuing trend of disabled adults engaging with the arts – but an ongoing decline in creative pursuits among children.

Engagement

Research

Disability

Why I bought a quilt

03 Oct 2019

Andrew Pinnock says City of Culture planners should spend less time making up positive-sounding stories they think they can sell, and more time listening to the people who make culture on their own terms.

Cash strapped arts organisations choose audiences over income: ArtsProfessional’s Pulse Survey, ‘The Art of Pricing’

27 Sep 2019

More than 600 sector professionals have responded to ArtsProfessional’s survey looking at the delicate and emotive battle between balancing the books and keeping arts activities affordable.

Is price a reason for low engagement - or just an excuse?

26 Sep 2019

The popular misconception that price is the chief barrier to access to the arts has taken hold in the sector, while in reality, price is only one of a complex set of factors affecting engagement with ‘hard to reach’ groups. Tim Baker concludes it’s time to start a debate about the true meaning of affordability.

Ticketing

Income

Pulse report: The art of pricing

23 Sep 2019

Tim Baker analyses the findings from the ground-breaking research conducted by ArtsProfessional in partnership with Baker Richards, which gathered the views of the sector on whether – and how – arts organisations are balancing competing objectives.

Ticketing

Income

‘Cathedrals of culture’ competition mooted by City of Culture founder

19 Sep 2019

Phil Redmond said partnerships between rural areas and their historic religious buildings could help make both relevant and culturally sustainable.

Collaboration

Regeneration

Five years left for rural arts?

A photo of a dance performance in a hall

05 Sep 2019

England’s rural arts leaders have serious concerns about the future of their organisations and are calling for more support – whether through Arts Council funding, partnerships with city-based venues or organisational development schemes.

Telling new stories around disability

Photo of a woman in a wheelchair in the 'Being Human' gallery

05 Sep 2019

Case study

Medical museums can be deeply offensive to disabled visitors. Richard Sandell introduces a radical project that replaced prejudiced perspectives with rights and respect.

NPOs accused of ‘condescending attitudes’ towards Creative People and Places partnerships

04 Sep 2019

A report finds that relationship dynamics regarding Arts Council England’s flagship placemaking scheme are being “partly determined by geographic and class-based inequalities”.

Collaboration

Placemaking

Visual arts audiences ‘increasingly dominated by a new generation’

29 Aug 2019

New research finds that visual arts appeal disproportionately to millennials and Generation Z – but warns the sector needs to understand the barriers faced by less culturally experienced visitors.

How we doubled attendance at the UK’s most northerly arts centre

29 Aug 2019

By working in partnership and refusing to patronise audiences, Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness has attracted record numbers, says Charlotte Mountford.

Community theatre at its best

Audience watching ‘Coram Boy’ with Gloucester Cathedral in the background

29 Aug 2019

A play at Gloucester Cathedral with a cast drawn from local people sparked real change among participants and spectators alike, writes Fiona Crouch.

Parents more likely to visit galleries with children, says survey

27 Aug 2019

New research finds that a lack of play areas and parking were the most common reasons for negative experiences when taking children to cultural venues.

Data

Museum and art gallery attendance bounces back

19 Aug 2019

New figures indicate the reversal of a three-year pattern of declining visitor numbers at English institutions – and new hope for more employment in the sector.

Tourism

'They let us pick any artist in the world': the freedom to create relatable theatre

18 Jul 2019

The Contact Young Curators programme gave Wez Thistlethwaite the opportunity to re-engage his creative muscles by co-curating a world premiere at this year’s Manchester International Festival.

Access

Management

Diversity

Leadership

Mayor steps in to plug V&A East funding gap

An artist's drawing of the planned V&A East museum

12 Jul 2019

The GLA has agreed to underwrite a budget shortfall of up to £12m, which is expected despite a £9m a year boost in funding from DCMS.

Austerity is undermining children’s access to culture, finds research

12 Jul 2019

An LSE researcher said children’s development is being thwarted by Government policy, but argued the situation could be improved if recent welfare cuts were reversed.

Diversity

Equality

Why European collaboration is worth fighting for

A photo of an art installation of collapse pillars in Denmark

11 Jul 2019