Crossing the digital threshold

The digital age has undoubtedly challenged many arts organisations. For Threshold Studios, digital isn’t an optional extra – it’s a mode of producing, delivering and communicating. Since 1997, Threshold has delivered film projects with young people and produced moving image work with professional artists. Social networking by creating and sharing online media is second nature for the ‘digital native’ young people – ‘always on’ is their default setting. As Threshold begins to collaborate internationally, it needs to be immersed in the digital space to make its work accessible to audiences. Strategic Director Uzma Johal believes that “digital is an inherent part of our future.”
 

I have been commissioned to deliver Threshold’s Communications Strategy. I am shaping a holistic map of how it could use digital tools across the organisation: in internal communications, project management, collaboration with trainees and social marketing to improve communication with participants and stakeholders. Initial discussions revealed far more engaging activity than their brochure-style website showed, including a major research project on participatory arts and health with Nottingham University, and the fact that Creative Director Barry Hales is developing expertise in 3D technologies. Staff expressed concerns about the ‘feature creep’ (the proliferation of extra features) of digital communications, adding an extra layer of activity to subsume, yet there is now an imperative to offer these skills to beneficiaries and to meet funders’ aspirations for engagement and accessibility.
We identified existing activities and looked at how to integrate these into a new website that can be accessible to anyone, anywhere, on any device: photos from workshops will be shared on Flickr, a YouTube channel will display documentaries that currently sit on the shelf and mailshots will become blog posts. Website news will be moved onto Twitter, augmenting Threshold’s reach through automated, integrated tools. The new website will position it as a creative curator, exhibiting media in carefully crafted collections. Content hosted on social networking sites will be reintegrated into the main website which acts as a ‘hub’ for activity happening wherever its audiences are. A website is not, however, a digital strategy, and we are considering how to create a community of interest around Threshold’s diverse participants to provide ongoing support. Microsites will engage trainees, including membership social networking sites (using Ning) and collaborative project management tools (Huddle) which create supportive, connected communities that can be sustained after the original programme is delivered, helping to extend the relationships formed by trainees. Crucially, all of these web tools are free.
Threshold is also delivering Blue Sky Thinking, a digital mentorship programme for arts leaders commissioned by Arts Council England, East Midlands. Uzma Johal recognises this is just the start of Threshold’s journey across the digital threshold: “There’s a fear of the unknown in this realm. We need to form new relationships and create a genuine, meaningful depth of engagement in the online world for both audiences, artists and stakeholders. This is about a culture shift which is both challenging and exciting for the future of Threshold.”