Technocratic, old-school approaches to building audiences have only worked among privileged groups. The sector needs to think harder about what people actually want, says Anne Torreggiani.
The Audience Agency’s (TAA) guide to Creating an Effective Audience Development Plan remains most searched for and downloaded item on theaudienceagency.org. A sign, perhaps, of the enduring challenges organisations face in trying to build and broaden their audiences over time. But working to address these challenges with organisations, places and policymakers has recently led me to question the standard approaches that we ourselves have helped to establish.
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Working with rural communities to stage small-scale performances is good for the arts, the environment and local people, writes Sophie Motley.
Where ACE once sought to democratise high culture, it now emphasises subjective creativity. Has this made the idea of an ‘audience’ irrelevant, asks Steven Hadley.
The arts sector must do more to include older people, not only as consumers but also as creators of culture, says Stella Duffy.
Community productions across England are transforming attitudes to theatre among audiences with little experience of the artform, finds Jonathan Knott.