Perhaps the acid test of a developmental programme such as New Audiences is what happens in its wake. Could a one-off project spark continuing change? Could the impact of a developmental exercise still be traced in programming, marketing, education and outreach or ? most importantly ? in the audience profile of an arts organisation?
Research company Cultural Intelligence was commissioned by Arts Council England to follow up organisations which had carried out projects in the area of Young People and Families. They interviewed 32 organisations, including presenting venues, galleries, research agencies, specialised theatre companies, festivals and media organisations across England.
As time goes by
Given that the New Audiences programme happened over a period of five years (1998-2003), the amount of time that had passed since some of the projects had taken place has understandably created some difficulties for evaluators and researchers. This has been an issue with the Essential Audiences series, too, and with the ?Beyond the Page? website back-up (see below). Often, the staff who were directly involved in the New Audiences projects have moved on, leaving only a paper trail, with colleagues who had been only tangentially involved trying to fill in any gaps. Cultural Intelligence?s Eric Orme and Tina Neill wrote in their report: ?Researchers were concerned that the high level of mobility within the sector may lead to a consequent loss of knowledge and experience to organisations who have run New Audiences projects.? This underlines the importance of the documentation and dissemination of the work.
In the summary of their main findings, Cultural Intelligence listed a series of points, some of which will not be unfamiliar to regular Essential Audiences readers. Among them are:
- Organisations welcomed the all-too-rare opportunity to take risks
- Despite criticism of the short-term nature of the funding, positive medium- and long-term effects were clearly evident
- Partnerships were crucial to many projects and have been sustained subsequently
- Specific and valuable findings about young people and family audiences were frequently revealed.
Policy and strategy outcomes
Projects clearly produced some tangible outcomes (of which some are listed on the previous page). Yet a definite majority of the group interviewed by Cultural Intelligence had made changes to their policies and strategy as a result of their New Audiences project. Others saw the impact as being more developmental than transformational. Significant developments included:
- Making a type of activity part of the core work of the organisation;
- Gaining greater understanding and awareness of a specific audience group and its needs
- Changing the programming policy to include more work directed at either families or young people
- Developing partnerships to support audience development
- In at least one case, reversing policy because previously-held assumptions were overturned by audience research.
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The importance of programming was clear to all the respondents in the study and, indeed, can be seen in the majority of New Audiences projects. Finding the right programming proved a creative challenge, not only in terms of suitability for the target audience, but also in seeking work which would lend itself to new presentation methods. Comments on the dearth of high quality work for families, for example, would strike a chord in almost every mixed arts venue in the country, though the continuing raising of the profile of family work has meant that this gap is gradually being filled.
The family spectrum
Family friendliness has proved to be an issue that runs the gamut of developmental issues. Programming, marketing and communication, infrastructure, reaching out to non-attenders, pricing, safety, timing, catering, partnerships with specialist organisations and customer care policies are all affected when the wish to develop the family audience is acted upon. Many organisations have found that developing this work as part of a consortium provides invaluable support from colleagues and experts. Examples are the Theatre for Families project run by Future Dream and Family Friendly Oxford, led by MAX (Marketing the Arts in Oxfordshire). Indeed, the Oxford group has since applied for funding to allow them continue to work together.
Partnerships with arts organisations were valuable, but the forging of links between arts and non-arts organisations were particularly important to family friendly projects. Sure Start, the Government-backed initiative to work with very young families, is cited by more than one project as a useful partner in reaching families who might not otherwise think of attending or participating in arts activities with their children.
Youth and beauty
The difficulty of reaching a particular target audience, which echoes throughout the New Audiences programme, is reflected here. New Audiences funding, by giving permission for organisations to take risks, put arts managers in a position where they had to grasp the nettle of getting through to young people for whom the arts are seen as terminally uncool. New Audiences has supported a huge amount of work aimed at involving young people, and an enormous number of different ideas were generated by different organisations. Ideas range from making the experience of theatre-going ?less threatening? developing specific outreach and education work to appeal to young people and changing the way in which the work is presented.
For example, Manchester?s contemporary gallery, Cornerhouse, actively changed some of the spaces within its building and changed the way it hangs its shows. As well as establishing a public resource area, with a computer terminal and ample educational resources available, it has explored using a big screen in a shopping centre to show work by young people taking part in their projects.
Evaluate! Evaluate!
Many organisations had never before been required to carry out the very rigorous evaluation which the New Audiences programme demanded. Many admit that they have not since been able to evaluate as rigorously, often because of time and funding restraints. This highlights one of the strengths of New Audiences as a whole: that the results of a substantial body of work have been retained as a resource for the future.
Evaluation was not only about assessing the successes or failures of a specific project. Organisations felt the impact in many other ways, including:
- Identifying training and professional development needs (such as child protection policies, health and safety and customer care)
- Looking for exit strategies and ways of continuing to develop their work (such as continuing and developing a partnership
- Gathering information which was to become useful in planning future projects (such as the alienation young people often feel when meeting unfamiliar front-of-house staff)
- Identifying and researching further sources of funding to continue their audience development work.
A final word
The final word on New Audiences is that there is no final word: the learning and development processes continue. Establishing the principle of funded organisations being required to produce information to share with what is essentially a community of colleagues has been one of its most important legacies.