Awareness of the New Audiences website as a powerful resource for arts managers has already begun to spread. During the past years, the number of hits on the website has grown from 900 a month to over 8,000. Arts Council England is now developing www.newaudiences.org.uk to help arts managers to get the most out of the site.
The site will become fully searchable, so that a query on any topic would bring up entries in features and publications as well as in projects.
What?s there?
The site breaks down into several areas:
- News stories about New Audiences projects and research
- The archive of all the New Audience-funded projects over the entire four years of the scheme
- A list of publications and research commissioned by New Audiences, much of which is available as downloads from the site
- The Essential Audiences archive: the full twelve months of articles, ?Beyond the Page? website content and dozens of downloadable reports, research and links.
The project archive
The archive is still a work in progress, but it comes nearer to completion every day. Every project is summarised, with aims and objectives, activity, outcomes and lessons learned, and details of how to contact the lead organisation. The projects are searchable by theme, target audience, artform and geographical area, as well as by the programme strand under which it originally gained funding.
The Essential Audiences archive
The Essential Audiences website presence is subtitled ?Beyond the Page?, and it explores the theme introduced in the 15 monthly Essential Audiences articles during 2003 and 2004. Each topic is expanded to include extra information about featured projects, information on projects with similar aims and, in some cases, interviews with project leaders. In addition, there are links to other related websites and to website entries within the New Audiences website for featured projects.
Download mania
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of ?Beyond the Page? is the sheer volume of arts management information it offers which is unavailable elsewhere. From the first 14 of the 15 entries to date, it is possible to download 84 documents relating to New Audiences projects. These include evaluation reports from lead organisations, overviews and other specially commissioned articles, research reports and published documents. A network of resources is available for artists and arts managers who want to learn from the experiences of others.
Where to now?
Essential Audiences will be continuing as a regular feature in ArtsProfessional but will no longer be a New Audiences-specific feature. Yet the spirit of Essential Audiences will live on in the New Audiences website. Features, downloads, news stories and specially commissioned articles will continue to be added to the site, keeping visitors up to date on the latest developments. Visit www.newaudiences.org.uk. Put it on your favourites list. No arts organisation should deny themselves access to this priceless, yet completely free resource.