Developing and sustaining a cultural network requires patience and a clear set of priorities. Stephen Cashman reflects on the establishment of The Network of Audience Development Agencies, and the wider lessons than can be drawn from the experience of getting it to work.
Network ? or, as it is more formally known, The Network of Audience Development Agencies ? is the collective association and trade body for UK organisations that support and inform collaborative approaches to audience development and arts marketing. As such, rather like the claims made in an advert for a certain branded wood-staining product, ?it does what it says on the tin?.
Network consists of the majority of funded UK Audience Development Agencies (ADAs) and membership is potentially open to any such organisation wishing to join. This trade association replicates the work of its member agencies by providing a source of support and information, which adds value to the services those ADAs provide to their clients, customers and members. Network does this by being:
- a central point of contact between the four National Arts Councils and Audience Development Agencies
- a clearing house for information, ideas and initiatives
- a sounding board for innovative ideas applied to audience development
- a means of providing and obtaining mutual support on current issues
- a central pool of, and gateway to, strategic national overview data and information
- a source of advocacy for members and for audience development practice.
The past few years have been exciting, yet turbulent, times for Network and the ADAs. Against a background of funding system restructures and the associated reviews of provision, Network has also reviewed its operations. The results are proving positive, and in November 2003 Network ran its most successful conference to date.
Lessons to learn
The lessons that any cultural network could take from Network?s experiences are many and varied. But perhaps the following represent, in no particular order, the top five. A network?s operating success tends to be dependent on a willingness to share information, ideas and values. Here those values are about a commitment to collaborative approaches to working ? approaches that focus on building a larger cake of available audiences for the arts rather than squabbling over the size of the slice of cake each member enjoys (i.e. market share).
To thrive by being inclusive, networks need to embrace diversity. By this I don?t mean cultural diversity although this is, of course, an important consideration, and one that all the Network agencies actively work to promote. No, here I mean diversity in the sense that a network cannot be prescriptive about the shape, size, structure and other aspects of its member organisations. In the world of the ADAs a ?one size fits all? approach would not work. This is because each country, region, location or city has different needs and imperatives, which require a tailored response. The issue here is not of having one formulaic model for delivering that response, but rather a core commitment to being responsive to particular needs, and doing this in partnership with front-line arts organisations and funders.
Effective networks also need to embrace competition whilst encouraging co-operation (a strategic sensibility described by Barry Nalebuff and Adam Brandenburger as ?co-opetition? in their seminal 1996 text of the same name). This allows for individual members to safeguard their legitimate commercial or trading interests whilst gaining the collective benefits of working together. Furthermore, a pre-determinant of safeguarding the positive working of the network would also seem to be taking a proactive but centralised approach to communication ? one that assists both internal communications between the membership and external communications between the network and its outside stakeholders. Finally, all the shared values and willingness to work collaboratively may prove to be for nothing, unless a network has an executive function somewhere ? that is, it can be really useful to have someone in place to make things happen.
Establishing activity
At Network, thanks to a commitment to these principles, things are indeed happening. Plans for the future include a reinvigoration of the organisation?s web presence (so that ultimately many audience-development resources will be placed online) and the running of another national conference devoted to an audience-development issue. We also plan to introduce an e-newsletter and to run day-long seminars on the various specialist areas covered by the Agencies such as data, mapping and research, cultural diversity and marketing services.
As these measures take shape, and are put into action, they start to form a tangible demonstration of Network?s role in encouraging collaborative working among its ADA membership. Already, a data day has been run this year (organised and hosted by Arts Marketing Hampshire), whilst a day devoted to considering issues of cultural diversity is being organised by Audiences Central and will be run in Belfast in July. A day devoted to Cultural Tourism is currently being planned with South West Arts Marketing.
By agreeing to and adopting a set of fundamental protocols and principles, and using them to guide actions, it is thus eminently possible for a network to ?do what it says on the tin?.
Stephen Cashman is Director
of Communications for
The Network of Audience Development agencies.
e: stephen.cashman.consultancy@blueyonder.co.uk