Nearly a year into the latest investment round, many National Portfolio Organisations are finding the new reporting requirements unduly burdensome - at best - and, in some instances, unfit for purpose. A group of NPO Chief Executive Officers explain their struggles.
As the Covid aftermath continues to unfold, David Reece explores how audience behaviour has changed and what that means for the way the performing arts shape future success.
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Most people in the sector don’t need to be analysts but they do need the insight to make changes that speak to audiences. Here, Anne Torregiani shares how this thinking has shaped The Audience Agency’s next-generation suite of audience insight tools.
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Research rings warning bells about the potential effects of the cost-of-living clouds rolling in across all four nations. Anne Torreggiani asks how we can brace for impact and support communities?
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Solid year-on-year rise in attendence figures for UK visitor attractions, but the total remains 11% down on pre-pandemic levels.
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Research into the behaviour of new arts audiences post-pandemic found the retention rate of new bookers in 2023 was higher than it has been since 2016.
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Contract for Illuminate data platform ends in March 2026, a year ahead of the end of the recently extended National Portfolio for 2023-27, raising questions over its future.
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The figures for attendance at arts events in the UK have been stable since 2005*, writes Agnieszka Wlazeł, despite a variety of audience development initiatives over the years.
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Anne Torreggiani and colleagues at The Audience Agency share their predictions and top tips for success.
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Last week, The Audience Agency announced a merger with fellow sector support charity, Culture24. Here, CEO Anne Torreggiani explains why they have joined forces and how their work together will support a more future-focused sector.
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Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will provide a three-year programme of concerts, community events and educational activities in Barrow-in-Furness, located nearly 100 miles to the north of Merseyside.
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The National Theatre will trial early evening performances in an effort to adapt to the "post-Covid lifestyles" of its patrons.
The theatre said the move, which will involve a selected number of early-evening performances starting at 6.30 pm, follows research it conducted to understand how the habits of audiences have changed since the pandemic.
The trial will begin with performances in February and will continue until mid-June. A total of 20 performances across five different productions have been scheduled.
"The early evening performances will offer more flexibility for audiences to make the most of their evening, whether that’s more time to grab a bite to eat, to discuss the show over a glass or two, or simply not having to rush off to catch the last train," the National theatre said.
Average attendance figures for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall this year were significantly up on 2019.
According to figures released by the BBC, more than half the main evening concerts at the venue sold out, with an average audience attendance across the season at the Hall of 93%. This is up seven percentage points on pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Nearly half (47%) of audiences at the Royal Albert Hall were attending a Prom for the first time.
Meanwhile, nearly one million people watched the First Night of the Proms on BBC Two, its strongest overnight TV audience since 2009. A peak audience of 3.5 million people watched the Last Night of the Proms on BBC One.
Sam Jackson, Controller of BBC Radio 3 said: "This has been a fantastic year for the Proms, and demonstrates the country’s appetite for classical music from the BBC.
"In multiple ways, audiences are higher than pre-pandemic figures, and I’m particularly pleased to see so many young people coming to classical music, often for the very first time."
Younger people are more likely to want arts organisations to align with their values and prefer a wider range of permitted behaviours when attending venues.
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Our recent research into everyday creativity reveals new ways cultural organisations could serve wider communities. But making the most of them, says Anne Torreggiani in this preview of a forthcoming resource, might need a radical rethink.
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Cultivating strong audience relationships is essential for sustainability. And that loyalty is crucial to achieving this goal, writes Nick Stevenson.
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Organisations plan to build on previous work together through formal partnership to improve audience accessibility.
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Event ticketing software company Tixly has been selected as ticketing partner for Trafalgar Tickets.
Trafalgar Tickets will begin using Tixly’s ticketing system later this year.
The company is the ticketing division of Trafalgar Entertainment, a theatre venue business founded in 2017.
Tixly currently provides services to over 100 venues and cultural organisations around the world, allowing customers to sell events, manage customers through advanced CRM and use enhanced segmentation tools to enable marketing.
“I am thrilled we have found a partner in Tixly whose approach to technology and product development is so aligned with our own,” said Trafalgar Tickets’ CEO Johan Oosterveld.
“We share a desire to reimagine how customers and producers interact with our venues. By leveraging Tixly’s advanced feature set within our technology stack, we will be able to unlock commercial opportunities and accelerate our growth ambitions in the UK and internationally”.
Liam Oakley, Trafalgar Tickets’ Director of Operations, described Tixly as “a feature-rich yet intuitive system” well-placed to meet the company’s evolving needs.
The British Film Institute (BFI) has split £6.48m across 17 film and broader screen projects in the first round of its new Audience Projects Fund.
The fund, designed to grow audience engagement, has awarded 13 multi-year funding grants to six venues, four festival and specialist projects and three audience development organisations, alongside four awards for short-term activity.
Venue recipients include Manchester’s Home, Bristol’s Watershed and Belfast’s Queen’s Film Theatre. Shropshire and Herefordshire-based festival Arts Alive, new UK Asian Film Festival Tongues on Fire and Flatpack Festival have also received grants.
The largest grant, totalling £1.33m over the next three years, has gone to the Independent Cinema Office to develop intiatives in the independent exhibition sector.
The 17 projects combined are aiming to generate 4.67m admissions UK-wide. The awards represent support for 203,846 screenings, 45% of which will be accessible screenings.
The majority (11) of the awards are to organisations based outside of London and South East England, with all awarded projects hosting activity outside the capital.
“As we kick off our new BFI National Lottery strategy, we’re proud to support these organisations to focus on the necessity of growing new audiences,” BFI Head of UK Audiences Ben Luxford said.
“These projects also demonstrate the variety of activity and organisations we can support through the fund, which I hope inspires future applicants.”
A theatre in Staffordshire is asking people of South Asian heritage to share their stories for a chance to see them retold on stage.
The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme is working with local arts company, Appetite, to create a new play, Punjab to the Potteries.
Playwright Shahid Iqbal Khan and Writer/Director Sarah Bedi will use the real-life stories to create the play's script.
Appetite Director Gemma Thomas said: "We want to hear from, celebrate and capture people's lived experiences of migrating to the Potteries, or being born here and raised in a South Asian family."
The idea for the project was inspired by local man Val Bansal, who had shared his own family's story of migrating from the Punjab in India.
His father had moved to Stoke-on-Trent in 1964.
Bansal said: "There must be countless stories and memories, as well as many more photos in numerous households of people and families who took a similar journey."
There will be an open storytelling event in Newcastle-under-Lyme on 28 April.
