Audiences London

 
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NI11 Workshops

A series of workshops for local authorities to generate practical ideas to increase arts engagement - based on an understanding of audience behaviours.

Project participants

Arts teams and local arts partners in the London boroughs of Hillingdon, Merton, Hounslow, Harrow, Lewisham, Greenwich and Waltham Forest.

Project objectives

The overall aim of the programme was to support London boroughs who had selected NI 11 (National Indicator number11 - a performance measure based on increasing levels of arts engagement), to use audience data in their planning.

Project activities

Audiences London combined a variety of data sources to produce a series of colour coded maps of each borough indicating where people who were ‘highly engaged', ‘somewhat engaged' and ‘not engaged' in the arts lived;  together with information about their attitudes towards the arts and attendance patterns, motivations, and broader lifestyle characteristics.

This information was presented at a series of interactive workshops attended by local authority arts teams as well as venues and arts organisations within each borough. Using the maps and information as a starting point, Audiences London facilitated discussion amongst the participants of the potential actions they could take to increase arts attendance in their borough.

Outcomes

In terms of concrete actions discussed at the workshops, many authorities identified a need for more effective networking amongst the arts and culture organisations in their borough; some planned to update their communications with focus on the motivations of particular target audiences; a number established new potential partnerships; to appeal to the ‘somewhat engaged' one borough planned to introduce regular jazz nights at the their venue, whilst another planned ‘taster' sessions showcasing different arts activities.

Additionally the workshops created a shared understanding of potential audiences for arts and culture amongst the local authority arts teams and arts organisations, and enabled valuable networking and sharing of experiences and learning.

Project funded by ACE, London

The data analysis and mapping approach developed for this project and an accompanying facilitated workshop is available to other local authorities for a fee.