Children and Youth Programs

The Art-kino is a platform for developing Rijeka’s audiovisual culture. It’s not just a place to go see a film but also a hub of discussion, communication, exploration, and education. Precisely because of this special attention is given to developing film going habits in children and the young, and motivating them to watch, understand, and make their own films. In many aspects of their lives children and the young create and share moving images and the digital world and community are becoming increasingly larger parts of their reality. Be-cause of this it is necessary to consider the ways we could help them develop skills necessary to understand, interpret, and apply the language of the cinema. The Art-kino has several continuous educational projects, of which the most known and successful is the “Škola u kinu” (“School in the cinema”) one, made in cooperation with local elementary and high schools. The project resulted in over nine thousand local schoolchildren visiting the Art-kino during the school year and having an opportunity to acquaint themselves with valuable films. Educational programs developed in cooperation with local schools are one of the key programming goals of the Art-kino institution. They are an important cultural and social value for the community we’re active in and are also the Art-kino’s key development potential.

Introducing AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

Overall, Audience Development is a transversal phenomenon which cross-cuts not only specific cultural policies addressed to support access and participation in the cultural sector but also policies addressed to support cultural access and participation in a broader sense, as well as policies aiming at fostering cultural consumption by young people and the use of new technologies. Generally speaking, the concept evolved from an almost purely marketing-oriented approach to a more holistic and processional vision of AD as a multi-faceted means aimed at deepening, strengthening and widening the relationship between cultural institutions and different audiences. So what is actually Audience Development? What does Europe mean for AD in 2017? And more generally, do we all mean the same when we talk about it? Why is it so important for cultural and social development? What does “good” AD look like?

The Value in Evaluation

Evaluation is often regarded as the process you go through at the end of a project, usually to justify your existence to a funder or stakeholder. How-ever, it can be an immensely valuable exercise that can help us change, develop, and improve our practice and understand underlying trends and impacts. This lecture will therefore look at the value of evaluation with a particular focus on the audience and using practical examples of the way it can help us develop our work.

Building an Audience through the Transformation of Institution

At the beginning of the 21st century, cultural institutions faced a major challenge – how to adapt their actions, programs and activities to the needs of the audience of the new millennium. In the museum profession the following question was raised: could a new audience be created without the overall transformation of traditionally designed museum and gallery institutions? The Gallery of Matica srpska, as a national conservative gallery, has decided to solve the problem of less developed audience building through continuous decennial transformation of space, programs and communication strategies. After ten years of work, the results are visible: audience numbers have increased while the types of audiences have been diversified. How-ever, all that has been achieved in the Gallery so far is only the foundation for the further audience development since this is an never-ending process. And the possibilities are numerous...

Putting audiences at the heart of the museum experience: examples of good practice

Museums have in recent years been confronted with global trends and challenges that have urged them to shift their focus from objects to audiences and increasingly adopt an audience-centric approach. Becoming more audience-centered has prompted museums to embrace change in terms of professional, structural, and organizational development. What does this change entail? What do museums that changed to become more audience-centered have in common? By analyzing museum case studies from different parts of Europe, this presentation will seek to illustrate how different audience development goals have informed the choice of different interventions by museums to attract new and wider audiences, increase commitment of existing audiences, and develop more enriching experiences for all audiences.

Skripta: Applause please!

Organisational change and audience centricity: European perspectives

There are many different ways to tackle the challenges related to audience development and engagement that depend on the diversity of cultural organizations: from established institutions that are reinventing themselves, to organizations created as audience-centred, from artistic paths naturally leading to participatory practices, to marketing and communication changes motivated by a new management. Nevertheless, as the recent EU funded “Study on Audience Development” demonstrates with an in-depth analysis of 30 case studies from all over Europe, those which have been successful in promoting and implementing audience-centric policies have some things in common: a receptive attitude, a trial and error approach, data relevance, and shared objectives. Most of these clearly describe the link between audience development and organizational implications and leadership issues. The cases analyzed present a varied and balanced mix of “reactive” and “pro-active” changes: the reactive approach still remains a dominant state for many cultural organizations trying to respond to external pressures; the proactive one is based on organizational behaviors that anticipate and interpret emerging social phenomena, producing ad hoc answers and innovation in terms of proposal, format and engagement strategies. The shift towards a more audience-centric approach requires the creation of an organizational environment able to provide change through open innovation processes and a strong involvement of all the staff: leadership plays an important role in introducing innovative and alternative approaches and in removing internal resistance.

European Capital of Culture: A unique opportunity for Expanded Audience Engagement

The ECOC unlike any other project provides a unique opportunity to engage with many audiences simultaneously. This programme allows a city to expand its ambitions and the experiences of its residents and visitors. McCarthy will discuss this opportunity and highlight some ECOC projects which created unforeseen sustained audience legacies.

Workshop: Audience Development Planning

This practical workshop on audience development will help participants develop strategies that make a difference in their own work. Led by Alessandra Gariboldi and Jonathan Goodacre, who helped to create the Adeste and Engage Audience Development models, participants will be encouraged to consider how their aims can be converted into realistic strategies for the development of their audiences. The workshop will build on elements discussed previously in the ‘Applause Please’ seminar showing how action plans can be developed from original vision, mission and aims. It will be a step by step process in which participants can share their own experiences as well as learn from successful audience development strategies from around the world.

Workshop: Segmenting and prioritizing

Every AD plan starts with the crucial question: which audiences? Deriving Audience goals from our mission and analysis is a difficult step but looking at our audiences, under-standing them, and segmenting them can be even harder. No AD process can be set before admitting that we probably can’t reach every-body, and we certainly can’t reach them at the same time. Segmenting is therefore a critical step for recognising audience needs and purposes in order to plan properly. During the workshop participants will learn how to de-fine segments and how to prioritise them.