european audiences - conclusions conference

7/28/2019 European Audiences - Conclusions Conference

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mmary of the European Commissionference

elebrating 25 years ofropean Capitals of Cul-

re

Culture

Conference conclusions

2020and beyond

16 - 17 October 2012

EuropeanAudiences:


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Engaging a broader public with culturalworksis a priority for the European Com-mission. This is the reason why audiencedevelopment is one of the priorities inthe proposal for Creative Europe, thefuture EU funding programme for the cul-tural and creative sectors and why it wasthe theme of conference European Au-diences: 2020 and beyond organised bythe European Commission on 16-17 Octo-

ber 20121.

Audience development is rapidly becom-ing more wide-spread, but some culturalorganisations have already developed anengaged relationship and dialogue withtheir audiences for a long time. The con-ference offered inspiration, experiencesand lessons learned from a range of Eu-ropean cultural projects with experiencein this eld, most of them funded through

the EU Culture and MEDIA programmes.

Over a day and a half, some 800 confer-ence participants from across Europe anddiverse cultural sectors explored the con-cept of audience development from vari-ous perspectives through 23 Europeancultural projects presented in the plenaryand in an exhibition. The event focusedon grassroots cultural operators, projectsand practice.

The conference gave an insight into thelarge amount of fascinating, informed anddiverse work taking place across Europe.

1 http://ec.europa.eu/culture/index_en.htm

Projects were presented from a wide rangeof sectors: live performing arts includingdance, opera and theatre; the visual arts;lm; literature; multimedia; heritage andinterdisciplinary projects. The examplesincluded work performed in more tradi-tional and formal settings such as muse-ums, theatres, cinemas and festivals, aswell as projects in unconventional settingsincluding old peoples homes, schools, of-

ces and some other very unusual publicspace such as farms or trolleybuses.

The conference began with a discussionon what audience development is andwhy one should consider it as a core partof any organisation and event planning.It then explored how audiences could beempowered through involving them up-stream in programming, how audiencescan be engaged by sharing the experience

in dialogue or actively in the process, howaudiences can be further expanded anddiversied, and challenges for cultural in-stitutions in terms of hosting and manag-ing the audience and their expectations.

It is not an easy task to summarize therichness of the presentations and the en-gaged debates during the conference.The aim of these conclusions is to seek tocapture some of the main elements whichemerged as perceived by the Commission.These conclusions have no formal status.

Introduction

European Audiences: 2020 and beyond

2 European Audiences: 2020 and beyond - Conference conclusions


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1) Audience development -what is it?

Audience development is a strategic andinteractive process of making the artswidely accessible by cultural organisa-tions. It aims at engaging individuals andcommunities in fully experiencing, enjoy-ing, participating in and valuing the arts.Its focus is on a two way exchange.

The appropriateness of the term audi-ence development was discussed in or-

der to frame the subsequent discussionsin the conference. It was generally con-sidered to be a more holistic term than,for example, concepts such as culturaleducation, arts marketing or culturalinclusion. Access to culture is a morerights based concept, while cultural edu-cation implies the implication of schoolsand linkage with educational curricula.Arts marketing and cultural inclusion areboth more mono-dimensional focusing on

either economic or social aspects.

In contrast, audience development inte-grates cultural, economic and social di-mensions and refers to a space in whichcultural organisations can act directly.Whilst distinct, it is however closely re-lated to these other concepts. For exam-ple, the recently published report of aMember State expert group on Access toCulture 2, conrms that audience devel-opment by cultural institutions, throughlong-term strategies, is an essential con-tributor to making access to culture a re-ality. Opinions on terminology in this eldare unlikely to ever be totally unanimous.Audience development is nevertheless aterm that is widely understood by thesector.

2 http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-policy-

development/policy-documents/omc-working-

groups_en.htm

Probing the concept of audience develop-ment more deeply, it can be concludedthat it has several dimensions in relationto target groups:- developing or increasing audienc-es - essentially attracting new audienceswith the same socio-demographic proleas the current audience; this can includeworking with those who are hopefully theaudiences of the future, such as childrenand young people;- deepening relationships with exist-ing audiences - enhancing their experi-ence of the cultural event and/or encour-

aging them to discover related or evennon-related, more complex art forms,and fostering loyalty to the cultural insti-tution and return visits;- diversifying audiences - attractingpeople with a different socio-demograph-ic prole to the current audience, includ-ing non-audiences, those with no previ-ous contact with the arts.

Whilst some cultural institutions may

work on all these dimensions, others mayfocus on one or the other depending ontheir circumstances and strategic priori-ties.

2) Why engage in audience

development and why now?

The debate on audience development isnot new. The arts community has always

been an engaged part of society, servingas an engaged critic of the world aroundit, dealing with problematic issues, ques-tioning our comfort zones and reflect-ing on values and solutions. The will toengage in this dialogue has existed fora long time, but today audience develop-ment is increasingly a necessity, if broad-er access to culture a common priorityfor culture ministries across Europe asexpressed in various Council conclusions- is to become a reality.


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It is a necessity because the world ischanging rapidly. The digital shift, more

educated populations, greater competi-tion for leisure time, demographic changeincluding declining and ageing audiencesfor some art forms, and the squeeze onpublic funding means that most culturalorganisations face a more uncertain fu-ture than in the past. They cannot affordto stand still - there is immense pressureto innovate and adapt. Organisationsneed to develop their audiences and di-versify their revenue streams, in somecases literally as a matter of survival,in others due to the priorities of publicfunders.

Furthermore, a paradigm shift is occur-ring. In the past, cultural institutionswere created to increase and reect na-tional pride and to share the dominantcultural values, and in practice acted asmediators between the artist and the au-dience, as gate-keepers to what the pub-lic would and could access or see. Now

we are moving to a more multi-dimen-sional and interactive world, due largelyto technology which is changing the waywe create, distribute, access and mon-etise cultural content, offering the po-tential to transform audiences from pas-sive receivers into creators and/or activeusers of cultural content without need-ing to pass through intermediaries. It isempowering the audience in ways neverseen before, and phenomena such as so-

cial media are contributing to this para-digm shift by changing peoples behav-iour and expectations. Nowadays peoplewant greater interaction and dialogue inall walks of life, and they are no longerwilling to be passive spectators anymorewhen it comes to the arts. There is an in-creasing hunger for dialogue, debate andinteraction.

In addition to the need in many cases to

engage in audience development, it is

also desirable in itself. As well as bringingenjoyment, inspiration and personal ful-

lment, cultural participation brings ben-ets to individuals creativity, somethingwhich is increasingly essential in a knowl-edge based society and has spill-oversfor other spheres of life, including peo-ples working lives even if they are notemployed in the cultural sector. For dis-advantaged children and young people,it can help them re-connect to schoolingand society.

It was also argued, with reference to thework of the late Dragan Klaic, that thereis a direct connection between active au-diences and active citizenship, with re-search indicating that cultural participa-tion increases the likelihood of broadercivic engagement, including voting inpolitical elections. The arts give peoplethe opportunity to express themselves,it gives them a voice to tell their storiesand culture plays an essential role in anydemocracy, taking the political debate

from the political sphere and giving itback to citizens, with cultural organisa-tions thereby providing a space for poli-tics, debate and reform. People are todayhungry for social engagement and con-necting in communities. This is why so-cial media and phenomena such as crowdfunding which create a sense of commu-nity and foster loyalty have become sosuccessful.

From the European Commissions per-spective, audience development bringscultural, social and economic benefits.Cultural benets in that it helps culturalworks and artists to reach larger audienc-es, which has an intrinsic value in itself,and exposes more people to the educa-tional benets of the arts. It brings eco-nomic benets as new and increased au-diences can mean new revenue streams.Finally, audience development brings so-

cial benets as artworks convey mean-




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ings and values, they give insights intoother peoples lives and realities thereby

broadening our horizons, fostering empa-thy, mutual understanding and intercul-tural dialogue. So by helping to reach theexcluded, it contributes to social inclusionand peoples engagement in society.

3) The different stagesof audience developmentthroughout the visitors

chainAudience development can take place atall stages of the artistic value chain: up-stream (programming, creation, produc-tion) and downstream through dialoguewith the artists and producers after theevent. The next section of these conclu-sions will look at how audiences are evenbecoming involved mid-stream, in theartistic process itself.

Regarding upstream involvement, ina general sense, new audiences cannotbe gained by selling them old experi-ences in new packages. There must besome serious re-thinking examining whoactually currently is your audience, whyothers are not your audience and who doyou want to attract, as well as what isengaging and relevant for them, involv-ing them in programming by re-inventingthe repertory in collaboration with themto nd narratives and produce works thatare relevant to their lives and social real-ity.

The Zuidplein Theatre3 in a deprived

3 More information on the projects pre-

sented at the conference can be found on the

following website:

http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-programmes-

and-actions/doc/culture/20120904_eac_audi-

ences-for-culture.pdf

area in Rotterdam in the Netherlandsexplained how it was trying to ensure it

connected with its contemporary realityand local community. They contend thatthe customer (the audience) is alwaysright, not in a commercial sense, but ina social sense, in their need to debatethrough the arts on the topics that con-cern them directly. To survive, the thea-tre had to reinvent itself as the peoplestheatre, embedded in its community andserving the citys large population of peo-ple with low incomes and limited educa-tion, whether of Dutch or foreign origin.The theatre is a pioneering venture inincorporating the growing diversity of itspopulation in programming, marketing,nancing and stafng. The social dimen-sion is paramount. The theatre has suc-ceeded in re-inventing itself and audiencenumbers are up, but it admitted that it isa continual process to remain relevant.The future is still challenging and there isno room for complacency, but the thea-tre was optimistic and prepared to em-

brace the uncertainties and opportunitiesahead of it.

Empowering audiences through upstreamparticipation is a long term process whichis valuable in itself. The context, thejourney that artists, cultural organisa-tions and audiences undertake togetheris the most important element. It helpsaudiences overcome an initial fear of theunknown (which is at the same time fas-

cinating), to remove the weight of (self-imposed) expectations, embracing sur-prise and stimulating engagement.

Engaging in a dialogue with audiencesfrom the very beginning of the creativeprocess, co-creation, developing directrelations, where artists engage with theaudiences to get their inspiration, is alsobenecial to artists, enabling them to re-main in contact with the reality of their

time, and making sure their creativity re-mains relevant today.




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Audience development may be some-thing that should be systematically incor-

porated into artists training.

The question of engaging audiences inprogramming repertoire triggered somefears about the potential dumbingdown of the artistic process. This issueneeds serious consideration, but manyconsidered that the real danger of dumb-ing down actually arises when cultural or-ganisations under-estimate and patron-ise the tastes of the public or when theypander to mainstream channels.

Properly carried out audience develop-ment in relation to involving audiencesin programming requires careful reec-tion and preparation and asking the rightquestions is critical in this process. Theexample was given of a Swedish thea-tre which had undertaken some audi-ence research and asked rst what theywanted to see performed, and thenwhat plays had moved them most in

the recent past, with dramatically differ-ent and telling answers, demonstratingthat audiences do not always know whatthey want until they are presented withit. Intelligent questioning and research,followed by careful interpretation of thisinformation is crucial.

The London Bubble Theatre Companydemonstrated how involving audiencesin the creative process and maintaining

quality could go hand in hand. The thea-tre crowd sources creativity in develop-ing its plays, including co-creation withlocal communities. Audiences could voteon the choice of show and be involved inits development and the rst play devel-oped in this way was a huge success. Thetheatre retained the right to take the nalartistic decisions, but it opened up to theparticipation of audiences at all stages.This model has the potential for generat-

ing engagement and an active and sym-

pathetic audience and thereby also po-tential for crowd-funding.

The debate about dumbing down is pre-sent also in the lm sector, where thereare sometimes misconceptions about au-dience design. The term means choosingamong the existing threads imagined bythe lm director to create interest fromfuture audiences with the help of socialmedia, without changing content or thecreative process itself. Experience showsthat audience design supports independ-ent productions to get niche audiences,therefore it supports artistic integrity andquality. For example, emerging lm-mak-ers at TorinoFilmLab involve audiencedesigners from the script developmentstage; they start building a community ofsupport, for example on Facebook, whilethe film is being made. This does notmean that lms are made on demand orthat artistic quality is at risk, but that en-gagement and a true and open dialogueis created from a very early stage.

Another fundamental part of the visitorschain is downstream engagement, inother words engaging in dialogue withaudiences after a cultural experience,either virtually through social media orthrough physical opportunities to connectaudiences with the artists and producers.New technologies and social media areintroducing new ways for cultural organi-sations (and any organisation in society

in general) to communicate and networkwith their audiences and communities.This places cultural organisations in themiddle of the conversation, and not in theposition of unique intermediary as in thepast. Tools are already in place and be-ing used in the cultural world. A culturalorganisation cannot expect to be credibleif it does not react to this reality.

The Rec>ONproject designs theatre pro-

jects with a strong emphasis on work-




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so that in some events the audiences didnot even know they were part of an art

project.TheArtichoke Trusttakes giant mechani-cal elephants and spiders into the streetsof cities, or stages light shows drawingbig crowds and the crowds become partof the spectacle.The Kaunas Biennial TEXTILE11 festivalundertook a collaboration with industry,turning the workers in a factory into theaudience during six months, with the ex-perience encouraging them to think abouttheir daily work in a different way.Sanctuarytakes art into nature, indus-trial wastelands, the countryside, villagesand small towns, taking art closer to peo-ples lives outside of traditional culturalvenues and centres.Similarly, and arguing that art is inter-national and audiences are local theFour CORNERS of Europe project tookexpeditions of artists into small towns,not typical cultural centres, in the outerregions of Europe, creating animations in

unconventional places, encountering newaudiences and introducing their realitiesto artists who all too often are isolatedfrom the citizens they target.

Totally removing the physical barriersto access by presenting work in publicspace is an important rst step, but notalways sufcient in itself. Whilst impres-sive works in public space may attracthundreds of thousands of people, and it

is clear that the experience moves andunites people, often organisations do notknow what happens afterwards to thosewho experienced the event. The very na-ture of work in public space, where visitordata cannot be controlled and counted,means that it is not easy for the impactof these kinds of works to be evaluated.However, what does emerge clearly fromthe projects and a growing body of re-search is that fostering long-term cul-

tural participation among non-audiencesand even potential audiences is most ef-

fective when the audience moves awayfrom being a passive spectator to be-ing an active participant in the creativeprocess or cultural experience. Indeed,the projects presented at the conferenceconrmed the growing phenomenon ofparticipatory art, which recognises thatartworks become alive rst when a visi-tor sees, experiences and interacts, andis therefore the most empowering. Theencounter between the audience and theartists can be considered as a magical,radical moment that creates art in itselfand can change our perspective on life.New affordable technology, which reduc-es production costs in some elds, newplatforms offering opportunities to self-publish from literature, through to music,lm and videos, are further offering ex-citing new possibilities for more people tobecome creators and active users ofcultural content.

The projects showed examples of veryhands-on activities. In the Opera J pro-ject it was explained that years ago, Ital-ians used to sing opera at home theydont anymore and a rich tradition is atrisk. The project commissioned an operaspecically for children and provides fortheir involvement. Similarly tackling thechallenge of ageing audiences in theatre,in Young Europe 2, the theatre reper-toire is designed for young people and

co-written by them. People were involvedin puppet-making in the Flut and iKEDIprojects. Robots and Avatars includedworkshops for children exploring art andtechnology in combination.Europa Cinemas, also in response to age-ing audiences, gives subsidies to cinemaspartly on whether they do some youthdevelopment work through a variety ofdifferent means schools, universities,youth events, family workshops as long




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as it gets young people into the cinema.An intergenerational project, Fotorally

Euro Slam, linked secondary school stu-dents with senior citizens in retirementhomes to compile a photography exhibi-tion, with both generations learning dif-ferent things from each other. All of thesekind of projects can help to draw in theparticipants families and friends to thenal performances or exhibitions, as wellas stimulating their own awareness of thearts.

Other projects in the conference weretargeting key professionals, such asAu-diences Europe Network, which is a plat-form for debate, exploration of ideas,linking culture professionals across coun-tries and sectors. Similarly, Theatronbrings together a dozen theatres acrossEurope to tackle the challenge of ageingaudiences for theatre, whilst Reseo, deal-ing with similar problems, brings togetherthe education departments of Europeanopera houses and helps create training

programmes to help teachers to workwith children and adolescents in and outof schools.

5) The implications forcultural organisations

So what are the implications for culturalorganisations? Technological change willcontinue at a fast pace and the sector

will need to keep up with it, the competi-tion for how people spend their leisuretime and how they spend their incomewill continue to be intense. There will bechanges in how people wish to access cul-tural works. All these developments havesignicant implications for cultural opera-tors who must transform themselves.

On the other hand there are immenseopportunities for cultural institutions

which are there to be seized. The cul-

tural participation statistics mentionedabove demonstrate the scope for consid-

erable growth in participation rates withall the cultural, social and economic ben-ets this can bring. Cultural institutionsshould be seeking to embed themselvesin their local communities, becoming wel-coming and stimulating places where lo-cal residents want to return and spendtime, which in turn will encourage themto become more actively engaged citi-zens. This local loyalty can translate intointernational success.

Technology offers many opportunities.Institutions that could in the past onlygive physical access to a limited num-ber of people can now potentially reachmillions of people across the globe. Or-ganisations are still experimenting withthis new technology, for example, howto use web-streaming (eg concerts, liveperformance) and how to use technologyto enhance the cultural experience, forexample using technology to present cul-

tural works in new, educational ways (egworks in museums). Some of these de-velopments require experimentation bythe sector, as sometimes incorporatingnew technology, such as web-streamingor developing Apps entails certain invest-ment costs, raising the question of wheth-er they can actually generate revenue orwhether they will essentially have valueas promotional and branding tools, as ap-petisers to tempt people to witness the

real experience, be it a concert, a theatreperformance or a museum exhibition.

It is clear that there is no one-size-ts-all approach. Solutions will vary fromcountry to country, city to city and insti-tution to institution and probably evenproject by project for any given institu-tion. Experimentation is likely to be apermanent feature.




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New skills

Developing new audience developmenttechniques, engaging in new repertorydevelopment methods, new productionprocesses and new spaces, and mak-ing the most of new technology requirescultural institutions to re-think the skillsthey need, addressing questions such asdo they retrain existing staff, do they re-cruit new staff or work in strategic part-nerships with other sectors, such as ICT,retail, media and publishing, or a combi-

nation of approaches.

Indeed, inter-disciplinary strategicpartnerships and collaboration withother institutions either in the same sec-tor or across sectors are likely to be animportant feature in the future. We canexpect to see more and more local mu-seums, bookstores, libraries, performingarts venues, etc, developing joined upprojects, collaborating rather than com-peting with each other. Equally, artisticdisciplines will mingle, so performing artswill be brought into new venues such asmuseums, bookstores, libraries, shop-ping malls, whilst performing arts ven-ues will rethink how they use their staticspace and how they improve the visitorexperience and optimise the use of theirbuildings over longer periods of times,such as staging exhibitions, debates, etc.

Cultural buildings of the futureThese new trends have implications forcultural infrastructure and future invest-ments. Organisations will have to look atwhether their physical infrastructure cre-ates welcoming conditions. Theatres andvenues that separate the audience fromthe performance need to be re-thought.The buildings of the future need to becarefully designed to be more multi-func-tional, to be used for different purposesall day long, and to be able to adapt the

spaces to audiences of different sizes andneeds, and to permit interactivity be-

tween the artists and audience.

Opening the bookexplained how theyhad taken inspiration from the world ofretailing, with libraries transforming theirrelationship with audiences, includingthrough rethinking their furniture anddisplays, as well as the staff becomingmore pro-active in stimulating readers.Similarly, theAshmolean Museum in Ox-ford, the oldest museum in Britain, ex-plained how its major refurbishment in2009 enabled it to profoundly transformits display strategies and to introducenew approaches to education activi-ties and audience development. Visitornumbers tripled and the museum has in-creased its income.

In an ideal world, even primarily non cul-tural infrastructure, from redesigned citycentres to new railway stations, could alsobe designed to provide accommodating

public space for cultural performances(as in future train station in Mons).

From intuition to strategy

More and more organisations are engag-ing in audience development and it canbe expected to become an essential andunavoidable part of their activities.However the conference and the prepara-tion for it shows that often organisations

are undertaking audience developmentrather intuitively, raising the questionof whether they could benet from hav-ing more explicit strategies, which allowthe entire value and visitors chain to bemore joined up.

In other words, rather than carrying outactivities in isolation, to think throughhow they can link up and build on eachother.




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6) International peerlearning

Audience development has already comea long way, and excellent practices existacross Europe, but they are geographi-cally fragmented, and some countriesare more advanced than others. There ishowever still a long way to go and thesector needs to adapt fast.

The conference confirmed the added

value of exchange of practice with peersfrom other countries, and the surprisingamount that can also be learnt from othersectors, including between prot-makingsectors and non-profit-making culturalsectors, and equally from non-culturalsectors. Some new trends are commonto a variety of economic and culturalsectors, such as the emergence of sub-scription based models and other loyaltyschemes, building on effective branding.

The value of data collection and interpre-tation to ne-tune products and worksand target new audiences intelligently isalso a horizontal theme. Learning fromother sectors about marketing strategyand tools, does not mean compromisingon the cultural sectors role to providemeaningful experiences, expressing ide-as and engaging people in a meaningfuldialogue with reality.

For example, how an activity presented incultural space which rst draws in non-au-

diences can then be linked to other activi-ties seeking to engage them in activitieswhere they are involved as participants inthe artistic process; or keeping up a com-munity of followers engaged right fromthe programming stage through to pro-duction and performance/exhibition.

Audience development should be embed-ded strategically and operationally, withclear goals and target audiences. Re-search and evaluation of success and fail-ure will be another important part to seewhether the strategy worked and whatneeds adaptation. It is clear that audiencedevelopment involves the whole organisa-tion, not only the marketing or educationdepartments, and should not be viewedas an (potentially expendable) add-on. Itneeds to be integrated across all work ar-eas and feedback from all users and staffshould be equally treated. Top down ap-proaches should be avoided.

Audience development, particularly ifdone more professionally, does naturallyhave resource implications for cultural in-stitutions from both an artistic perspec-tive, to putting in place the technologicalinfrastructure necessary today and ac-quiring the skills this requires. This maybe challenging and require some reprior-itisation in nancial priorities.

The value of data collection and interpre-tation to fine-tune products and worksand target new audiences intelligently isalso a horizontal theme. Learning fromother sectors about marketing strategyand tools, does not mean compromisingon the cultural sectors role to providemeaningful experiences, expressing ideasand engaging people in a meaningful dia-logue with reality.



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The conference showed the degree ofchange that is taking place in the arts andthe need for adaptation: everything andeveryone is in ux. No organisation canafford to sit still. Change is likely to be apermanent reality that the sector needsto contend with and embrace, to see and

benet from the opportunities that theworld today offers.

Linked to this, audience development isnot a nal destination but an on-goingprocess. Technology will continue to im-pact art creation, dissemination, distri-bution and engagement with the public.Revenue streams will continue to evolve,in parallel with audience tastes and whatthey perceive as relevant to their lives.Public funding is and will continue to beunpredictable. There will be fewer cer-tainties in the future. Cultural organisa-tions will have to stay on their toes. Eachproject may require a different approach exibility and open-mindedness will becrucial. It will be challenging, but alsofascinating if cultural operators see theopportunity for this to be an enrichingtwo-way process between audiences andartists, as well as empowering the publicto become more active citizens.

The conference showed that the culturaleco-system needs both established in-stitutions, with all their assets, includingbuildings and collections, and new ones.Arts and culture needs to be found onstreet corners, in the middle of squares,in shopping malls, as well as in beauti-ful theatres, museums, cinemas, librariesand so forth. We need art in big cities, thetraditional cultural centres, as well as in

small towns and villages. Cutting-edge,provoking and disturbing art, as well asart that gives pleasure, enjoyment andfun, all have value, as long as they en-gage and inspire people, audiences andthe public. Audiences in big numbers andsmaller groups are of equal importance

as long as there is meaningful encounter.

We have greater knowledge, theoreticaland practical, about audience develop-ment than ever before. Excellent prac-tices exist in Europe but the knowledgeis patchy and fragmented. European ex-change of practice with the Commis-sion supporting the cultural sector - canbring real added value. This can help thesector adjust more quickly through peerlearning, fostering accelerated learningthrough sharing experience, rather thanstruggling unilaterally with the challeng-es ahead.

This conrmed the added value of includ-ing audience development as a priorityin the EUs future funding programme,Creative Europe. In the past, EU pro-grammes focused mainly on supportingthe supply side, fostering artist mobilityand the circulation of works, with less at-

tention paid to the demand side. Timeshave now changed and in the same waythat the sector must adapt, so too supportprogrammes must adapt and be relevantfor the challenges of the 21st century.Creative Europe therefore introducesaudience development as an importantnew priority and expects projects involv-ing artist mobility and the circulation ofworks to build in the audience dimension.This could have a tremendous systemic


Conclusion


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effect on the sector across Europe andspeed up the pace at which cultural insti-tutions across Europe integrate this intotheir thinking and practices. Similarlyaudience development is highlighted asa priority in the Communication on Pro-moting cultural and creative sectors forgrowth and jobs in the EUadopted inSeptember 2012, which calls for holisticapproaches to supporting the cultural and

creative sectors and multi-layered strat-egies involving the EU, Member Statesand other territorial levels1. In this con-text, Member States may develop theirrespective policies building on the recom-mendations resulting from the exchangeof practices on access to culture andintercultural dialogue.

1 http://ec.europa.eu/culture/our-policy-develop-

ment/documents/communication-sept2012.pdf

The conference conrmed that this newemphasis on audience development couldbe the beginning of a great cultural move-ment and civic participation that startswith audiences, not in closed rooms.

The new role of arts managers shouldbe to create reputable experiences andto invite people to a journey togetherand something is going on in Europe

do you feel the new wind blowing? con-cluded Mary McCarthy and Chris Torchrespectively, the conference moderators.

People are hungry for social engagementand connecting in communities. Cultur-al organisations and audiences shouldmove forward condently together, andthese conversations with audiences willensure the long-term sustainability of thecultural sector.


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european audiences - conclusions conference

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