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BEHAVIOUR 2012 Evaluation Report The Arches

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BEHAVIOUR 2012 Evaluation Report Purpose of this report; to evaluate the development, delivery and impact of Behaviour 2012, exploring what we did, what we found out and how this can inform our planning in the future. This report is for the Arches management and Board, Creative Scotland and other key funders.

Summary In Behaviour 2012 we learned

Our city is a cultural site and our festival could potentially become a key event in Glasgow‟s annual attractions

Our programme incited rage, laughter and tears with some performances dividing audiences irrevocably

Sharing costs and resources with like-minded colleagues across the UK made it possible to extend our capacity and brand

We can export Scottish work through our international network of presenters who now see Behaviour as a place to find the new

Working with Glasgow Museums helps us reach families and cultural tourists who might never set foot in The Arches

Programming works specifically developed in a local area or for a bespoke community genuinely evoke powerful outcomes

Exhaustion set in for staff and audiences, so Behaviour should be trimmed to six weeks, with a few critical mass weekends peppered within

Artists now see Behaviour as an opportunity to promote work and develop national and international connections The festival exceeded targets both in audience numbers and ticket income. Audiences increased by 87% since 2010 and ticket income increased by 89% since 2010, being 37% above targeted income. The marketing described the festival extremely well with 91% of respondents stating that the brochure, posters and website represented the festival as they understood it. The campaign reached a new audience demographic with 56% of survey participants attending Behaviour for first time and 54% unaware that the festival had happened in previous years.

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Introduction ”Behaviour‟s programme of essential live performance has seen a rich variety of Scottish and international talent take their shows not only to The Arches stage, but also to shops, museums, parks and streets around Glasgow.” [The Metro]

The Behaviour festival of live performance seeks to position the Arches as the place in Scotland which presents international artists alongside their Scottish counterparts and embraces risk in artistic terms. From ground-breaking theatre to cutting edge contemporary music and club culture, the Arches is Glasgow‟s leading arts venue. Since its inception 21 years ago, it has been the incubator for Scotland‟s creative community to test out new ideas and develop new work. For audiences, it is a place to discover work made locally that has impact globally, whilst seeing the best in international practice by leading artists and makers. Behaviour self consciously aims to „re-think the possibilities of theatre‟ blurring the boundaries between clubbing, music, visual arts and spectacular performance.

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In January 2012, the Arches were awarded investment by Creative Scotland towards Behaviour from both Talent Hub and One Step Further strands. The Talent Hub strand enabled the Arches to programme work by international artists in order to enrich the organisation‟s wider talent development remit. One Step Further focused on developing festivals in Scotland, realising their potential to expand across cities in new and unusual ways, with a view to increasing visitors, earned income and capacity to contribute to the cultural economy.

“…pulling in some excellent international acts, the programme feels much more rooted in its home city than ever before…” [The Scotsman]

The programme was developed to reflect the diversity of the Arches‟ audiences and to increase new ones who did not think the Arches „is for them‟. Tactics included:

Programming works specifically developed in a local area or with a bespoke

community; as we did with Haircuts by Children, Bicycle Boom and Nic Greens

Motherland

Collaborating with Fierce Festival, Birmingham; FACT, Liverpool, Glasgow

International Festival of Visual Art , Counterflows Festival and Battersea

Arts Centre to extend the brand of Behaviour and its reach to international

audiences

Collaborating with Glasgow Museums to attract a new audience of families and

cultural tourists through inclusion in their Victoriana Weekend events

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Programme Overview

Fish & Game’s Bicycle Boom was part of a triptych of events for Behaviour and Glasgow Museums’ Victorians Weekend. Eilidh MacAskill, dressed in a green tweed cycling suit, and holding forth about the joys of her plain black safety bike gave a 15-minute monologue describing the evolution of the bicycle. “It is vivid stuff, presented with vigour and charm by a performer who combines feminist principles with real joie de vivre.” [The Scotsman on Soapbox]

Supporting “rational dress” for women Eilidh invited the audience to consider the politics of a machine that played a huge role in freeing women to travel independently. This was followed up by an actual bicycle tour between Kelvingrove Museum and Riverside Museum, where Eilidh, as a guide, gave the audience an interactive history lesson of Glasgow‟s imperial heyday. This event received a 4 star rating in The Scotsman. Buzzcut was staged over four nights at the Old Hairdressers in Renfield Lane, with a final day at the Maryhill Glue Factory on Sunday – Buzzcut was curated by young artists Rosana Cade and Nick Anderson and featured almost 60 performances, events, installations and exhibitions. “The building was alive with artworks that defied the chill of the economic climate, as well as the spaces.” [The Herald on Buzzcut]

Richard Layzell and Chris Thorpe gave local artists the opportunity to develop their practice through two informal talks/workshops looking at the potential „place‟ of performance and the renewed analysis/presence of ideas around „the self‟ and the impossibility of their ever being a stable „self‟ on stage respectively. Chris then

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performed 4 showings of The Oh Fuck Moment with poet Hannah Jane Walker to sell out audiences. This was followed by If These Spasms Could Speak by Robert Softley, a new work exploring amongst other things responses to and experiences of physical disability. This also received 4 stars in both the Herald and Scotsman. “Amid all the show‟s complex mesh of thoughts – and a strong, sexy sense of the sheer value and beauty of life, however physically difficult – it‟s Softley‟s own voice that sings most clearly, and links most powerfully with the festival‟s theme.” [Joyce McMillan on If These Spasms Could Speak]

We welcomed Montreal sound artist Martin Messier and his Sewing Machine Orchestra on Sunday 25th March for 2 performances of what was to be an inclusion in the New Territories Programme 2012. The last weekend of March saw Berlin/Nottingham collective Gob Squad perform We are Gob Squad and So Are You and the New York artist Ann Liv Young return to Glasgow with her Mermaid Show. “…there‟s no denying the extraordinary nerve and charisma of New York performance artist Ann Liv Young, whose disturbing Mermaid Show lit up the Arches at the weekend…” [The Scotsman] At the beginning of April we installed our Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art exhibition by Hole In My Pocket collective, entitled The Universe is Very Big and You Are Very Small, Act Accordingly which included a bespoke light clock and a gaffer tape timeline charting the history of the universe. Through our collaboration with Counterflows festival, we presented visual artist Torsten Lauschmann in a Red Note Ensemble commission of his work

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Inconsistent Whisper. The audience demand for this event saw an additional performance programmed, enabling more people to see this light, sound and word experiment which tried to explore conflicts between machine and performer. Again this performance received 4 stars in The Herald. Over at Kelvinhall, approximately 500 people took part in Fish&Game’s Cycling Gymkhana as the final instalment of Bicycle Boom. Scored by Zoey Van Goey‟s Kim Moore, the performance, which took on a village fete atmosphere, featured Victorian bike races, a best dressed wheel competition, a BMX Ballet and an interactive presentation on the development of women‟s cycling.

The Arches Brick Award Winners 2012 Tania El Khoury and Nassim Soleimanpour were presented at Behaviour as part of their prize. Tania‟s work Maybe If You Choreograph Me You Will Feel Better was a one-on-one piece performed for men only, and presented at the CCA, hosted by Arches collaborators Playwrights Studio Scotland. White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Iranian writer Soleimanpour was performed by a different actor each night using a script they had never seen before; Scottish based actors Adura Onashile, Kate Dickie and Gary Lewis took up the challenge to great success. Stef Smith presented her new play The Silence of Bees on the shop floor at Lush on Sauchiehall Street. The piece, supported by an Arts&Business New Sponsorship Award, was presented in the same week Stef won an Olivier Award for her earlier work Road Kill.

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“Smith‟s script is as intricately and expertly constructed as a honeycomb… Definitely one to make a beeline for.” [STV on The Silence of Bees]

Thatcher’s Children, the Platform 18 winning work by Gary Gardiner, was presented in both the Arches during Behaviour and afterwards at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. This high energy physical performance explored the notion that there is no such thing as society. The second winning show Beats, by Kieran Hurley was a coming of age story exploring the irresistible power of gathered youth to a background of techno. The success of the work saw it being picked up by the Traverse as part of its Fringe 2012 programme and won the CATS Awards for Best New Play “Hurley…takes the breath away; in an unshowy but memorable display of sheer theatrical skill.” [The Scotsman on Beats]

The Arches welcomed artist Helen Cole and her installation Collecting Fireworks into the derelict space for 15 one-to-one performances that saw audience members listen to a mesmerising, whispered archive of strangers‟ recollections of their theatre experiences, before being invited to leave their own. Helen also stayed on to take part in our public talk, The City as a Cultural Site, which featured contributions from Dr Jonathan Charley from University of Strathclyde; Harun Morrison from Fierce Festival in Birmingham and chaired by Dr Francis McKee from the CCA in Glasgow.

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The final week of Behaviour saw Nic Green’s work in progress, in association with Battersea Arts Centre, Fatherland/Motherland take place in Arch 2. “A restless creative energy...... an astonishing vocal score” [The Scotsman on Fatherland/Motherland]

The diptych revisited the artist‟s earlier work for Arches LIVE in Fatherland and presented a new participatory piece Motherland, with 30 female community cast members. Total Theatre Award winner Bryony Kimmings brought her show 7 Day Drunk to Behaviour which was a theatrical experiment exploring artists insatiable attraction to alcohol and its alleged enhancement of creative prowess. Kimmings has since been invited by the Arches to look at developing a new piece specifically for Behaviour 2013, which will look at the cities obsession with football, celebrate team play and look at being a small voice in huge crowds. Behaviour 2012 closed with the hugely successful Haircuts by Children, led by Mammalian Diving Reflex in collaboration with Oakgrove Primary School and Alice Rocks hair salon. “It‟s crazy and brilliant at the same time” [Headteacher Jane Cerexhe] “It‟s about art and children‟s rights. There are lots of curricular links and it‟s great for children‟s confidence.” [Times Educational Supplement]

Over a week, Primary 6 pupils worked with stylist John Comerford learning how to cut hair, before taking over his salon for a weekend, offering free haircuts and lemonade to the general public.

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“Sporting a spiky, well-gelled haircut of his own, young Brandon Mellon wields a confident pair of scissors. But even he has doubts, he says. “You worry you might get it wrong and then they‟ll shout at you. But they‟re saying the people getting their hair cut are volunteers, so we shouldn‟t worry too much. We‟re not professionals and they know that. It‟s good fun.” [Times Educational Supplement]

Describing their practice as „Social Acupuncture‟, the Arches was also happy to host Mammalians Jenna Winter and Hazel Venzon in a public talk, focusing on the range of their programmes delivered across the world. Please see the appendix for the full published programme.

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Evaluation: what we did

We worked with Christine Hamilton Consulting, who assisted us with developing an evaluation framework for the festival and advised on how we approached capturing and analysing data. The framework included audience numbers, profiles and responses; and a „tracking‟ feedback process with artists. Intention was to ensure much of the data was captured as part of day-to-day work and built into our processes for future evaluations.

For audiences we collected both quantitative and qualitative information: Quantitative:

Audience numbers for paid events - via box office.

Audience numbers for non-paid events – via clicker (Front of House)

Postcodes of attendees to paid events (via box office) and some non-paid events (via surveys) – see appendix of Mosaic profiling of bookers from Culture Sparks.

Booking methods/times/frequency – via box office

Publicity methods used – via box office and surveys Qualitative:

Comments on Facebook and tweets via Twitter – we encouraged audience members to tag any tweets with #behaveyourself and encouraged them to give feedback on shows on Facebook the day after the event. See Appendix for summary of comments.

Email surveys: specific events in each strand were identified and we sent e-surveys (via Survey Monkey) to bookers thanking them for attending and asking them to

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fill out survey. We also created a general festival survey, which was sent out once the festival was over – this was sent to 320 bookers and was filled out by 66 of them. See Appendix for list of events and copy of survey(s)

Paper surveys: we asked audiences to fill out paper surveys at two of the Bicycle Boom events – this was successful at the cycle ride event where all participants completed a survey, but less successful at the Cycling Gymkhana, where only a few were completed. To track development of artists involved in or attending Behaviour we created an interactive blog, to which eight artists were given access to write about their experience of the festival. See Appendix for print out of entire blog or visit http://howwebehave.wordpress.com/ .

In addition we had a very positive media campaign to promote the festival and also recorded media reaction via reviews. As well as the usual arts coverage in The Scotsman, The Herald, The Guardian, Metro, The Skinny and The List, Behaviour also garnered articles in The Independent, Evening Times and Times Educational Supplement and coverage on the Fred Macaulay Show, Good Morning Scotland and Culture Cafe on the radio. See Appendix for summary of media coverage and reaction.

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Key Findings: Artistic programme „The venue offers artists and audience members an immense opportunity to be

challenged by different art forms presented in quirky and unusual ways. I look

forward to being surprised, shocked, delighted and challenged in the not too distant

future by The Arches‟ Programme.”

[Survey Respondent, Behaviour 2012]

Glasgow has been re-imagined many times as a modern city freed from its industrial past. Amongst the busy civic calendar, Behaviour could potentially be developed as a unique selling point for the city; as an artist-centred festival with a focus on producing new work as well as presenting leading world artists. The programme, which aimed to consolidate Behaviour‟s position as the leading festival of live performance in Glasgow, was well received, with some performances dividing audiences irrevocably. Responses were proof that the Arches embrace risk in artistic terms, an element that certainly engaged audiences and critics alike. Whether a performance was loved or hated, the audience did have an opinion. „I thought it was really emotional and powerful. She used the space (and the audience) to really good effect.‟

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„It was unpleasant. The show offered nothing enjoyable to the audience, who seemed bored and repulsed‟

„I thought it was a lot of fun and very knowing. Thanks for programming it, only 1 of 3 venues in the UK, good for you, Arches!‟

„I thought (the show) was self obsessed, self gratifying and disgusting.‟ „Brilliant! Loved Kieran - thought he was great!!! Love the venue too‟ [Survey respondents, Behaviour 2012]

We undertook a collaborative approach to programming Behaviour, intended to contribute to Glasgow‟s reputation of artistic excellence. This meant we could share costs and resources with other cultural organisations including National Theatre of Scotland, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Fierce Festival Birmingham, FACT Liverpool, Battersea Arts Centre and Traverse Theatre.

The programme also offered local artists access to work of acclaimed international companies, directly raising their aspirations of what they are capable of achieving. We actively promoted Scottish work throughout the festival through our international network of presenters including visits from Mons City of Culture 2015 and Dublin International Festival.

Our partnership with Glasgow Museums enabled the Arches to reach an audience potentially unfamiliar with its work; families with children and cultural tourists. Presenting Bicycle Boom at Kelvingrove meant the Arches benefited from exposure to the largest numbers of cultural tourists outside London who visit its extensive collections.

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Similarly, we programmed works specifically developed in a local area or

for a bespoke community; such as Haircuts by Children, If These Spasms Could

Speak and Motherland, to develop pathways for new audiences to the wider Arches

programme. Evidence proves this involvement had a significant impact on these

groups:

“My husband knew he was in the right place when he passed pavement tables on Gibson Street where everyone had green hair or Mohican haircuts. I just went for a trim and so did Mr. Morrow. Miss Furlong was more adventurous. Her hair was pink one day, red the next. I couldn‟t believe how brave people were and how kind to the kids. Young ladies were coming in with long hair and telling them to go for it. One girl left with a bob on one side and a pigtail on the other. I expected lots of students, but there were people of all ages. It was very well organised and there was a wonderful atmosphere, like a gallery opening, with music, lots of clients and a really nice buzz. A group of us went along from the school first thing, so the kids got comfortable working on us. Then we stayed and watched which you can‟t often do as a teacher. It is nice to invest time in the P6s, in preparation for them becoming role models next year. We‟ll be reinforcing it back in school and talking about what they did that they never thought they could. I‟m hoping it has a lasting effect on them. It was lovely. It was unique.”

[Jane Cerexhe, Headteacher, Oakgrove Primary School]

Respondents to the survey suggested that the festival running over 8 weeks was an appropriate time frame.

„More time and space to visit more shows rather than crammed into a weekend or two.‟ „I felt like I was more able to engage positively as an audience member because I didn't get festival exhaustion.‟ [Survey Respondents]

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However as the audience was mainly from Glasgow and Edinburgh, 2 months is likely to be more convenient for them to participate, whereas international visitors to the city cannot stay for an extended period. It was agreed that in future years the festival should be condensed to six weeks, with a few critical mass weekends peppered within which could be directly marketed to international visitors. This will also manage impact on the energy of the festival team and the pressure on the building in being able to sustain a high quality experience.

The festival had a significant impact on those artists involved and the wider contemporary performance community in Glasgow. „Behaviour 2012 was an opportunity to develop a clearer understanding of my practice as a writer, performer, and collaborative theatre practitioner. It was a place to experiment with bolder production values than previous work.‟ [Scottish based artist programmed in Behaviour 2012]

“It is great to see The Arches encouraging artists to see each others' work whilst acknowledging that seeing a lot of work can be very expensive so I appreciated the concession Festival Pass using my Equity membership.”

[Survey Respondent]

Behaviour is now seen as an opportunity to promote work and develop national and international connections. It enabled artists to experiment with form and content but also potentially realise a piece with strong production value. Furthermore it will impact upon the practice of the artist audience members who will be given an opportunity to discover the new; an experience which will impact on their own emergent practice.

Marketing & Customer Service

The festival exceeded targets both in audience numbers and ticket income. Audiences increased by 87% since 2010 and ticket income increased by 89% since 2010, being 37% above targeted income. See appendix Box Office report. The marketing described the festival extremely well with 91% of respondents stating that the brochure, posters and website represented the festival as they understood it. The campaign reached a new audience demographic with 56% of survey participants attending Behaviour for first time and 54% unaware that the festival had happened in previous years.

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The top five marketing methods cited were: Word of Mouth, Arches website, Arches brochure, poster and Facebook. The first three methods are fairly standard across Arches arts events, but poster and Facebook ranked much higher than usual thanks to a hefty digital and print campaign which saw the brand have real impact for the first time – indeed 76% of those surveyed felt the festival had a greater presence this year compared to previous years. New forms of marketing adopted for Behaviour 2012 to attract new audiences included: digital adverts on The List website, advert for the politically-slanted shows in The Big Issue, advert in The List Festival Guide (inserted in London edition of The Guardian) banners on the Creative Scotland website, Glasgow Museums website, GCMB See Glasgow website and Visit Scotland website and a separate Behaviour Facebook page which will remain throughout the year to develop international promoter interest. Although the bulk of the audience came from Glasgow, the festival had a 3% increase in visitors from other parts of the UK, with 17.5% of bookers having a non-Glasgow postcode. International visitors were few, but links have been further established with international promoters (see Artistic Programme section above).

The festival also brought in new crossover audience groups. On top of the family and cultural tourists groups brought in by Bicycle Boom and Haircuts By Children, Beats brought in new younger non-arts audiences with 85% of the audience also being regular clubbers at the Arches.

“Yes, we need more international, progressive work in Scotland!” Survey respondent

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The festival attracted audiences for both Scottish and international work – with 95% of the surveyed audience stating that it's good to see international work alongside work made in Scotland and 91% feeling that high profile international work will improve the ambitions and aspirations of Scotland’s artistic community.

Customer service was on the whole well received during the festival with 89% of the audience agreeing wholly or partly that booking tickets was easy and straightforward (although it is noted that some confusion arose over timings of shows and festival diary) and 86% that they received great service from the Box Office – this compares very favourably with our customer service survey from 2010 when there were major issues with service standards at Box Office. A few issues regarding signage and show call-outs in the Arches have also been noted.

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Conclusions and future direction The audience increase of 87% is indicative of an enthusiastic market for this work. Behaviour as a brand is now established and is an important part of the calendar of events in Glasgow bringing, as it does, international work to the city. The artistic risk the organisation took has paid off. Building on this success, Behaviour 2013 will be condensed into a six-week programme of groundbreaking work which will continue to include the Platform 18 and Brick Award winners whilst potentially developing new collaborations with Tramway, LIFT, Fierce Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival. We have not yet cracked the international visitor market but we have made real progress in developing links with international partners and building the Arches‟ reputation as a place to visit. To increase cultural tourist numbers we have learned that we need a longer planning and marketing time; specialist advice on reaching the kinds of audiences to whom Behaviour appeals; and working in partnership with other city venues to develop a tourist „offer‟. For 2013 we will continue to work with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and Visit Scotland in a collaborative approach to attracting international visitors. The desire for international engagement is likely to increase being one of the themes of Glasgow 2014 Legacy Framework. Behaviour will contribute to the fulfilment of these ambitions and impacts on the aspirations laid out in Glasgow’s Tourism Strategy to 2016, Glasgow’s International and European Strategy (2009 to 2012) and Glasgow’s Cultural Strategy. Our successful collaboration in 2012 with Glasgow Museums will be integrated into a variety of events in the 2013 programme. New audiences will „bump into‟ Behaviour 2013 at unexpected locations, such as a piece at Govan shipyards; a site specific work in Springburn; a programme at Platform, Easterhouse and a curated pop up programme on the train linking The Arches and Tramway. In addition, we will continue to develop events which will be unique opportunities for Scottish artists to develop their practice and for the wider public to explore contemporary performance. This includes inviting some of the UK‟s most influential

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producers, such as David Jubb, Judith Knight and Kate McGrath, to take part in a series of talks. This is reflective of our wider commitment as a Talent Hub to discover and develop the next generation of Scottish artistic talent and cultivate an international market for that talent. Appendices:

Behaviour Programme

Example of survey used for particular events

Results of surveys sent out

Twitter and FB comments

Response from artists

Media reaction