Damascus Style

I am recently back from an amazing trip to Damascus in Syria to talk about audience development, facilitated by the British Council.
 

Through contributing to a week-long cultural management course for arts professionals from across the Middle East and North Africa, a presentation to students at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art, and a masterclass for the team at the Syrian Opera House I was lucky enough to meet a whole host of amazing, ambitious and committed people, all striving to develop arts experiences in very different contexts to our own here in the UK.
 

The cultural management course included delegates from Syria, Egypt, Oman, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen and Mauritania, and took place in a traditional Damascene house in the old city, that is now a sculpture gallery, arts venue and simple hotel. The course is organised by Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (Culture Resource) a non-profit organization based in Cairo that supports artistic creativity and creative exchange in the Arab region. Running since 2006 and previously taking place in Marrakesh, Amman and Algiers, this annual cultural management course for delegates from across the Arab world is always heavily over-subscribed.
 

I presented an introduction to audience development; marketing planning and reaching out to new audiences. It became clear that the familiar principles of cultural marketing - balancing social, financial and artistic objectives; Ansoff matrix; segmentation; 4Ps etc - were completely relevant, but putting them into practice was very different. Cultural workers in these countries do not enjoy the luxury of an ‘arms length’ relationship between government and cultural production we have here. In some cases they face very real barriers of state control and censorship, and the notion of word of mouth marketing was fraught with difficulties for many delegates. But we also share a number of similar challenges – I was asked ‘How do we create an audience for poetry?’ and ‘Why can’t I get audiences to pay after I’ve lured them in with free tickets?’
 

We had great fun in the session on reaching out to new audiences, when we discussed the ‘Newcomers Welcome’ aspect of ‘Not For the Likes of You’ (thanks Maddy Morton and Seamus Smythe). A discussion about the potential tensions between established audiences and newcomers who may not follow expected conventions of behaviour, dress code etc was brought wonderfully to life by one of the delegates who arrived into the room late from a refreshment break, talking loudly on his mobile, shades on and shirt unbuttoned…
 

The masterclass at the Syrian Opera House coincided with day three of the Damascus International Film Festival (retrospectives of Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, Sandra Bullock and Emir Kusturica amongst others) which meant using the back entrance in case we dirtied the red carpet out front. A range of people from across the organisation (which isn’t in fact an Opera House, but a performing arts centre, rather like, but not very like, Southbank Centre or the Barbican) turned out for a discussion of audience development. This included programmers, director and her assistant, technical, and marketing and PR people. The Opera House is embarking on an ambitious programme of change led by the director, and not surprisingly it become clear that their opportunities for audience development are inextricably linked with wider organisational development issues (sound familiar?). However, we did tackle some very practical tasks around primary research of existing audiences, shaping communications to different stakeholder groups and the value of segmenting your e-list.
 

All in all an incredibly stimulating and humbling experience.
 

Sarah Boiling, Interim Chief Executive, Audiences London