At this time of the year, when we have newly made memories of streaming into theatres, concert halls and churches for pantomimes, carol services, nativity plays and festive cultural fayre, and museums were filled with rosy faced children making Christmas puddings as a cultural experience, it is a good moment to take stock of the emerging landscape around audiences as we enter 2012. Audiences UK published the first Audiences Manifesto in March 2010. This was an important contribution by the Chief Executive of Audiences UK, David Brownlee, which advocated for audiences and showed how important they are for the health of the arts and cultural sector. Has the work of the audience manifesto been achieved? Is there more work to do which might become New Year resolutions for all of us as the Xmas glow of merriment begins to dissipate?
As with all manifestos it was a considered reflection on the state of affairs and a call to action. The manifesto speaks to different communities and audiences. It has a message for political leaders, funders, local authorities, arts organisations and practitioners.
The motto on the front of the manifesto is, “great art needs great audiences need great art”. This motto is expressed as an exclamation mark, a point to note and to attend to.
So, even from the outset, this is not just a call to improve financial sustainability. Larger audiences lead of course to healthier more resilient organisations. But the motto posits a direct link between the quality of the work and the quality of the audience. Great art needs a great audience. Audiences have to participate and engage richly and deeply in the art. And for art to be great it needs a deep engagement with its audience. Great art is engaging. Great audiences engage deeply. As a strap line it remains sufficiently gnomic to keep us occupied and encourage us to experiment with new and diverse ways of extending how we create and present work to wider and more diverse audiences for the health of our audiences and the work itself.
The National Campaign for the Arts published “the UK’s first ever Arts Index” on 5th December 2011. This new national index for the arts was welcomed by the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey. The index includes 4 indicators around audiences which are: (1) Adult attendance, (2) Adult participation, Children and young people engaged (3) and Adults digitally engaged(4) .
And what is the conclusion for audiences from the Index? Well,
Adult attendance remained static at just under 70% of the UK population, despite the recession. Meanwhile, the quality of experience recorded went up by five points. Active participation in the arts went down by four points, however. This area of work has fallen victim to cost-cutting and we anticipate a bigger reduction still with next year’s funding cuts.
While this is a good message and implies that audience numbers did not drop at the start of the recession in the same way that corporate giving and personal philanthropy dropped, it also means that 30% of the population don’t attend or participate in the arts. And while we also know that 45.2% of the adult population engage in the arts three times or more per year (Audience Manifesto, p6) that means that over half the population are not regular participants.
In the manifesto the situation of audiences was similar and it concluded: “In England, significant growth in subsidy has not been matched by a proportionate growth in audiences.” And calling on a conclusion from the Theatre Assessment (ACE, 2009), it said: “Increasing the number of people who regularly enjoy the increased range of performances on offer will be a priority for us”. “Growing audiences won’t only increase the value of public investment, it will also increase earned income for cultural organisations during challenging economic times.” (Audience Manifesto, p4)
In England within the arts this drive to increase audiences and deepen engagement became “Strategic Goal 2: more people experience and are inspired by the arts.” (Arts Council England, Achieving Great Art for Everyone, p 12,30,31). And this goal is also present in the new document on museums and libraries (Culture, knowledge and understanding: great museums and libraries for everyone, Arts Council England).
Earned income is a crucial indicator because it is income directly produced from engagement with the public unlike public funding or subsidies from development agencies (such as the arts councils). We know that earned income from audiences produces more resilient business models and therefore stronger organisations.
The Arts Index confirms: “Business contributions and individual giving fell by 17% and 13% respectively from 2007/08 to 2009/2010)” (Arts Index, Dec 2011) although in this period “the arts remained healthy through recession thanks to stable levels of Arts Council England and Local Authority funding combined with Lottery funds to mitigate recession.” The cuts to Local Authority funding will take effect in England in 2010/1011. We can hope that the Catalyst initiative may change the situation on individual giving in the years to come. The index has established both the position of this sort of funding before the investment in Catalyst and also establishes the downward trend which Catalyst has to take account of. In future years the Arts Index will show the effect of this investment of resources into philanthropy and we will be able to see if this apparent trend south turns into a journey north.
So what can we conclude from all this as we begin to tackle the challenges of 2012:
1. Growing and deepening our engagement with audiences still matters. There is no room for complacency. Audiences matter probably far more than philanthropy and in the future increased audiences (and earned income) need to address the gap made when Local Authority funding reduces further. Although lots of good work has been done deepening our relationships with audiences even more needs to be done. Developing our audiences needs to be a pressing concern for all CEOs and a topic for discussion with their boards.
2. Trying to reach out to new and diverse audiences is tough and needs data, insight and creative leadership. Remaining focused on the audiences is a challenge for and a requirement of the whole sector. The Audience Manifesto concluded: “It is not demographic factors alone that determine levels of engagement with the arts. With the right infrastructure, appropriate opportunities to take part and good audience development practice we can get more people engaging more often with the arts” (Audience Manifesto, p8)
3. The envisaged benefits to be gained from succeeding in these endeavours will be stronger communities, stronger organisations, arts and culture making a greater contribution to economic life and, of course, greater art. Deepening engagement increases personal well being and community resilience in a way that personal large scale philanthropy does not.
4. The infrastructure has evolved since our first audience manifesto. Great work has been done to define a strategic goal around audiences in England. Work has also been done to link English cultural institutions linking different parts of the cultural ecosystem (eg arts development with museums, libraries, archives, film and music education). There are still untapped benefits to realise from this synergy of cultural players both nationally and on the ground around the country. There is immense talent, experience and leadership to draw upon for our newly emerging joined up cultural landscape. The potential for collaborative working and sustained and meaningful investments around audiences arising from this new context has never been better.
5. We are about to embark on a year of unheralded cultural abundance. An immense amount of public and lottery money has been invested into sport, art and culture. With this huge investment in what we have a right to expect will produce events and experiences of high quality, it is reasonable to expect as a legacy an immense uplift in audiences, high levels of engagement and new opportunities for earned income in the medium term.
So what can we do by way of practical New Year resolutions to realise some of these benefits:
1. Decision making needs to take account of sound evidence, learning and innovative risk taking. Simple stuff, but most of us find this hard to do personally and we all know it is hard to sustain an organisational and leadership style which actively encourages and rewards empirical based decision making, a focus on audiences and a culture of active learning around audiences and data.
2. The audience manifesto is still a great tool for initiating new conversations around audiences, culture and art, how the offer we provide for audiences connects with our organisational aspirations and how we engage with more people and engage more deeply with our audiences as respected counterparties.
3. A time of change requires us to closely scrutinise our business. By how much would our audiences and/or earned income streams have to increase to address the possibility of no funding from local authority/arts council or other development agency? Do we have a will as organisations to reach out to these extra audiences? How long will it take to reach these desired audience numbers and how much do have to invest to see such a change in our business models?
4. How often do our boards discuss the audience, what information do we use to focus this discussion, what information do have which shows how we are doing with our audiences year on year (in terms of quality of experience, regularity of attendance, satisfaction and other indicators and measures)? How are we developing as an organisation in our approach to audiences? How are we doing in comparison with others in our sectors? While once it may have been enough to check and be happy with the number of satisfied attendees from the “happy sheets”, this may no longer be sufficient for even the smallest arts and cultural organisation. Reaching out to new audiences requires innovative approaches which combine the skills of the artistic/cultural leaders and the marketing/business administration leaders of our organisations.
5. If the big society agenda is about community cohesion and resilience we know that “most engagement in the arts happens locally and that communities enjoying experiences together are more likely to be happy and cohesive.” (Audiences Manifesto, p 10) Culture and the arts have a significant enabling role to play in realising improved levels of community resilience and cohesion. The Arts Manifesto (p8) concluded: “We believe that a stronger civil society lies in the experiences shared by a community and the opportunity for everyone to get involved, and that participating in the arts, crafts or cultural activities is often a first step towards greater civic engagement.” If the Big Society is an initiative to address a social problem of community fragmentation and incohesion as much as increasing levels of economic inequality, it will be realised, if at all, in part or in total, through cultural activities. These are topics we all need to think about and plan for if we want to play our role as civic leaders.
So does the Audience Manifesto still matter? Yes, it does and it still gives us pause for thought. Great art needs great art needs great audiences! Yes, and we are not there yet!
Michael Noonan
Chair of Audiences UK
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