If you follow us on Twitter, you will have seen that on Tuesday of this week we hosted an event on diversity for programmers across our venue network. With three of us tweeting on the day, plus our attendees, our feed was rather busy! We’ve pulled together an overview of the day below.
It’s @housetheatre day, ironically a great excuse not to be working from home. Looking forward to immersing myself in the South East.
— Sam Hodges (@MrSamHodges) March 12, 2013
London bound for today’s @housetheatre day for programmers. Looking forward to some warming coffee and great conversations.
— Katy Snelling (@katysnelling) March 12, 2013
Another interesting day @housetheatre meeting in Somerset House. Let’s talk theatre. #openhouse #arts
— The Place Theatre (@ThePlaceBedford) March 12, 2013
To add a bit of back story, we titled the event “The Other 93%” based on the statistic that 7% of the population are highly engaged with theatre and the arts… but what about reaching the rest? We decided it’s not just about programming a piece of African work in October because it’s Black History Month, for example, but encouraging people to come to see this work year-round.
we’re kicking off today with a panel discussion entitled ‘The Other 93% – audience diversity, class & culture’ #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
The location for the day was Somerset House, and in the sunshine – with a wonderful view – we started with a panel discussion with contributions from Jan Ryan, Director of UK Arts International, Anne Torregiani, Executive Director, The Audience Agency, and Barbara Lisicki, Director and Lead Trainer at Equals Training and Consultancy.
Jan Ryan, Director of UK Arts International, is giving her speech, focussing on the attraction of wide audiences with the arts #openspace
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
Going to theatre is a bit like going to the bookies – if you don’t know the ropes you don’t know how it works #openhouse #janryan
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
‘What makes a disabled person disabled? You.’ Barbara Lisicki #openhouse
— Fiona Baxter (@FiBaxter) March 12, 2013
Disabled people settling for 2nd or 3rd best – it isn’t right that disabled people get crappy service + art. BarbaraLisicki #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
Become a venue which is known for its inclusion and programme – 30% of audience are disabled #openhouse Barbara Lisicki
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
7% are highly engaged in the arts – the other 93% are not engaged – ACE stats – Anne Torreggiani #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
60% choose the social aspect of going to an arts event – gives them something to talk about with friend, family #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
2 factors effect how you engage with arts 1: level of education2: location to arts venue #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
Cultural entitlement – 30% that don’t use arts also don’t use other facilities – e.g parks#openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
50% of audiences in the 7% highly engaged group are arts professionals. Work with those audiences rather than hiding the stats #openspace
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
We need to change our habits when engaging with audiences. Come up with different ways of doing things and experiment #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
It seemed we made quite a bit of noise:
I love how twitter allows me to follow events I can’t make and still engage in the discussion and debate. Fascinating stuff from #openhouse
— Jordana Elizabeth (@FreelanceJord) March 12, 2013
interesting arts audience related stats and provocations tweeting from @housetheatre right now
— Kate Yedigaroff (@kateyedi) March 12, 2013
Looks a good day for theatre in the S/SE with @housetheatre ‘s #openhouse for venue programmers today…
— Ridiculusmus (@_Ridiculusmus_) March 12, 2013
On lunch break from R&D @southstreetarts but great to catch up with @housetheatre via their brilliant tweeting on theatre& audience.
— Wonder (@Wonder_Arts) March 12, 2013
We turned to the floor for questions and discussion points, and it seemed a target demographic was the younger audience.
How do you engage with young audiences? More creativity? More participation? Are education routes the most viable? #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
Popular vs experimental. Defining the two as separate can be negative in terms of engagement. #openhouse question time
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
Great point about the role of young people. South Hill are proud 2 have an active young producers group Missed Out 7 years old! #openhouse
— Mark David Hooper (@markdavidhooper) March 12, 2013
Every Fri night 45 young people come to @southhillpark for film/music prod activities for £1, provided by social services #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
“We go out and we meet people” – absolutely! We must be welcoming, we must form meaningful relationships “Art isn’t comfortable”#openhouse
— Mark David Hooper (@markdavidhooper) March 12, 2013
Treating people how we want to be treated- on all levels from artists, to audiences, volunteers and any passersby off the street #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
@housetheatre #openspace It’s plain venues are risk-averse. Is marketing and the challenge of succeeding enough of an inspiration?!
— gavin robertson (@comgavrob) March 12, 2013
For everyone, the environment seemed to be key:
What puts Jan Ryan off venues? The bar not being open on arrival, and the space not being welcoming to social activity #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
Need to also remember the very simple point that venues absolutely have to be welcoming #openhouse
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
@housetheatre Could not agree more. For artists and audience. Theatres shouldn’t feel like a closed shop/private club.
— Laura Mugridge (@MugridgeMagic) March 12, 2013
We should have art from the gallery to the toilet. It’s about the EXPERIENCE how does the venue taste, sound, look, smell… #openhouse
— Mark David Hooper (@markdavidhooper) March 12, 2013
Fantastic reminder that being an accessible venue is everyone’s job #openhouse @housetheatre
— Katy Snelling (@katysnelling) March 12, 2013
The day was interspersed with networking opportunities for all (and many cups of tea and coffee!), but following lunch our delegates had the opportunity to attend two of three breakout sessions.
- Arts Council England – arts council; the creative case for diversity in the arts and equality action planning
Hassan Mahamdallie, Senior Strategy Officer, Diversity, Arts Council England
Paul Bonham, Relationship Manager, Diversity in Arts Practice, Arts Council England - Access and inclusion – Artists, participants and public
Ali Briggs – Agent for Change, New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
Sarah Holmes, Chief Exec, New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
Heather Stradling, Director, Zinc Arts: National Centre of Access & Inclusion - Audiences – ‘Is it still ‘not for the likes of me’?
Adrienne Pye, Regional Director South East, The Audience Agency
We weren’t able to live-tweet these, despite there being three of us – the three separate conversation strands would have been incredibly confusing, but are gathering notes from all of them that will be added to our resources section. (There are already documents from Arts Council England’s Creative Case for Diversity available there.)
The day ended with a summary and a ‘What’s next for house’ (there are some exciting things, but we can’t shout about them yet!) and a thank you to all who attended.
Thank you for all our speakers, and for the house venue programmers for coming today. Please give feedback and share best practice
— house (@housetheatre) March 12, 2013
@housetheatre @hertfordtheatre @cornexchangenewbury @thehatfactory @norwichplay Ace to meet you all 🙂 Kara @theoldtownhall #openhouse
— The Old Town Hall (@TheOldTownHall) March 12, 2013
Had a very interesting day with @housetheatre event at Somerset House #openhouse Thank you!
— LetchworthArtsCentre (@Letchworth_Arts) March 12, 2013
@housetheatre great to catch up with friends old and new at the house event. Thank you.
— west end centre (@teamwesty) March 12, 2013
@housetheatre thx for a good day, great to chat to people & looking forward to @zincarts working with you all to turn talk into more action
— Heather Stradling (@Heatherstradlin) March 12, 2013
Thanks to all @housetheatre for a thought provoking day, and the team from @newwolsey and @zincarts for the insightful advice #openhouse
— Cambridge Junction (@CambJunction) March 12, 2013
Our next venue network day is planned for the end of September, and we hope to take things a step further. In fact, I’m ready to get cracking now!