Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts: London launch

Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts

Join us for the London launch of Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts.

This is a 2.5-year research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council exploring how people engage with contemporary dance, theatre, music, visual art and everything in between. Using qualitative, talk-based methods, we are investigating the role of contemporary arts in the lives of those who attend performances and exhibitions. We will be working closely with arts organisations in Birmingham, London, Liverpool, Bristol and Sheffield to understand their current and potential audiences, and then to put our findings into action, testing audience development initiatives to recruit new audiences and enhance the experiences of attenders.

What do we mean by the ‘contemporary arts’?

Based on findings from our pilot study, we are defining ‘contemporary’ in three ways:

1. Any artwork made today

2. In a more discriminating definition, work that strikingly ‘belongs to today’ or is ‘with its time’ in some important respect

3. Artworks that are ‘experimental’, ‘ avant-garde’, ‘alternative’ or even ‘weird’

If you think your organisation matches any of these three descriptions, please do consider coming to our launch event.

Get involved

We are looking for organisations who present or produce contemporary arts in London to be involved with the project, by attending meetings, working with us to learn more about your audiences, or trialling new audience development initiatives. Find out more about how you can be involved at the launch event.

Schedule

Join us to hear more about the project, including findings from our 8-month pilot study in Birmingham. Help us to shape the research project, by sharing with us what you think are the most pressing challenges organisations face in understanding and building audiences for the contemporary arts.

5:00pm Arrive, drinks and snacks provided

5:15pm Introduction to the project from Research Associate Dr Sarah Price, sharing findings from the pilot
study

5:45pm Discussion: challenges and opportunities in recruiting and retaining audiences for the contemporary
arts today

6:15pm Break

6:30pm Structure of the project, how to get involved

7:00pm End

*Please note due to limited capacity, we ask that a maximum of 2 people attend from each organisation.