Patternmakers 18/10/23 Patternmakers 18/10/23

Audiences at the Heart: Key takeaways from the AMA Conference 2023

Our Senior Research Analyst, Bianca Mulet, attended the AMA Conference 2023, with the theme being ‘audiences at the heart’. Read the article for her 4 key insights from the conference.

I recently had the incredible opportunity to attend the 2023 AMA Conference in Leeds, UK. Industry professionals from around the UK gathered for a two-day melting pot of ideas and teabags, delving into this year’s theme: audiences at the heart.

Today I’m sharing just a few of the insights from the jam-packed programme that struck me. As an Aussie in a sea of British accents, I’m grateful for the friendly faces and inspiring speakers I encountered who are paving the way for arts marketers, researchers and comms professionals in all stages of their career.

Scroll on for my highlights from four sessions.

Catching feelings

In “Exploring Emotion and Audience Behaviour”, cultural researcher Dr Ron Evans uncovered the integral role of emotion in the audience experience.

Audiences attend performances with the expectation of having an emotional experience – but only 43% report that they achieved that goal, raising a crucial question for organisations: Are your audiences finding the emotional experiences they seek?

We might get this information from a post-show survey, but this only captures part of it. Over the length of a performance there might be a range of things experienced. So, do you measure the most recent emotion? The strongest?

Dr Evans presented new research in measuring audience emotion during live performance. Participants wore a wristband that collected physiological data over the course of the show, including heart rate, skin conductivity and skin temperature, and at the end they were interviewed about their emotional experience at various points in the performance.

The experiment revealed that there was an increase in physiological reaction during the climax of the performance, most people predominately felt surprise and sadness – and there was crying. Moreover, the tools revealed some valuable insights for arts organisations:

Triggering content has the potential to captivate audiences and spark discussions and reflections about their own life experiences – and we cannot always predict what topics will be sensitive for individuals
Encouraging post-show discussions and feedback through digital or face to face talkbacks can be an effective audience engagement tactic
Organisations can experiment with innovative tools like live word clouds, asking “What do you think the main character was feeling at the end of the first act?”
Monitoring the return of audiences, such as those with access needs, can help organisations tailor their content and offerings.

The future of audiences

The Audience Agency presented the latest findings from the Cultural Participation Monitor (CPM) on what audiences are saying about how they engage with arts and culture. Similarly to our Audience Outlook Monitor, the CPM started out tracking audience sentiment throughout the pandemic and has since evolved to capture further insights around programming preferences, cost-of-living concerns and more.

The recent wave of research shed light on some of the generational differences in audience segments and opportunities look out for when engaging future audiences, as well as insights around the rise of participatory experience and digital/hybrid formats.

The session presented new patterns in values, taste and experiences, underscoring the prevalence of generational and life-stage factors. As the Audience Agency says, “Our future audiences are already here, they’re just younger.”

Here’s what they found about values, tastes and experiences:

Young audiences care about issues like climate change and social justice in a way that people always have – but they’re going to care whether or not the organisations they engage with care about those things (almost double that of older groups - see the British Social Attitudes survey)
Arts organisations should think about how they can transition to being a community resource and a part of the conversations that are already happening

The next generation are shifting from hierarchical traditional artforms to having a more eclectic and unpredictable taste and this is heightened with algorithm-driven content
The experience is going to become more important as we continue to be engulfed in content. Audiences will be more discerning about the ‘how’ than the ‘what’, and there will be emphasis on things worth getting out for.
The post-pandemic era means having a mix of FOMO (fear of missing out) and FOGO (fear of going out). If people are going out it needs to be something different - liveness, presence in a place, intensity: “It’s just a bit harder to get around to doing things. In the past if it was 6.5/10 it would be worth going to – and now it needs to be an 8/10, it has to really grab you”.

What it means for arts organisations:

Don’t shy away from prototyping, testing and experimenting with different audience experience formats, alongside your new content ideas. As the experience takes centre-stage, it’s worthwhile to trial what works for different audience segments.

Become a place of conversation and engage in dialogue with your audiences. Asking “Do you enjoy things that feel and look like this?” instead of “do you like opera?” could reveal more about your audiences habits, desires and interests.
Keep being curious, creative and courageous!

AI: friend, not foe?

AI is demanding our attention, whether we love it or loathe it. Marketing consultant Jo Burnham described how we’re currently in a golden moment to acquaint ourselves with the nuances of AI - even if it's just a few minutes of trialling and testing here and there. Burnham’s session delved into the pragmatic uses of different AI tools to empower arts marketing professionals, along with delving into the crucial aspects of its ethics and challenges.

Burnham asserted that arts marketers hold a distinctive advantage to embolden how we communicate with our audiences in new and captivating ways – and encouraged them to:

Be curious: Most AI tools are free to use – don’t let yourself be sold. A key platform Burnham shared is www.futuretools.io, which collects all the emerging AI software in a user-friendly interface, equipped with categories and audience up-votes. Don’t get deterred by the ‘taboo’ – experiment to build up your own knowledge and even explore how using multiple tools together could empower your work.
Be creative: GPT4, Ask Your PDF, Bing Chat, MidJourney and DALL-E2 are just a few examples of tools that Burnham says arts marketers should be aware of. In terms of what they’re good for, getting a handle on prompt engineering for GPT4, for instance, can assist you with creating social media posts to signpost longform content, critiquing your own copywriting, reducing copy length, directing your own learning and helping you plan marketing outputs.
Be critical: As with any new way of working, it’s important to continually interrogate AI and weigh up its costs and benefits. When traversing this unfamiliar path, some aspects and questions Burnham invited us to start think about include: Is this tool actually producing good content? What’s real and what’s hype? What am I being sold? Data security (when in doubt – don’t!) and systemic bias.

Here are a few reflections from arts marketers shared via Burnham’s presentation:

“These tools are useful for getting keyword and hashtags without paying for an expensive service. It often comes out with answers that are far too verbose. You must be specific.” – Anna Whelan, Head of Marketing and Communications at Tara Theatre

“AI speeds up writing and it sounds more engaging than what I write, but you have to be careful with the accuracy of info and plagiarism.” – Marketing and Communications Manager at a theatre in Wales.

“There is potential that in 10 years’ time, people will look back on his moment and see AI as a transformative event in culture. It feels like there are huge developments happening at phenomenal speed. It feels like a refocusing or a re-framing taking place.” – Steven Franklin, Social Media Manager at the National Archives.

Be Bold; Be Brave

The Conference keynote by Leeds5 – a group of female black and brown cultural leaders – underscored the importance of getting to know your audience before inviting them to buy your tickets.

An analogy by Keranjeet Kaur Virdee, from South Asian Arts and one-fifth of Leeds5, summed it up perfectly: Would you accept an invitation to a wedding if you didn’t know the bride and groom? (Short answer: no.)

It takes time, effort and energy to develop relationships with diverse communities that you want to reach, ensuring you’re conscious of cultural sensitivities requires an on-stage and off-stage approach. Here are some things to consider:

Ditch the familiar: Cultural exchange thrives when we step outside of our comfort zones and reach beyond our safe space. Complacency keeps us tethered to what we know – and hampers our ability to understand the unique needs and perspectives of diverse audiences.
Unlock new perspectives: Kully Thiari of Leeds5 said ‘We know audiences are at the heart, but we continue to make assumptions about them.’ Listening and understanding the community you want to engage with is more than ticking a box – it’s an invitation to take part in real dialogue, absorb diverse experiences and foster meaningful connections.
Solutions over symbols: Leeds5 used the example of Blackout Tuesday to remind us of the importance of moving beyond grand gestures towards concrete actions – and be proactive to foster positive change in our accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability goals.

Despite the challenges of post-pandemic rebuilding and cost-of-living pressures, I left the AMA conference feeling affirmed that the future is as promising as it is dynamic. Armed with inspiration from our colleagues across the pond, I’m excited about how Patternmakers can help shift and shape the landscape of audience research as we look to the next chapter.

About the Author

Bianca Mulet
Senior Research Analyst

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Patternmakers 18/7/23 Patternmakers 18/7/23

The 3 audience segments you need to know about in 2023 (and how to reach them!)

Inflationary pressures are impacting three key audience segments, Older and Bolder, Family Frugality, and Young and Restless, in different ways. Read for the insights on each, and suggestions on targeted marketing strategies to ensure no one gets left behind.

In 2023, inflationary pressures are impacting audiences in different ways, with some continuing to spend and attend and others making careful choices.

The data from our latest Pulse Check revealed that audiences are behaving differently right now in response to the current economic climate. More than ever before, this requires targeted strategies for programming, ticketing and marketing.

Read on for the key facts about three key audience segments: Older and Bolder, Family Frugality, and Young and Restless, and suggestions on what to do to ensure no one gets left behind.

Older and Bolder

Arts audiences aged 55+

After several years shaped by the virus and mask-wearing, older audiences are now enjoying higher attendance levels and spending.

As the most likely audiences to experience no barriers to attending right now, this group is open to a range of experiences and are the most likely to seek out challenging, topical works in the next 12 months.
They are spending at higher levels than they were 6 months ago. 40% spent more than $100, compared to 37% in August 2022.
8 in 10 attended a cultural event in the past fortnight, the highest rate seen in the study since it began in March 2020.
Although most see the country’s economic outlook as uncertain, they also generally believe their financial situation will be stable in the year ahead.
Email is the top way they find out about events, so consider ways to continually improve your databases and eDMs.

One such audience member told us what they’ve been attending and why, saying:

“Musicals - Mary Poppins, & Juliet and an art exhibition as well as an open-air rock concert; after COVID lockdown I think I’m more inclined to not miss out on anything.”

— Audience member

Family Frugality

Arts audiences aged 35-55 with children living at home

Rising housing costs are affecting families more than households without children, and audiences with kids at home have reduced their arts spending more than others.

Parents are more likely to cite financial barriers (56% vs 35%) and/or prioritising other things in their life (36% vs 22%) than other audiences.
High numbers are staying closer to home, looking for free/cheap things to do and taking longer to commit, as they weigh up costs for 3 or more people.
Families see the arts as important for their children – and many are prioritising it within their budget.
For Kids and Family shows, consider a pricing and promotion strategy tailored to this group (they’re the most likely group to find out about events on Facebook!).

One survey respondent commented on ticket pricing, saying:

“Over the last year we’ve been to a number of big concerts and shows but I’d seriously reconsider spending more than about $75 a ticket for anything at this point. We just saw Into the Woods at Belvoir St and adult tickets were $82 but they had a student rate of $47 which made it doable as a family.”

— Audience member

Young and Restless

Arts audiences under 35

Young people tend to have lower incomes, and are among the most affected by financial barriers right now.

Although they’re eager to get out and about, young people are attending at slightly lower levels than they did 12 months ago.
They’re facing financial barriers at twice the rate of their parents’ generations – and feel more down about their economic future.
They say other barriers are also inhibiting their attendance – such as ‘lacking energy to go out’ (36%) and ‘prioritising other things in my life’ (31%).
They’re eager to connect socially, attend fun/uplifting events and try new things they haven’t experienced before, but may need support to attend.
Some are looking with keen eyes for student or youth discounts – and ways to cover the costs of travel and eating out.

One audience member mentioned discounts and seeking more for their money, saying:

“I have been to several Melbourne International Comedy Festival acts in the last month as well as the cinema a few times. That was prioritised due to the availability of discount codes and cheaper tickets for certain nights, plus the fact that many variety shows are available where multiple acts can be seen.”

— Audience member

Summary of segments

For easy viewing, click below to download the summary of all three segments as an infographic.

summary of segments

Catch up on the data

In case you missed it, we have a suite of audience research and resources available from our April 2023 Pulse Check. Check it out below!

National Snapshot Report

Read the report for key national insights and the detailed breakdown of the three audience segments.

national snapshot

State Snapshots

Read the snapshot reports for NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and WA to discover the nuances in audience behaviour at a state-level.

State snapshots

Webinar

Watch Tandi Palmer Williams, Managing Director at Patternmakers, and Ella Huisman, Executive Director - Audience at Adelaide Fringe discuss the main findings and results from the Pulse Check.

Webinar

Case Study: Adelaide Fringe

Read our article ‘How Adelaide Fringe sold 1 million tickets in the face of rising inflation’ for the key takeaways from one of the most successful campaigns of the year.

ARTICLE

Cover Image Credit: Samuel Graves, The Garden of Unearthly Delights at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2023, courtesy of Adelaide Fringe.

Author

Melanie Raveendran
Digital Marketing Associate

Past posts on this blog:

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Patternmakers 25/5/23 Patternmakers 25/5/23

How Adelaide Fringe sold 1 million tickets in the face of rising inflation

In our latest Audience Outlook Monitor webinar, discussing the April 2023 results on how rising inflation is impacting audiences, Tandi Palmer Williams spoke to Ella Huisman, Executive Director – Audience at Adelaide Fringe, about one of the most successful campaigns of the year so far.

In our latest Audience Outlook Monitor webinar, discussing the April 2023 results on how rising inflation is impacting audiences, Tandi Palmer Williams spoke to Ella Huisman, Executive Director – Audience at Adelaide Fringe, about one of the most successful campaigns of the year so far.

At the Adelaide Fringe program launch, CEO Heather Croall announced a goal to sell 1 million tickets in 2023. With 828,563 tickets sold in 2019, they had been on track to reach 1 million by 2024, but while the festival was able to go ahead throughout the pandemic, progress was stalled, with sales dropping to 623,667 in 2021.

Despite this, the Fringe team got on board and rolled out a ‘mission to 1 million campaign’. At 10pm on the final night of the festival, Ella (who had spent the campaign furiously analysing ticketing data and refreshing dashboards) and her team watched sales tick over to 1,000,000.

So, how did they do it? Watch the recording of the webinar here, or read on for our key takeaways.

Flash sales can help curb last-minute ticket buying behaviour – and corporate sponsorships can ease the financial impact of discounting tickets

The Audience Outlook Monitor has highlighted a trend of last-minute ticket buying. In August 2022, 26% of audience members were most likely to have been booking for events within the next seven days or the next 2-3 weeks (43%) – and qualitative data in April 2023 suggests this trend could be here to stay.

Ella says Adelaide Fringe has observed this trend, calling watching ticket sales crawl in ‘everyone’s worst nightmare’.

One of the tactics they employed was a sponsored flash sale, where audiences get access to cheaper tickets and the sponsor pays the artist the difference – rewarding early ticket-buyers without impacting the artists’ box office return.

All types of audiences are seeking free or cheap events – which the Adelaide Fringe Festival had in the hundreds

The average ticket price at 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival was $35.25, and there are hundreds of free events available – meaning the Festival had plenty of affordable options for those who are opting to limit their arts spending at the moment.

This is a plus for arts audiences, many of whom have reduced spending or actively sought free/cheap activities in the last 6 months. The proportion spending over $50 on tickets to in-person cultural events has decreased from 63% in August and October 2022 to 59% in April 2023, and 54% of arts audiences say they’ve looked for free/cheap cultural activities to attend over the past 6 months.

With economic conditions affecting segments of arts audiences differently, targeted marketing strategies help sell more tickets, to more people

According to the April Pulse Check results, audiences in different age and households are behaving quite distinctly. In terms of cost-of-living pressures, older audiences are the most likely to say their situation is the same (58%), while parents are the most likely to say they are ‘worse off’ (57%) – and young audiences under 35 are feeling the most negative about the economic outlook. Different groups have different programming preferences too, for example audiences over 55 are more likely to be attracted to challenging, topical things (44% vs 39% of those under 35) – and the best places to reach them differ (over 55s are all over email, parents aged 35-55 are on Facebook and under 35s are best reached through Word of Mouth).

Adelaide Fringe used a range of tactics during their ticket sales campaign, such as eDMs and targeted advertising, based on which genres and themes audiences have purchased in the past, as well as post code targeting for shows outside the CBD to speak directly to the people at the local level.

Ella says they also regularly audit their database so that they’re only targeting engaged people, which involves a series of reengagement emails, including allowing them to choose specific genres or subjects they’re interested in hearing about. Even though it can seem counterintuitive to regularly delete subscribers, Ella says it has many benefits, like increasing open and click through rates, helping them to sell advertising among other things. Ella says,

‘It’s great to say you’ve got 500,000 subscribers but if they’re not actually engaging it’s expensive to have them on your system, your open rates aren’t as good, and you’re wasting time sending messaging to people that aren’t interested.’

The location of events is also impacting 33% of audiences more than usual, and 45% say they are staying closer to home – highlighting a need for campaigns and programming outside metro areas

With costs of parking, fuel, air tickets and hospitality all increasing, qualitative data from the April Pulse Check suggests that proximity to events plays an important role in audiences’ ticket buying decisions.

To tackle this, Adelaide Fringe developed a Near Me Now function on their website, allowing audiences to easily access a list of shows near their current location, ordered by time. The also launched a Fringe Across the State campaign to promote Fringe events outside Adelaide, and provided grant funding to artists to add regional SA locations on a mini-tour.

With cost-of-living and other pressures piling up, clear and simple marketing and ticketing processes can help get indecisive audiences over the line

Being sent to another website to buy tickets, or having to click one too many times to find the information they’re looking, for can be enough to make anyone close the browser and move on. With many audiences prioritising other things or being stricter when choosing where to spend their money, it’s important to make it as easy as possible to find information, buy a ticket and get to your event.

The Adelaide Fringe team have invested in perfecting the user journey to purchase tickets. Ella says,

‘We’ve spent a lot of time and energy to make our platforms really intuitive, focusing on user journey and making the experience of buying a ticket on our website seamless to create a higher box office return for artists.’

With all festival events on sale through the Adelaide Fringe’s website, regardless of the venue, audiences can easily access everything in one place (and Fringe gets access to bucketloads of audience data, helping them deliver their targeted campaigns. Win-win!).

To hear more about the factors in Adelaide Fringe’s success, and how you might apply them in your own campaigns, watch the April Pulse Check Webinar. To dive deeper into the data, download the National Snapshot report.

Cover Image Credit: Veronique Balege. French performance art company Les Commandos Percu’s 'Silence!', performed at Adelaide Fringe, 2023.

About the Author

Caitlin McNaughton
Manager, Research and Insights

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Patternmakers 4/5/23 Patternmakers 4/5/23

Visitor Research, Interactive Technology and Sausage Rolls

How are museums in Australia and Aotearoa conducting visitor research? Click to read our insights on tried and tested methods, such as surveying, to newer strategies like interactive technology.

How are museums in Australia and Aotearoa conducting visitor research? Read on for our insights on tried and tested methods, such as surveying, to newer strategies like interactive technology.

Recently I headed to Canberra for the Visitor Research Forum at Geoscience Australia. As well as watching earthquake monitoring in action and touching a 3.8-billion-year-old piece of the moon on loan from NASA, it was great to get insight into the ways that museums in Australia and Aotearoa are tackling visitor research.

I was particularly excited to hear from my hometown museum, Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. As a kid, I remember wanting to tick off the same things during every visit to Te Papa: the interactive house that recreated the experience of an earthquake, Golden Days, a short film that brought you into an old junk shop to highlight some key historical moments, Time Warp, a high tech (for the 90s) exhibit where a girl with a cool haircut called Rima took you virtual snowboarding in the future, and of course a visit to the café for a sausage roll and hot choc. These experiences are seared into my brain – and I remember feeling a strong sense of ownership and belonging, especially when bringing someone new to the museum.

The State of Visitor Surveying in Australia and Aotearoa

At the forum, Te Papa spoke about their in-house evaluation framework in 2018 called the 'Audience Impact Model (AIM)'. Created out of a drive to move away from 'vanity metrics' and a recognition that 'numbers are only the beginning', the model evaluates impact from visitor experience, looking at metrics like wonder, awe, emotion, learning, influence and change.

Other presenters talked through their different surveying models which ranged from basic on-site surveys capturing key KPIs for reporting to instruments that contribute to impact evaluation such as DoVE (Dimensions of Visitor Experience), an adjective checklist designed by Jan Packer, Roy Ballantyne and Nigel Bond.

While visitor surveys provide important understanding of who is visiting museums, why they’re visiting and how satisfied they are with their experience, most presenters acknowledged that, on their own, surveys are rarely enough.

Image Credit: James Henry, courtesy of ACMI.

Alternative and complementary methods

The Australian War Memorial spoke about a rigorous iterative design process they are undertaking as part of their $500 million dollar redevelopment. The methodology includes a national survey, as well as focus groups and reference/advisory groups formed from people with lived experience, described as ‘story owners’, offering vital qualitative insights from visitors and stakeholders.

At Patternmakers, we’re conscious of survey fatigue and only use surveying strategically. We’re also committed to the idea of ‘collect once, use often’ – such as with the Audience Outlook Monitor, where each phase of data collection is reported in multiple formats, distributed to over 100 participating organisations and shared publicly online.

For us the answer to less surveying often lies in stronger qualitative research. Often, we’re using focus groups and interviews in an exploratory phase, to help design a framework for surveys. Other times, we’re using focus groups to dive deeper into findings identified in quantitative research.

For example, we offer focus groups to our museum and gallery clients, in addition to on-site exit intercept surveying, to help give colour and deeper insight on certain emerging trends or questions we can’t quite interpret from the survey data alone.

Leveraging interactive technology in museums to gather quantitative data

The main thing my formative museum experiences had in common was an interactive or multi-sensory element (and the promise of a snack). Young people are generally more easily engaged by digital and interactive experiences, and more museums and galleries are leaning into interactive and digital elements in their curation – even something as simple as a QR code on an exhibit label is a starting point.

ACMI’s new Strategic Research Lead, Dr Indigo Holcombe-Jones, spoke to this point at the Forum. With a focus on digital and screen culture, ACMI is in a good position to lead in this area, and one exciting innovation is ACMI’s Lens, a free handheld device which allows visitors to tap and ‘collect’ things they saw during their visit and revisit them online later.

As well as encouraging visitors to engage in multi-sensory ways, the Lens has potential to improve understanding of how people are actually interacting with exhibition content. Even if a visitor doesn’t register their lens online, anonymous data can be captured with every tap. This alone might not give a full picture of visitor behaviour – but paired with other data sources like observations, surveying and actual attendance figures, a more complete picture of visitor experience can be painted.

Equally, interactive digital labels on exhibitions can help track who is clicking what, or even QR codes can provide Google Analytics data on which exhibits make people want to read further.

When Te Papa opened in the late 90s it was an exciting and contemporary reimagining of what many New Zealanders thought museums could be. It wasn't just the sausage rolls that got me through the door again and again, and I think 90s Caitlin would have loved a special card to tap every time she visited Te Papa’s Time Warp, or the ability to log in online and hang out with her virtual buddy Rima. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, elements of her visitor journey could have been tracked over the years, and contributed to Te Papa's understanding of its impact.

Cover Image Credit: Shannon McGrath, courtesy of ACMI.

About the Author

Caitlin McNaughton
Manager, Research and Insights

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Patternmakers 15/12/22 Patternmakers 15/12/22

The Power of Youth Arts

In 2022, the Patternmakers team has been working in collaboration with the Australian Theatre for Young People on a new research resource about the power of youth arts. Find out what we know about young people and the arts, as supported by the research literature. Download the research guide for the full story.

What the research tells us about the benefits of performing arts participation for children and young people.

Image Credit: Tracey Schramm, courtesy of ATYP.

What do we know?

As human beings we are drawn to arts and culture - for entertainment, fun, and vibrancy in our lives.
But there is growing body of evidence indicating that arts have powerful health, social and educational benefits – for individuals, communities and our society as a whole.
The research shows there are important applications across our lifespans: with a role to play in everything from early childhood education, to aged care, to intergenerational bonding.
For young people in particular, arts appear to have a special power. However, insights from research are not well known – even among those involved in it on a daily basis.
The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) and Patternmakers identified an opportunity for this evidence to be consolidated and shared – and this publication is the result.

Download the guide

5 things we know about young people and arts, supported by the literature:

Youth arts provides a platform for young people to explore important ideas - and boosts civic engagement.
Arts participation provides socio-emotional benefits for young people that can act as protective factors against mental illness.
Arts can be used therapeutically or ‘on prescription’ to fight depression, anxiety, and PTSD in young people.
Arts participation is associated with better educational outcomes for students, including stronger academic performance.
Arts-rich education improves students’ motivation, engagement, attendance, and school enjoyment

Why was it created?

This document is designed to highlight some of the striking insights that have been gathered through quality research – and real-life examples of the insights in practice.
For decades, researchers in Australia and around the world have completed detailed and rigorous work exploring and quantifying the benefits of arts participation.
However, the insights are often located within academic journals, conference papers and government websites. We don’t always have the time, resources, or prior knowledge to find it, access it, or understand it.
The same applies to the many examples of impact being generated by arts organisations and youth companies making work by, with, and for children and young people. Some of the most exciting stories are not heard by the people that search for them.

Image Credit: Clare Hawley, courtesy of ATYP.

How should it be used?

The purpose of this guide is to help you navigate your way around different studies and sources, so you can find what’s relevant to you – whether you’re a policy-maker, stakeholder, arts manager, practitioner, or parent.
We hope this guide will be used as a point of connection with the literature. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to highlight what stands out from some of the highest quality, most relevant studies.
We hope you will follow the links, read the studies, examine their strengths and limitations, and understand how they relate to you and your work.
Ultimately, we want to shine a light on the robust evidence for youth participation in arts – with the hope that young people across Australia will benefit as a result.

Click to download the guide:

Click to download the summary:

Header Image Credit: Brett Boardman, courtesy of ATYP.

About the Author

Holly Davison
Senior Research Analyst

Categories

Patternmakers 28/10/22 Patternmakers 28/10/22

What's next in terms of flood recovery for the creative industries?

In 2022, the Patternmakers team has been working on a project to assist with creative industries flood recovery. Here, we share the 5 top areas of need, and 6 recommendations for intervention, to ensure the creative industries flourishes again after the disaster.

In late 2022, the Patternmakers team has been working with Arts Northern Rivers on a project to assist with creative industries flood recovery. Here, we share the 5 top areas of need, and 6 recommendations for intervention, to ensure the creative industries flourish again after the disaster.

The Northern Rivers Creative Industries Recovery Forum was held on 28 and 29 July 2022, five months after severe storms and flooding hit communities across Northern NSW and Southern QLD.

Over 200 artists and arts workers gathered in Lismore, NSW, to connect and discuss the question: ‘What’s next in terms of creative industries recovery?’. We were excited to be in good company with Arts Northern Rivers and Creative Plus Business leading the proceedings.

After two big days following the Open Space methodology, a total of 45 topics were raised and documented in a ‘Book of Proceedings’.

This week, Patternmakers and Arts Northern Rivers are pleased to share our report on the Forum and sector priorities. It is based on an analysis of the Book of Proceedings, a series of interviews following the Forum, and a desktop review of relevant data, including Northern Rivers demographic information, recovery funding information, and the NSW Government’s 2022 Flood Inquiry report.

It summarises the areas of need and makes recommendations for the priority interventions required for recovery of the region’s creative industries.

Download the report

Areas of need

There are 5 interrelated areas of need in the region’s creative industries following the 2022 floods:

REPAIR: Supporting artists and organisations to replace losses and rebuild their practices by ensuring functional and safe studio spaces for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, in addition to replacing lost equipment and materials, communicating opportunities for assistance and administering mental health first aid.
PREPARE: Helping artists and organisations disaster-proof their practice and strengthen resilience by building disaster management capacity, sharing learnings and insights through events and resources, creating new roles to support preparedness and developing flood-proof practices for all art-forms.
INFLUENCE: Advocating for the creative industries and ensuring artists are central to recovery by finding creative solutions to ‘build back better’, ensuring Council’s allocate space for creative work, ensuring the creative industries have a strong voice in policy and investment decisions, prioritising diverse voices and improving funding processes.
WORK: Creating opportunities for artists to work, generate earnings and support community recovery including exploring a wide variety of models, facilitating residencies, enabling diverse public art projects to take place, bringing artists together to support one another and harnessing the arts to heal parts of the community in need.
THRIVE: Working towards a more equitable, vibrant and newly flourishing arts sector, by stimulating ambitious creative activities like major events and festivals, ensuring there are trajectories for emerging artists, putting First Nations first, increasing the reach of Northern Rivers arts and changing perceptions of regional arts.

Intervention is needed to remove barriers and stimulate the recovery process

Some people and groups have been disproportionately affected, and some face risks and barriers in the recovery process – particularly in the context of the ongoing housing crisis.

Working with Arts Northern Rivers we identified six ecommendations for intervention by peak bodies, government agencies, businesses, and other stakeholders.

1. SPACE

Many creative spaces were damaged and lack access to space is a major impediment to recovery. Identifying suitable properties, liaising with stakeholders and sourcing funding for spaces is an urgent priority for all artforms and all areas of the region, but particularly in Lismore and for First Nations artists.

2. CAPACITY

Much has been learned about disaster recovery and a range of new skills are needed. Investing in professional development opportunities and knowledge sharing is vital to spur creative recovery and ensure preparedness.

3. FUNDING

Loss of economic opportunity is hugely problematic. Funding and partnerships are needed for residencies, commissions and projects. Opportunities are needed for short-, medium- and long-term horizons, from levels of government across a range of portfolio areas, and private sources.

4. FIRST NATIONS

The region’s First Nations artists and cultural workers have been hit hard, and may not have equal access to space or support. Investing in specific forms of support for the region’s First Nations artists and cultural workers is essential, including Indigenous-led spaces, programs and events.

5. ACCESS

Some people and organisations have not been able to access recovery initiatives, due to disability, language barriers and socio-economic disadvantage. It’s important to review and improve accessibility of support for people from all backgrounds and ensure there are specific strategies in place to address inequities.

6. COMMUNICATION

The disaster has heightened isolation and it’s vital there are ongoing opportunities for the creative industries to connect, share information and exchange ideas related to the recovery process.

Many of these interventions will deliver benefits for the creative industries and the wider community. If designed with care, there is potential to rebuild a sector that is thriving and generates artistic, social and economic benefits across the region and for Australia as a whole.

Get in touch

The issues, needs and opportunities identified in the report are not exhaustive. While an effort has been made to speak to and reflect the perspectives of a broad range of stakeholders and representatives from the Northern Rivers community, the situation is constantly changing. People recover at different rates and new needs will continue to reveal themselves.

If the report has raised any questions, suggestions or ideas, or you’d like to offer your feedback, you can fill out the feedback form here: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7081267/Creative-Industries-Flood-Recovery-Report-Feedback

We’d love to hear from you. This report is the product of conversations and collaborations of artists and arts workers from across the Northern Rivers and beyond. It’s vital that we continue hearing from the voices of those affected, working together to deliver the changes the region needs

Image Credit: Kate Holmes, courtesy of Arts Northern Rivers.

About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director

Tandi is Founder and Managing Director of Patternmakers. She’s an arts research specialist and leader of the agency’s research projects.

Categories

Patternmakers 19/7/22 Patternmakers 19/7/22

Introducing new research resources on art and young people

Watch Tandi Palmer Williams from Patternmakers present for the FUSE Youth Arts Summit as she discusses the National Youth Arts Connections Program - a new research resource in development with ATYP.

What if more people knew about the benefits of the arts for children and young people?

That is the question we’re asking as we develop a new research resource for the National Youth Arts Connections program. The resource will share a set of key messages about the value of the arts for young people - backed up with quality, relevant research.

It emerged from conversations about the need for stronger connections, advocacy, and discussion with governments and funders about what youth performing arts programs can deliver.

Read on to find out what exactly we’re doing, why, and how you can contribute to fulfilling its potential. We’d love your help!

Why develop a new resource?

There’s a growing body of evidence about the value of the arts for children and young people, but much of it is not well known. It’s buried in journals, conference papers and websites all over the country, and the world.

It’s not always in language that the average person can understand, or in a format that can be used and shared.

Many arts workers in the youth arts sector lack the time and resources to read journal articles or engage in research and/or advocacy.

What we’re doing

As a part of the National Youth Arts Connections program, supported by the Ian Potter Foundation, ATYP and Patternmakers identified an opportunity for the knowledge base to be consolidated and shared.

The goal of the project is to curate, design and share a set of evidence-based key messages - i.e. statements about youth arts that can be backed up with infographic, research citations, case studies, and links to further resources.

Presentation: Parables of Value: Introducing the NYAC Research Resources

Watch Tandi Palmer Williams from Patternmakers present for the FUSE Youth Arts Summit as she discusses the new research resource, in development with ATYP.

She provides an overview of some of the challenges and limitations, and calls for input and feedback to strengthen the draft messages.

For your convenience, you can download the presentation slides here.

We’d love your feedback!

Please take a few moments to answer the questions below about NYAC Key Messages. With your help, we can make this resource as useful as possible for all involved.

Thanks to all of those involved so far, including the Australian Theatre for Young People and stakeholders in the National Youth Arts Connections program.

Stay tuned for the final resource in September 2022!

NYAC Key Messages Feedback

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About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director

Tandi is Founder and Managing Director of Patternmakers. She’s an arts research specialist and leader of the agency’s research projects.

Categories

Patternmakers 6/4/20 Patternmakers 6/4/20

The art of adaptation

A journalist friend asked our MD recently how the culture sector is adapting, and whether she was seeing exciting examples of digital innovation already emerging from the crisis.

To which she answered yes. And, no. And not yet. Here’s why.

A journalist friend asked me recently how the culture sector is adapting, and whether I was seeing exciting examples of digital innovation already emerging from the crisis.

To which I answered yes. And, no. And not yet. Here’s why.

Why I said ‘yes’

Yes, some cultural experiences are rapidly moving online. Like the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra streaming live performances on YouTube mere hours after announcements that performing arts venues in Victoria would close.

In the past few weeks we've seen some incredible offerings emerge. In fact, there were a lot of cultural offerings already online, some of them crying out for a larger audience to find them. From the treasure troves of Europeana (the online collections of over 3,500 European museums, libraries and archives) to innovative contemporary performance experiences like AudioPlay (an interactive audio theatre game for kids), there are some impressive options to choose from.

But it's important to state that many of these digital experiences have been years in the making, required significant investment and deep thinking by teams of highly-trained people.

Which brings me to the ‘no’ part of my answer.

Why I said ‘no’

There are a lot of artists (and large cultural organisations) out there who are still in crisis mode, who overnight lost their income and their potential to earn one for the forseeable future. The events and experiences they have worked on for months or years are (in the short term at least) now redundant.

For those professionals (who FYI were already in one of the most highly educated yet underpaid professions in our country) it's critical that they get the support they need to survive. Only with the benefit of food, shelter and security, for themselves and their families, can they even contemplate making new work for a new world, or ‘adapting’ works for online consumption.

Which brings me to the task of digital adaptation itself, and why my final answer is 'not yet'.

Why I said ‘not yet’

Having previously been Research Manager for technology innovation program the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts in England, I know that the digital environment brings its own opportunities and challenges. I've seen many tech innovation projects fall short of their goals because creating engaging experiences online is not straightforward.

Yes, the world's online population is now your potential audience (and it’s spending more time online than ever before), but you’re also competing with the world's artists, institutions, influencers and broadcasters.

Adapting a gig designed for the physical world and expecting equivalent digital attendance is not a given. Adapting an exhibition designed for the physical world and expecting an equivalent experience is not a given. Adapting a product designed for the physical world and expecting equivalent sales is definitely not a given.

Digital cultural experiences are different. Not better, or worse, but definitely different.

Producing great quality digital experiences requires in-depth knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of digital platforms, and the attitudes and behaviours of digital audiences (#attentionspans!).

For instance, online, you can lose that visceral feeling of ‘live’-ness, but you can gain new forms of access, with cameras able to provide close ups of actors you would never see in a theatre (NT Live was one of the first to master this for cinema audiences).

With mobile technology like apps, there’s no captive audience waiting for the show to start, but you can reach people anywhere. And there's more potential for interactivity, and personalised experiences, like Karen, an experimental mobile theatre experience by Blast Theory that psychologically profiles you as you play, adapting the performance to you.

One of the big elephant-sized questions in the room is the extent to which audiences are willing to pay for digital experiences, and the relative cost of developing high quality offerings online. I Lost My Gig has calculated that more than $325 million has been lost from the performing arts industry since the pandemic began, and only time will tell what proportion can be 'recovered' online in the coming months and years.

I answered 'not yet' because mastering the art of adaptation is going to take time. And money (there is more to this than live-streaming events on YouTube). If we're serious about quality (in the arts is there any other way?) it's going to require new innovation programs, accelerators, training and capacity building. New techniques, new platforms, new business models. New partnerships and collaborations between cultural organisations and technology firms, artists and software programmers, musicians and graphic designers, producers and UX experts.

My team will be working on providing insight to artists and cultural organisations about audience demand, tastes, preferences, behaviour and spending, and how the situation is changing. We'll be releasing new data sets, running webinars, facilitating digital focus groups and testing products.

Collectively, we're going to have to do a lot of failing before we see gold. But if that journalist asks me again in a year's time, I know I'll be sharing examples of products and experiences that we simply can't comprehend today.

Ultimately, it will be artists who show us the art of what's possible online, assuming they get the investment and support they need. There is literally no-one better placed to blow our virtual socks off. But not yet. Patience!

This article was first published on LinkedIn

Image credit: David Collins for Audio Play

About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director

Tandi is Founder and Managing Director of Patternmakers. She’s an arts research specialist and leader of the agency’s research projects.

Past posts on this blog

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Patternmakers 12/12/19 Patternmakers 12/12/19

What got us talking in 2019

In 2019 our MD Tandi Palmer Williams took to LinkedIn to share ideas with you. Here are the top articles that had us talking.

The end of the year is a great time for reflection, and a great opportunity to take a look at what’s unfolded this year, what’s worked well and where to improve, before bracing for the next.

Tandi took to LinkedIn this year, to share ideas on audience development, strategic planning and data culture. Here are some highlights:

First-time visitors need more than a map

A visit to the #TateModern had us thinking about how we give first-time attendees the best possible experience.

What constitutes a 'promising program' in the arts?

The Australian Institute of Family Studies has a definition of 'promising' and 'emerging' programs. Would this work in the arts?

Do you know when to act and when to evaluate?

As leaders, we need to judge when to pause and evaluate our work. But no-one wants 'analysis paralysis'. What if there was a decision-tree help guide our evaluation decisions?

Are micro-experiments they key to developing audiences?

Two years after working together, we looked back on a past client and everything they've achieved since. It led to some ideas about how small experiments can add up to big changes.

What if the arts sector was data-rich?

Arts and culture organisations are along the least likely to measure their success - but we chose to see that as an opportunity.

Power moves: How evaluation can help you prepare for multi-year funding applications

For our arts & culture colleagues applying for funding this year, we shared some ideas about how research and evaluation can help you refine your strategic direction and test new ideas.

Header image credit: Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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Patternmakers 25/1/19 Patternmakers 25/1/19

Power moves: How evaluation can help you prepare for multi-year funding applications

Are you applying for multi-year funding in 2019? Here are five things you can do to strengthen your work, consolidate impact and improve your chances of success in upcoming funding rounds.

Are you applying for multi-year funding in 2019? Then you need to get your evidence base sorted! And it’s not too late to start.

Here are five things you can do to strengthen your work, consolidate impact and put your best foot forward in upcoming funding rounds.

1. STRUCTURE: Ensure your evaluation framework is up to date

If you don’t already have an evaluation framework in place for the organisation, now is the time to map your program logic or theory of change, and identify some questions relating to your efficiency, effectiveness and ultimate impact. Depending on your size, you might think about this at the project, program or organisation level – or a combination.

There are a bunch of free guides and tools for this out there, but we think the one in the Program planning and evaluation guide from the Australian Institute of Family Studies has just the right amount of detail.

If you’ve already developed this (or there’s something similar buried in your share drive somewhere), dust it off at your next team meeting and do a quick discussion on what aspects might need to be refreshed. Appoint someone to lead the work of getting it up to date, approved and communicated to your board and staff.

2. GATHER: Analyse your reach and impact

Impact evaluations are fast becoming an essential management tool for arts and culture organisations. They assist teams to understand the extent to which they are having an impact in the world, what is working well, and what isn’t, and exactly what factors are delivering the best outcomes. They can also help teams to work out the gaps and opportunities in their current programs and clarify the best future direction.

For instance, the Australia Council’s funding guidelines assessment criteria talk about identifying impact and need, which can be demonstrated through evaluation.

You can evaluate your impact through qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research, depending on what is most appropriate to address the priority questions in your evaluation framework.

Some basic qualitative questions to ask are:

What was the best part about Program X?

What could we improve?

What have you taken away from your experience with Program X?

Some quantitative questions to ask are:

On a scale from 1 to 5, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with Program X?

On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely are you to recommend X to a friend or colleague?

You can also ask this last one on a scale from 0 to 10, and use the results to calculate a Net Promoter Score which can be benchmarked with other programs and events.

3. TEST: Gather evidence about what is needed in future

As a part of the strategic planning process, it can be helpful to gather hard data on what your community, participants and/or stakeholders want to see in future. This could include running a consultation process using interviews or focus groups, or running a survey of your stakeholders.

You can also prompt people with a list of potential new initiatives or priorities, and ask people to select their top three. Doing a temperature check like this can be enormously useful in helping you prioritise limited resources – and it gives you an evidence base to fall back on if people challenge your investments.

For example, Creative Plus Business conducted a survey to find out what people wanted from a creative business conference. Collecting data from their community gave them confidence that their plans were on track and is helping ensure the likelihood of a successful event.

As our colleague Bridget Jones at Wavelength said in a recent post, ‘One of the great things about planning is that it helps managers make the tough decisions about what to do - and what not to do - so they can be more successful.’ She also refers to some useful planning templates from Bridgespan to help you keep it real.

Your questions should partly be open ended, e.g.: ‘What would you like to see from us moving forward?’ or ‘What ideas can you share for our program in the next three years?’

4. SCAN: Analyse the case for investment

Before you lock down your strategic priorities, it’s important to conduct a scan of the wider environment. Analysing big picture statistical trends is an important step in prioritising initiatives and working out the case for investment.

You can do this by examining reliable sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, thought leaders like Nesta (check out their predictions for 2019), data aggregators like Google Trends and academic research news articles like The Conversation.

Patternmakers also offer a series of short talks, designed for staff meetings, board meetings and strategic planning days (contact info@thepatternmakers.com.au for more information).

Your goal here is to look for alignment (or otherwise) between your plans, and where the world is heading in the next 1-5 years. For instance, topics like mental health are rising in importance, whereas some retail industries are under threat.

According to the Australia Council’s Strategic Plan Framework, you can consider producing a strategic/context analysis which summarises the strategic issues you expect your organisation to face over the next 3 years. This is often based on an assessment of your internal and external environments to identify the organisations strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. It is a distillation of analysis and research undertaken by your organisation to underpin the artistic choices you have made and the goals you have set.

5. PLAN: Work out how you’ll monitor and evaluate your progress

It’s good practice to set up your evaluation framework and methodology before you start a new funding period, new project or initiative. It doesn’t have to be super detailed, and things will undoubtedly change, but showing the assessment committee that you’ve thought about this in advance is just smart.

The key questions are basically what, when, how, why and who will be monitoring and evaluating your progress. How is the big one here, and specifically, how it will be resourced.

As a rule of thumb, I usually advise leaders in arts and culture organisations to set aside 3-5% of their resources for any given period or program for monitoring and evaluation. This doesn’t mean spending 5% on hiring a consultant, most of the work should be done internally, on things like the steps above. It’s also important to be growing your team’s skills – through things like training in research and evaluation.

___

So there you have it: Structure, Gather, Test, Scan & Plan. The geek’s guide to getting ready for your strongest application yet.

If this all sounds overwhelming, and you think there’s a case to invest in the help of a professional, you can get in touch to schedule your free consultation by emailing info@thepatternmakers.com.au. We can provide resources and templates to help you, recommend training that would suit your team, and scope out where you need professional support.

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Patternmakers 11/12/18 Patternmakers 11/12/18

Top 5 most clicked news items for 2018

The end of the year is a great time for reflection, and being the lovers of data that we are at Patternmakers, this means evaluating at our own activity. And so, here are the top five articles that you loved most from our 2018 Culture Insight & Innovation Updates.

The end of the year is a great time for reflection, and a great opportunity to take a look at what’s unfolded this year, what’s worked well and where to improve, before bracing for the next.

Being the lovers of data that we are at Patternmakers, this means evaluating at our own activity. And so, here are the top five articles that you loved most from our 2018 Culture Insight & Innovation Updates.

5. It’s Time for the Arts to Rally Around Standardised Outcomes Americans For The Arts

The arts struggle to reach consensus on impact measurement metrics. This article is a rally cry for the US arts sector agree on metrics to leverage commercial sector beliefs via evidence.

4. Beyond the Bio: Dr Catherine Davis Patternmakers

We were pleased to announce when sociologist Dr Catherine Davis joined our team as Senior Research Analyst. Join us as we take few moments to go beyond the bio and get to know our team's newest addition.

3. New ticket buying data for Australian electorates Australia Council for the Arts

Check out this spiffy new interactive resource which combines research on arts engagement, employment and ticketing trends in each of Australia’s 150 federal electorates. Nice work from the OzCo research team.

2. Australian arts & culture statistical snapshots Department of Communications & the Arts

Prepared by the ABS, the jurisdiction profiles provide a comprehensive overview of arts and culture at the national and state and territory level. A useful reference for advocacy work.

And our most popular article for the year was…

1. The economic value of cultural + creative activity Bureau of Communications & Arts Research

This new report (and nifty video) from the BCAR features time series analysis of the contribution of cultural and creative activity Australia’s economy. Interestingly, while the value has risen, the percentage of GDP has fallen.

If you want to get our Insight Updates direct to your inbox each month, sign up below and we’ll make sure you don’t miss any important new research.

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Patternmakers 31/8/18 Patternmakers 31/8/18

Are we ready for Generation Alpha?

Lately I’ve been thinking hard about how young people engage with art, culture and creativity. As mother of a one year old, my life (and arts participation patterns) have changed dramatically in the past year. Late nights at the theatre and gigs have been replaced with mornings at the museum, reading stories and pushing a pram through community festivals.

Late nights at the theatre and gigs have been replaced with mornings at the museum, reading stories and pushing a pram through community festivals.

Leo loved the immersive sound and animation in Ryoji Ikeda’s immersive exhibition Micro | Macro at Carriageworks. He enjoyed touching (and drooling all over) the art blanket at the MCA’s Art Baby class for mums and bubs. And the whole family enjoyed a trip to Mona Foma, the summertime festival of Tasmania’s excellent Museum of Old and New Art with food, drink and music aplenty.

What will engage the next generation?

It got me thinking about the kinds of experiences that kids of his generation will have access to.

Will they be in theatres, shopping malls, schools or virtual worlds? Will he be a viewer, a player, a protagonist or a performer?

What kinds of experiences will bring him to tears, send goosebumps down his spine and help him make sense of the worlds he inhabits?

New research in the UK with almost 2,000 young people suggests that today’s young people recognise quite different definitions to previous generations.

Arts Connect, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre and We are Frilly found that young people associate 'art' with visual arts but arts also includes graffiti, fashion, animation, and tattooing/piercing - all of which were more widely defined as art than novels, poetry and opera.

Culture, they found, is a broader concept for them, which includes identity. They do relate to sector recognised forms such as festivals, historic sites, carnivals and museums, but also wider forms such as fashion and TV, learning a language and food.

The Australia Council's arts participation research indicates one of the biggest trends is the rise of creative participation, relative to receptive participation as an audience member.

More and more, young people want to express their own creativity, learn new skills and access immersive experiences, and the trajectory is not slowing down.

Are we ready?

So how are our artists, organisations and major institutions adapting to these changes?

I suspect we could be doing more.

Research is one of the best ways for us to identify trends and anticipate the changes that will be needed. But we also need to be testing new concepts and experimenting with new forms of engagement.

One great creative industries example I saw recently is PlayingField, a 'game jam' where teams of professional game developers are paired with young people aged 10 to 13 and tasked with realising their game idea.

The two-day experience has been designed to educate young people about the wide variety of roles available in the industry, whilst giving the young participants a chance to devise a game idea and see it brought to life in the hands of inspiring role models.

The impact of programs like this could be profound.

Research with young people

This year we are lucky to be working with The MCA to evaluate their GENEXT program for 12-18 year olds, working with the MCAs youth committee to design & deliver the a methodology that will trace what ideas past participants have taken into their adult lives.

We are working with Barking Gecko Theatre Company to explore the impact of their Ensembles program for 5 to 17 year olds on things like confidence, empathy and relationships.

We are also lucky to be again working with UTS, Australia’s #1 young university to explore the role of art on campus, and how it can support reflection, knowledge sharing and debate among students, researchers and the public.

I can’t wait to see what we find out about how young people want to engage with the arts now, and where things are headed next.

Maybe now I've got a vested interest!

If you have an idea about how research and evaluation can help unearth new possibilities for young people and the arts, get in touch with the team at info@thepatternmakers.com.au.

About the Author

Tandi Williams
Managing Director

Patternmakers’ Founder and Managing Director Tandi Williams is an experienced consultant and arts and culture research specialist.

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Patternmakers 7/2/17 Patternmakers 7/2/17

5 Data Trends for the Arts in 2017

We've been thinking about where arts and culture research is heading in 2017 so we're sharing the top five trends on our radar.

At Patternmakers, if we don’t have our heads down in data models, we have our heads up in the clouds – the data clouds, that is.

We’ve been thinking about where arts and culture research is heading in 2017, and here we share with you the top five trends on our radar.

1. Data culture

In 2016, we saw more arts professionals becoming curious about data, and in 2017, we’ll see a data culture begin to flourish in the arts. This will be evident everywhere from conference programmes to new job titles like Data Scientist and Arts Analyst, popping up in larger organisations.

But as the saying goes, the future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed, and some parts of the arts are more ready for data culture than others. We find it's less about resources and more about leadership – and we're going to see more data savvy leaders coming of age very soon.

2. Less surveying

That's right - we're predicting (and advocating for) less surveying in 2017. Yes, surveys will always play a role in research, but quite frankly our industry is over surveying and we're advising many of our clients to start scaling back. Respondent fatigue is one critical reason, but there are other reasons (like #3 below) that surveying is no longer likely to be the best methodology.

Survey Monkey has made it too easy for anyone to whip out a survey without setting aside the necessary resources and time to properly analyse the data. For a survey to be meaningful, it must align to a broader strategy which details how the results will be used and applied.

3. More ethnography

Instead of surveying, we’ll see more arts research projects use qualitative techniques. Interviews and focus groups are already standard practice – but we're predicting the rise of the less popular but cost-effective ethnography, with its digital cousins netnography and webnography.

Ethnography, which involves the systematic observation of people, we believe has enormous potential for helping us understand how people relate to cultural spaces and participate in the arts. We’ll also see more online focus groups and discussion boards which are gaining popularity in the private sector.

4. Experimentation and action research

As the pace of change accelerates, so too must our research methods. Action research involves a continuous process of action and reflection, where we test and learn rapidly by doing.

This is one of the best ways to extract tangible value from research, but it involves close collaboration between researchers and practitioners over time. We think the spirit of experimentation, though not for the faint-hearted, is ideally suited to the arts and its time is nigh.

5. Insights to action

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail – implementing research insights and recommendations is just as important as conducting the research in the first place. But resources do need to be set aside for interpretation workshops, action planning and implementation to get the most out of research resources.

Think bigger picture when planning your research. When defining research objectives and drafting project plans, include what actions you will take, what you will do with the research insights – and importantly, how it will be managed.

What do you think about these trends? Are you noticing them in your workplace?

If you’d like to learn how to make the most of the data you have, or find out how the future of your organisation could benefit from these trends, have a chat with us - we offer complimentary 1-hr consultations to help you refine your ideas. Contact us today.

About the Author

Tandi Williams
Managing Director

Patternmakers’ Founder and Managing Director Tandi Williams is an experienced consultant and arts and culture research specialist.

Be in the loop

Patternmakers 7/2/17 Patternmakers 7/2/17

5 New Digital Projects Helping People Access the Arts

Here at Patternmakers, we love hearing about new ways for people of all ages to access the arts. Here are five new projects that caught our attention...

Here at Patternmakers, we love hearing about new technology offerings from cultural institutions. Below are five new projects that caught our attention because they not only offer new ways to experience culture, they demonstrate how technology giants are getting ever more creative.

1. Intel X Royal Shakespeare Company

Following a year of research with Intel and performance capture company The Imaginarium Studios, the Royal Shakespeare Company is delivering a new production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest that brings digital avatars to life on stage in real-time, interacting with live actors. Using technology that has most famously been used in films and gaming, they're able to capture an actor’s facial expressions and movements, ensuring the actor’s full performance is translated into the animated character.

Why we love it: The show brings together theatre-making skills with digital innovation, pushing technical boundaries to create a truly innovative production for a new generation. For more information, visit rsc.org.uk

2. Google X Detroit Institute of Arts

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is using Tango, Google's augmented reality technology to give visitors additional information overlaid on real world art, connecting people with artworks in a global context beyond the DIA. Using the museum's smartphones, people can scan objects like an ancient limestone sculpture from Mesopotamia that has long lost its colours over the years and see how it looked before the colours faded, encouraging the imagination about the artworks in its original setting.

Why we love it: Museum goers can experience history in new ways through augmented reality, allowing them to see the unseen, understand how objects from the past were used and experienced in people's everyday lives. For more information, visit dia.org

3. Explorer X American Museum of Natural History

Explorer is more than just another app — it's a personal tour guide and curator to many curious visitors wandering through the expansive American Museum of Natural History. It offers fun facts, videos, and teaching tools for dozens of the most compelling items throughout the exhibits. According to NY Times Joseph Berger, it does things like “lets you hear the sound the real (blue whale) makes underwater” and also has “a Bluetooth-operated feature that guides you with GPS-like directions” to points of interest — apparently very helpful when looking for the bathroom or the cafe.

Why we love it: Explorer enhances the museum experience and in an environment where stillness is usually the standard, it awakens the senses and brings the artefacts to life. For more information, visit nytimes.com

4. Octava X Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

In-performance apps have previously been the subject of taboo, but this new offering finds away around the challenge of bright screens in a dark auditorium. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is now offering Octava, a digital app that delivers real-time programme notes to audiences’ mobile devices, aiming to introduce newcomers to classical music and enhance their concert experience.

Consider the app like a friend who can give you context for the musical ideas you’re hearing, translate the beautiful nuances of the language of the music, and let you know where you are in the performance so you can clap at the appropriate time. And the best part? Octava’s DarkscreenTM technology also allows information to be presented without distracting the user or those around them, and after 45 seconds, the screen goes dark. The user can re-engage if they so choose at any point in time during the performance.

Why we love it: Octava synchronises an old tradition with new technology, enriching the overall experience for concert-going newbies by providing in-depth details about the music and movements and possibly sparking a newfound love for symphonic sounds. For more information, visit rhinegold.co.uk

5. Samsung X Sydney Opera House

We all know the Sydney Opera House is an icon of Australia’s creative and technical achievement. Now with its Principal Partner Samsung, a stylish new social space called The Lounge features technology and art in a futuristic setting. Guests can comfortably sit and enjoy a number experiences ranging from historic architectural drawings and interviews with the Opera House’s architect Jorn Utzon to a thrilling virtual-reality experience of standing atop the famous sails.

Why we love it: The Lounge is an exciting alternative to a behind-the-scenes or backstage tour, and uses the latest technology so guests can engage with the Opera House’s history, art and culture at their own pace and in the comfort. For more information, visit sydneyoperahouse.com

Have you experienced any of these technologies?
Is your organisation experimenting with these technologies?

We'd love to hear from you.

About the Author

Tandi Williams
Managing Director

Patternmakers’ Founder and Managing Director Tandi Williams is an experienced consultant and arts and culture research specialist.

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Patternmakers 20/7/16 Patternmakers 20/7/16

Is evaluation truly accessible?

One of the most interesting and rewarding projects I’ve ever completed was conducting an impact evaluation of the Unlimited Commissions Programme for disabled artists.

Between July and November 2015, my co-researcher Morwenna Collett and I immersed ourselves in the UK arts and disability world, to learn the language, issues and challenges that disabled artists face, and answer the question ‘Is Unlimited making a difference?’...

One of the most interesting and rewarding projects I’ve ever completed was conducting an impact evaluation of the Unlimited Commissions Programme for disabled artists.

We gathered rich data from over 135 people – approximately 50% of whom identified as disabled – and the insights were fascinating. Meeting the access requirements of the research participants was challenging – but hugely rewarding, both for the research and on a personal level.

I learned the nuances of disability identity, and language that is inclusive and respectful. I learned how to write a survey that is suitable for those with visual impairment, and discovered interview venues that were physically accessible. But the biggest thing I learned was that accessibility is more than all of these things put together. It’s about having an attitude of inclusion and committing to reach out and hear voices that are too often excluded.

Today Morwenna and I are presenting a paper at the ACSPRI Social Science Methodology conference, to share our thoughts about what it means for evaluation practice to be truly accessible. You can read our abstract here (or get in touch and we’ll send you a copy of the full paper).

Providing access doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Below we’ve assembled a list of access tips, facts and figures, and guidelines for doing research with people with disability.

One thing we want to get feedback on is our Access Statement for researchers and consultants. We used it at the beginning of the project to set the intention for the project, and plan what we would do to maximise access at every stage of the research (not just the outputs!).

It got us thinking… could something like this be useful for other researchers and consultants? Could it help others embed an attitude of inclusion upfront, and design research that was more accessible?

We’d love to hear your thoughts, so take a look and let us know what you think.

Access statement

Draft Access Statement for Researchers and Consultants

Access tips

Facts, figures and legislation

Research specific information/resources

National Disability Authority, Ireland, 2009, ‘Ethical Guidance for Research with People with Disabilities’
Department of Health 2005, Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care
Centre of Disability Research and Policy, The University of Sydney 2013,Report of audit of disability research in Australia
McClimens, A. 2008, ‘This is my truth, tell me yours: exploring the internal tensions within collaborative learning disability research’, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 36(4), pp. 271–6

About the Author

Tandi Williams
Managing Director

Patternmakers’ Founder and Managing Director Tandi Williams is an experienced consultant and arts and culture research specialist.

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Diane Ragsdale: Influencing the Culture Change

In June 2014 I had the pleasure of interviewing Diane Ragsdale on behalf of Native, the online magazine of the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts. Diane is based at Erasmus University in Rotterdam researching and talking about cultural economics with a specialism in the performing arts. She previously spent six years at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is one of the leading thinkers on arts governance of our generation...

Photo courtesy of Joshua Feist

Here is a copy of the interview, originally published in Native, in which we spoke about technology in the changing context of arts leadership – how technology is no longer something to fear, but a tool that can help the arts deepen its influence and contribution to society.

TW: You’ve worked in the arts in various capacities since 1988, how do you think the relationship of the arts to society has changed in recent years?

Diane: Over the last 30 years, several changes in society have made things more challenging for arts organisations. On a basic level, there has been a loss in the sense of legitimacy. Many arts organisations in Europe and in the US came into their power and bloomed in a time when it was taken for granted that the arts were important and a key part of civil society. We are increasingly put in the position of needing to defend the value of the arts.

Second, audiences and their tastes, the ways that they like to participate in the arts, and what they consider to be art, have also shifted. Some of that is related to technology, and some is related to other forces.

Third, we’ve seen income inequality grow in many regions, which arguably serves some arts organizations, who depend upon private contributions from the very wealthy. , however, Ultimately, the two trends puts pressure on those arts organisations that have historically catered to the upper middle class to work harder to bridge economic divides and to serve the greater good, rather than a minority elite. These are real shifts in the larger environment that we have to deal with – and many issues have become more acute in the last few years in response to the recession.

Technology could be used to open things up, to enable funders to be more present in the world, more responsive, and more engaged and on the streets—rather than locked up in ivory towers, as they are often perceived to be.

How is technology changing the arts? And how are arts leaders dealing with changes in technology?

Digital technology is helping us overcome geographic, time and financial barriers. One really exciting ramification: we could mean reaching millions of people – rather than hundreds. New formats and forms of art could also lead to the possibility of more intimate and dynamic experiences for people. Finally, technology is making it possible for organisations to not just communicate with their communities on an ongoing basis but to be more deeply in tune with what the community needs, and take the needs and input of the community into consideration as they take decisions.

One other anecdote: I recently worked with a number of departmental leaders from arts organisations on scenario planning for the future of the arts. I was amazed to see (though should not have been) that almost all of the small teams built scenarios based on a future assumption that a primary way in which people will receive artistic experiences is digitally, through either large screens or small. We’re seeing a generation of leaders come up for whom digital (rather than live) distribution is not something to be feared, but rather is seen as quite legitimate.

Arts organisations are now forced to decide whether they will exist exclusively to perpetuate the live experience, or whether they will, instead, seek to evolve themselves in response to the new and varied ways that artists want to make work and audiences want to experience it. They also have to think about how their live and digital strategies work together.

What kind of future for the arts would you like to see?

We need to be in the centre of civil society, not at the margins. The question that I’m always asking myself is ‘How do the arts matter more to people, or matter to more people?’ I’d like to see a future in which greater percentages of the population having a meaningful relationship with the arts – and I don’t buy into the notion of large segments of society being ‘disinclined’ to arts and culture.

I believe everyone’s life could be improved through some kind of participation (and we must thing broadly about what we mean by arts participation); moreover, it’s the role of subsidized arts organisations in particular to collectively try and reach as many people as possible through options that are as diverse as possible. Arts organisations need to take responsibility for educating people and helping them develop a taste for various forms of art and comfort with participation.

What excites you about digital technology in the arts?

I’m most excited by the potential for technology to change the governance practices of arts organisations. Boards set policy, hire the staff, the staff educate the board and make strategy recommendations that boards generally adopt – it’s a closed circuit. These days, it is rather rare for the public to have influence on the strategic direction of an arts organisation in any coordinated way.

Nina Simon, author of the book ‘The Participatory Museum’, and executive director of The Santa Cruz Museum of Arts and History, is modelling what it means to be an organisation that chooses to grow in response to a continual feedback loop of information on how people are or are not engaging with each other through the museum. This information comes to her and her staff through small experiments with new tools and methods, or just active, ongoing observation and reflection upon people and their interactions while at the museum. She’s using all of this information to drive an incremental and ongoing evolution of her organisation in response to the public.

Though this might not represent a shift in the formal governance structure of the organization, it does signify a willingness to invite the public to have influence on the organisation. Nina still has a vision and is strong and clear about what she is trying to achieve, but she is continually watching to see what happens as a result of the various actions she takes, and is adjusting to how people respond. It’s clear such a “participatory shift” is a difficult, or even controversial, one for some organisations. However, even if organisations have traditionally been more closed – it seems it is possible to slowly shift that orientation—to make a conscious choice to open up one’s organisation to the public.

You’ve previously criticised funders calling for innovation in the arts, can you tell us more?

First, there has been a ‘fetishisation’ of innovation in the sector, often driven by foundations. What does it mean to organise in order to be able to innovate? How can we make sure innovation doesn’t feel like something foreign and ‘one-off’, and is made possible because of the resources, people and processes that are allocated and structured to foster it? The processes that lead to innovation deserve more consideration. Additionally, we must know why we are trying to innovate – what problems are we trying to solve? It’s important to understand the social or artistic goals that we hope to achieve through innovation.

Second, sometimes funding processes end up rewarding ’known entities’—that is, historically leading organisations—which are not necessarily the most innovative or the most willing or able to experiment and fail. Another problem is that when funders invest in innovation they tend to shine a light on projects that are still being incubated and that need the opportunity to fail. High profile funding seems to put pressure on organisations and funded projects to succeed; I worry that this constrains genuine experimentation and leads to limited learning.

Arts organizations often lack the appetite, board support, and resources for risk. This is hardly surprising, if you consider that arts organisations are often undercapitalized. The values of security, stability, and self-preservation pull in the opposite direction from those of daring and experimentation. Arguably, funders should play a role in creating space for the experimentation and failure that are often critical to the process of innovation. They could provide money that it’s okay to lose—funds that may not have an immediate return other than the organisational learning that comes from trying something new, whether or not it succeeds.

How can funders best support arts organisations to make the most of technology?

More than 10 years ago I worked in an organisation and the Paul G Allen Foundation gave me a grant to attend a two-day session on strategic technology planning. It fundamentally changed my thinking at a critical point in time. Not only was I given guidance in how to undertaken a process of risk assessment, but I began to think about the goals and issues that we faced more broadly, and how technology could help us achieve those. I also realised how we could engage different parts of the organisations and partner with other organisations to make progress towards common goals.

The implications of technology are wide ranging, and need to be dealt with strategically and holistically. When I was at the Mellon Foundation, we received many proposals requesting funds for technology projects; however, too often the necessary deep thinking wasn’t happening and the technology strategy was being outsourced to others rather than being brought into the overall strategy of the organization.

This is difficult stuff to wrap your head around. In addition to supporting experimentation, fstructured opportunities for arts organisationsget off the treadmill; gain knowledge from those (in other industries) who have successfully (or unsuccessfully) transformed their business processes, relationships with customers, and value propositions; think deeply and systemically; engage in debate and discussion with their stakeholders; and develop new visions and strategies.

What advice can you offer funding bodies in relation to technology?

Some funders are difficult to communicate with at times, and can seem a bit out of touch with the world. Funders expect non-profits to be more transparent and open, to communicate with more people and give stakeholders the opportunity to provide input into their processes and programmes; however, they are often reluctant to undergo similar changes. By-and-large, private foundations, at the very least, need to have greater transparency about how they are setting their priorities (including the factors and people that are influencing those priorities). In addition, I think it would be transformative for the field of arts and culture if they would consider opening up their formal and informal processes for making funding decisions.

How can the arts maximise the potential of technology?

No doubt, technology is one of the driving forces that has changed the ways people create and consume and commune and communicate, and that is at the heart of the matter for arts organisations.

There was a time when we all looked at technology as a challenge to be overcome, but I think we’re moving into the stage where its seen as something beneficial. It can help us achieve goals, and it’s not something that has to be feared. I’d like to think there is an enthusiasm now, a willingness to embrace technology, rather than a fear that we’re going to cannabalize ourselves by going down this path.

In 2008 I gave a talk ‘Surviving the culture change’ even the title of it suggests a sense of ‘threat’. Now, I think more about how we are influencing the culture – not just preparing for it or surviving — how we are jumping into it, and wrestling with it in a really dynamic way, talking back to it, and bringing our own tools and ways of working to it. This is what arts organisations do best. We need to see ourselves as powerful agents who can influence and contribute to the culture, as much as respond to it. Technology can be a tool for us to have even greater influence, and that’s a really exciting thing.

You can read Diane Ragsdale’s popular blog at artsjournal.com/jumper and follow her on Twitter as @deragsdale.

About the Author

Tandi Williams
Managing Director

Patternmakers’ Founder and Managing Director Tandi Williams is an experienced consultant and arts and culture research specialist.

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