Daniel Acosta, Advertising and Sales Manager at The Dallas Opera, and Andrea Cuevas, Director of Marketing and Communications at Hartford Stage give insight and advice on how marketers can activate their organisation’s diversity and inclusion goals. A Tessitura Network resource.

Sallyanne Flemons, North East Family Arts Network Ambassador, shares learnings and insights from the three-year Family Arts Campaign Ambassador programme and its impact on both regional organisations and the families they support.

Anna Bennett, Marketing and Press Officer at the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment looks at how to reduce engagement barriers as part of her Fellowship at the Audience Diversity Academy 

The Search for Audiences handbook is a tool for helping presenters (venues) build audiences. It details the research techniques CircuitWest and its participating members used for 12 Western Australian presenters in its projects involving focus groups (qualitative) and, in some cases, surveys (quantitative). It provides an overview of the main factors that influenced audience behaviour across the studies, as well as details the research questions ... Read more

Cards for Inclusion is a card game created by Unlimited to help those in the arts sector explore how barriers can be removed and how we all can make whatever we offer more accessible to disabled people.

Peter Bary from the Brussels based cultural marketing organisation Cultuurnet Vlaanderen outlines their recent success with ‘Uitpas’ a leisure pass system that aims to break down barriers for infrequent cultural audiences. The user friendly leisure pass works on a credit saving system and offers cultural ‘trials’ and discounts for less advantaged audiences. The project was ... Read more

How do we address the under-representation of under 26 year olds in our audiences? The first article debunks 13 myths about youth arts attendance, including ‘Young people don’t have any money’ and suggests that efforts to attract ‘young people’ might be a waste of resources; the second and third articles describe successful schemes at the ... Read more

Is it just possible that technology might be alienating our audiences and creating a barrier to the arts? ICT is used to develop advertising and marketing strategies and to enhance sales and provide customers with information, but are computers getting in the way? This article argues that it is possible to do technology well – ... Read more

To remain relevant to the communities they serve, arts organisations need to change – or they will die. This article examines a range of barriers to arts involvement, including marketing which might itself create barriers. It concludes that both organisational and social change are needed.

Tyne & Wear Museums, a regional museum and art gallery service, used the Art Ambassadors Project as part of its approach to target 16–25 year olds. This case study details the background to Art Ambassadors, the scheme in practice, including meetings with youth workers, and its conclusion to take a flexible approach to meeting young ... Read more

The CBSO launched a Cultural Ambassadors scheme to persuade committed audience members to attract new audience members by using pyramid selling, personal contacts and peer-to-peer selling. This report details the objectives, the planning and running of the scheme and the results and lessons learnt.

‘All Our Futures’, the government report into creative and cultural education, put forward a case for more integrated arts activities in schools. In this keynote speech we are urged to change our conceptions of ‘culture’ and ‘art’ – as the arts is often regarded as a remote and separate activity, something that exists outside the ... Read more

Since 2000 the use of the social web has increased very rapidly in cultural heritage organisations. This report summarises the barriers which have been identified in exploiting its potential and then focuses on the opportunities for social networking and community participation online. It includes examples of how the web can be used to provide or ... Read more

Javier Stanziola presents an analysis of research carried out on library use, including demographics and reasons for use as well as recommendations for the future

Jerry Yoshitomi explores what makes a museum or gallery experience meaningful and how innovation and new practices are needed if we are to break down barriers, deepen the visitor experience and attract a new generation of visitors.

Explore Welsh National Opera’s approaches to reaching new audiences and delve into the evaluation of Classic FM-supported concerts in this presentation by Lucy Shorrocks and Giles Pearman.

This article includes two case studies from Tyne & Wear Museums and macrobert. Each author looks at how they made integral changes to their organisation in order to develop new and diverse audiences. From improving the overall visitor experience through to developing venue brands; and setting up youth panels through to developing a children’s charter, ... Read more

Discover the success stories of the ‘Not for the Likes of You’ initiative, as ten organisations share how they changed their overall positioning and messaging to remove barriers to attendance and participation.

The purpose of the New Audiences programme was to encourage as many people as possible to participate in and benefit from the arts in England. The programme ran between 1998 and 2003 with a total budget of £20 million. The aims of the programme included tackling barriers preventing arts attendance, increasing the range and number of people participating ... Read more

Twelve case studies of arts engagement projects working with older people and families in London. The case studies share the learning from Audiences London’s Family Advocates Programme, BAC’s work with non-professional older artists, a skills exchange with Building Exploratory, an architecture centre and Cubitt, a gallery and studios regarding work with older audiences, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Tate ... Read more