Forced Entertainment is a theatre company based in Sheffield, UK, who produces contemporary devised performances that tour worldwide. In April 2013, they performed one of their most popular pieces – Quizoola! – continuously for 24 hours at the Barbican as part of the SPILL festival. The entire piece was streamed online via a live webcast and Twitter users were … Read more
Twitter is an important platform for Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) in Rhode Island, US, to raise awareness of new shows and events. This case study explains how PPAC designates special seats within the auditorium to individuals who tweet about a show whilst they are watching the performance. Tweet seats aims to help raise the profile of the … Read more
In October 2012, Random International’s largest and most ambitious installation – Rain Room – opened in the Barbican’s Curve gallery. A 100 square metre field of falling water, Rain Room came alive through audience interaction with the thousands of falling droplets responding to audience presence and movement. This case study describes the planning, processes and outcomes … Read more
Andrew McIntyre explores marketing in terms of what a visitor might want to experience and what an arts organisation or curator might want to offer. He proposes the use of a benefits matching model to focus marketing activities on the benefits sought by the visitor and the benefits offered by the arts organisation in order … Read more
This article looks at how the Baltic has increased visitor frequency by making the visitor experience an unrivalled one, aiming to convert those who might be supporters of the museum into ‘raving fans’. Claire Byers explains how technology has played its part but so too has staff training.
Helen Marriage uses ‘The Sultan’s Elephant’, performed on the streets of central London in 2006, to bring to life the importance of creating an unmissable experience and inspiring an emotional response in an audience. She argues that the fact that a million people came to watch the same thing provides a sense of how powerful … Read more
With plenty of anecdotal evidence of the benefits of the arts, this is a detailed account of a study exploring how it is possible to measure how people might be changed by an arts experience. Alan Brown discusses the design of the study, data collection, the results (intellectual stimulation, spiritual value) and the implications for … Read more
Mixed Arts Venues (MAVs) have become increasingly visible in recent years presenting innovative programmes of independent film, digital and non digital arts, and running popular social spaces that serve local communities. A network of six MAV venues: Cornerhouse (Manchester), FACT (Liverpool), Watershed (Bristol), Broadway (Nottingham), Showroom (Sheffield) and Tyneside Cinema (Newcastle), was successfully awarded funding from the Cultural Leadership Programme to explore … Read more
Heather Walker draws on her work as a consultant for the Roundhouse to explore how cultural venues can improve visitor experience through a more unified approach to visitor and customer services.
In 2010, after seventeen years in arts marketing, Jan McTaggart opened up a greengrocer, Clementine of Broughty Ferry, with her business partner Carole Sommerville. In just three years, Clementine has built up a loyal and varied customer base (they deal with around 78,000 customer transactions a year). In this article for CultureHive, Jan makes observations … Read more