Arts Council of England New Audiences Seminar

Developing Audiences for South Asian Work

and Developing South Asian Audiences

 

 

In April the Arts Council of England launched the final year of the New Audiences Programme with a seminar addressing the promotion and development of South Asian Arts and South Asian Audiences. 

The seminar, jointly hosted by the New Audiences Programme and the Black Regional Initiative in Theatre, looked at the potential for new work and new audiences with examples of current, successful creative strategies including two major audience development initiatives, Right Up Your Street in Birmingham and The Balti Bus in Huddersfield.  The seminar also looked at the work undertaken by the Asian Theatre Initiative NATAK at the Leicester Haymarket and there was an opportunity to see the Birmingham Rep’s production of The Ramayana at the Olivier Theatre.

 

 

The seminar started with a short presentation on the Royal National Theatre’s collaboration with Birmingham Rep on The Ramayana, work that fulfilled two of the RNT’s key objectives – raising regional profile and developing new and different audiences.  Audience development has both a social and a commercial imperative and this production, originally conceived as part of the Forward Festival in Birmingham, was well-placed to address both.  For the Rep this was particularly true as nearly a third of the population in Birmingham is South Asian and growing.  Working with Birmingham Arts Marketing on the Networking Project Right Up Your Street meant the Rep were allocated an Arts Ambassador, whose role was to develop a panel of people representative of a key target community.  The Rep have since employed their ambassador as South Asian Communities Development Worker as part of their strategy to address key issue identified in many audience development projects – unless arts venues address the existing culture of their organisation, change will never take place.

 

Marketing The Ramayana involved making both the venue and the production accessible and enjoyable and a panel of advisors from various South Asian communities was recruited to offer advice on culture, communication and networking including appropriate distribution points, potential areas of unintentional offence, language and key questions.  As a result of the work done, 23% of the total audience in Birmingham were  1^st time attenders to the Rep and of these, 55% were South Asian.  The panel have remained to become a lasting resource for the Rep, representative of the make-up of the City and providing both advisors and ambassadors for future initiatives.  The key task facing the venue is one of retention – Will the new audiences return?  Will they attend non-culturally specific product? Will they see the Rep as genuinely serving the South Asian communities in the future?  The next stage of this initiative will be the most interesting.

 

The Arts Ambassador allocated to the Rep as part of the Right Up Your Street project was one person from a team of six, recruited by the Project Co-ordinator, based at Birmingham Arts Marketing.  Each Ambassador was matched with a venue in the city and required to facilitate the relationship between the venue and a target community e.g. Bangladeshi, pre-dominantly male adult (SAMPAD), African Caribbean mixed sex 20s/30s (Symphony Hall).  Once a representative panel has been established, the Ambassador organises a tour of the venue, a visit to an event and an opportunity to meet staff before setting in motion a series of discussions getting views, suggestions and feedback from panel members.  The project has resulted in better understanding between arts organisations and target communities as well as more effective marketing and programming strategies.

 

The Balti Bus was a project designed primarily to develop South Asian audiences for theatre work at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield.  The concept linked transport with education and community outreach in collaboration with Tamasha Theatre Company, who were presenting four performances of The Balti Kings in the main theatre in March 2000.  The project used 8 key elements:

 

• The Balti Bus – adverts on key routes and free transport for organised groups in key locations
• Ambassadors – offering effective liaison within communities, proactive selling, expertise and friendly welcome to venue
• Staff training –to ensure issues of cultural diversity were understood and allowed for in routine procedures by Front of House staff
• Street campaign – Dhol Drummers in traditional dress, LBT staff and ambassadors raising awareness in town centres across the region (impact equally effective for Asian and non-Asian members of the public)
• Restaurant involvement – distribution of publicity, curry tasters to audience members, staff attendance
• Exhibitions – The Biryani Exhibition featured work inspired by Indian culture and the Take Away Exhibition featured individual and community groups’ response to an empty take away carton
• Foyer activity – Hindi Karaoke and Dohl Drummers welcomed audiences, a Vox Box allowed audience members to record their responses (eventually taken into the crowds as the box was found to be intimidating)
• Education – subsidised tickets for target schools, free transport, resource pack and involvement in the Take Away Exhibition, post-show discussions after evening performances

 

The success of the project has raised expectations in the South Asian community that need to be addressed through long-term programming and marketing strategies with a sustainable infrastructure to support the additional requirements.  The key issue for the future is the development of a joined-up vision for culture in the community, allowing arts organisations to be visible, accessible and seen as recognised local people.

 

The seminar gave attending arts organisations the chance to hear about some successful initiatives and approaches that are leading the way in a more integrated relationship between the arts and the South Asian communities in England.  It is also clear that this issue requires far more strategic long-term development and sustained relationship-building in order to achieve results that are genuinely meaningful rather than reflecting the success of one-off projects.  The year’s activities for New Audiences including seminars, training opportunities and the establishing of a new website aimed at promoting good practice in audience development will be extremely important in moving the process forward.  We’ll keep you posted!

 

If any wants to read the full report of this seminar, give SWAM a ring on 0117-927 6936.

 

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