The Cornish arts community has never had a better opportunity to promote its work to a much larger audience and dramatically boost its contribution to the county’s economy, according to the new head of Cornwall Arts Marketing (CAM).
Miranda Bird, with 12 years’ experience in global advertising companies, has taken over as Director of CAM from Richard Glover, now Chief Executive of Truro Cathedral.
Miranda, who has moved to Mawnan Smith with her sculptor husband Andrew and their two children, has joined CAM at a time when the Objective One-supported project is into its second phase and can already point to an unprecedented record of achievement for Cornish arts organizations and businesses.
“CAM is well on target to grow its partners’ turnover by 20 per cent for each year of the project’s life, resulting in a staggering £22.5 million growth,” she said.
“This year (2004) is the final year of the present phase and we will be launching some exciting new campaigns aimed at developing cultural tourism and encouraging the in-county audience to interact with the arts.”
She added: “There is a huge amount of fascinating arts activity in Cornwall. On a national level, not enough people know about this – and the type of people who will be interested are exactly those whom Cornwall would like to attract.”
Miranda, whose clients with her previous employers have included the Guardian and Channel 4, recalled: “I was attracted by the extremely innovative marketing strategies CAM had already undertaken. When I met their staff, it was apparent that the talent within the company more than matched the level of skills and commitment I would expect in London.”
CAM now has almost 50 partners who benefit from advice and funding enhancements in their marketing or programming budgets plus general CAM marketing campaigns.
Over the three year life of the CAM project outputs will include 565 new jobs created, 73 small to medium sized businesses assisted and 40 SME/micro-businesses advised.
CAM Stage Two is taking the sophistication of communication and market intelligence to a completely new level, says Miranda.
It is seeking to significantly improve the marketing of Cornish arts generally and of individual members in particular. It is doing this by co-ordinating and delivering common marketing services and tools, joint research and the provision of high quality support and advice.
CAM has a staff of 12, including three marketers, a finance manager and project manager, with IT support and the well-established arts distribution service.
Its Phase Two highlights have included the launch of the free Seen Cornwall guides promoting the vibrant county-wide arts scene, the creation of a dedicated web site, support for Carnglaze Caverns’ hugely successful “Classical Season” of concerts, and assistance with the Indian King Arts Centre, Camelford, in a complete revamp of the way in which they communicated their creative art and writing courses to their customers.
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