The European Commission has recently published conference conclusions related to engaging with European Audiences: 2020 and beyond.
The conference “European Audiences: 2020 and beyond” took place in October 2012 and brought together some 800 culture professionals in Brussels, including
ARTidea‘s, Diane Dodd. The subject of discussion was how to engage more meaningfully with audiences. The conference presented a number of hand-picked examples of projects that have taken their audiences very seriously, sometimes from the very early stages of the creative process. Organised by the European Commission, the level of participation and debate was extremely rich and demonstrated a clear commitment by the Commission to listening to the needs of the creative sector.
ARTidea was pleased to see that the conclusions indicate “a new cultural revolution: audiences are hungry for engagement, for shared experiences, for a sense of community.” This is a philosophy that we also beleive and, this is especially true at local and regional level.
Thus, the Commission recognises that there is a need to stimulate exchange of practice in the creative and arts fields, to support cultural organisations to learn faster by peer learning and adapt more quickly to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
Audience development is a key component in ARTidea‘s projects and we hope to feed more into this debate in future.
Conference conclusions: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/news/documents/conclusions-conference.pdf