The Philharmonia Orchestra needed an effective and imaginative way of making sure the digital+live orchestra elements they intended to tour to south west England really made a different to communities engagement with orchestral music.
In creating an audience development strategy for their ACE Strategic Touring Fund bid, iOrchestra, I used desk and primary research to understand the local South West populations’ needs and barriers in relation to arts and culture. My resulting strategy worked in a nuanced way with these different communities during the iOrchestra project, and included advice on publicity and messaging appropriate to different audience needs and motivations.
I also created a full evaluation framework to measure and monitor the roll-out, and remained as steering consultant to the project, followed by analysis and reporting on the monitoring and evaluation.
The plan was based on the principles of:
These are just some of the facts from this complex and wide-ranging project:
In tribute, iOrchestra won the the Royal Philharmonic Society’s ‘Audiences and Engagement’ Award, with the citation: “For its impressive range of partnerships; for its innovative marketing; – for embedding itself in local communities in Devon and Cornwall, leaving them enriched through increased skills and connections; for interweaving outstanding live performances with online and installations; and for this organisation’s ability to reinvent and evolve, the RPS Audiences and Engagement award for 2015 goes to the Philharmonia’s iOrchestra project”. See http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/news/rpsaward
See also: http://www.iorchestra.co.uk/ and http://culturehive.co.uk/resources/iorchestra
2012-2016
“Rachel’s work for the Philharmonia, developing an audience development strategy for a complex project application, was simply outstanding. Rachel has a unique ability to assimilate a range of complex artistic and social criteria and translate these into a meaningful strategy that speaks to the core values of the organisations involved. It has been a great pleasure for us all to work with Rachel throughout the process.”
Audience research, Communications campaigns, Evaluation, Funding applications, Strategic planning, Training and mentoring