Audience development and evaluation for iOrchestra

Issue:

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.

Response:

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:

Bringing an art form into people’s own places, to overcome barriers of travel or unknown places.
An experience shared and reinforced within a family or trust circle strengthens engagement, especially where things encountered at school are reinforced at home.
People controlling their own engagement level and style: flexible, drop-in, a variety of ways to participate, no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ response.
Maintaining the engagement or presence of the project over an extended period of time.
Placing art in locations where it can ‘interrupt’ people’s attention or behaviour.
Focusing publicity and marketing on emotional responses and the ability to share an experience.

Impact:

These are just some of the facts from this complex and wide-ranging project:

86,416 visitors experienced the main iOrchestra installations over the two years: 90% self-identified as learning from the experience.

Only 13% of visitors to Universe of Sound had ever attended an orchestral concert before, whereas 67% of the final concert audience attended as a direct result of their visit to Universe of Sound.

17,354 visitors experienced MusicLab over the two 13-week residencies in the South West, with visitor numbers increasing 61% from Year 1 to 1 Year 2.

56% of audiences in Year 2 were curated visits for community and school groups, ranging from pre-school to sixth form students and elderly people’s groups.

A more detailed and nuanced presentation of the impact and learning can be found in the following reports:

iOrchestra: Review and Evaluation

iOrchestra Audiences Journeys

iOrchestra Audiences Reactions

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

Date:

2012-2016

Quote:

“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.”