Engagement and Advocacy Engaging with audiences and advocating for the visual arts to stakeholders in the region

Building Audiences Key issues for many organisations outside the city centre are younger audiences from FE upwards. The Universities could play an active role in enabling accessible routes for students to engage with artistic programmes in venues that are immediately outside of their locality. It may be worth looking at strategies developed by out of town organisations to consider how to develop a clear region wide strategy for engagement at all levels, ensuring we don’t marginalise access or opportunities to engage with the visual arts. Sharing of collections beyond the cities in the region, to smaller hubs elsewhere would allow greater access to those collections and grow audiences (Esen Kaya, Customs House)

New evidence, new agendas We need to grow an evidence base that better communicates the value of artists more clearly in towns and cities in order to negotiate favourable terms for the lease /asset transfer of buildings we use. (Kathryn Hodgkinson, Cobalt) To push an agenda of production rather than consumption would offer a new direction that is in line with the region’s history and culture, it would differentiate the North East from other regions and offer a confident culture of self determination that in itself could act as an attractor. (Alistair Hudson, mima)

Knowing how to better harness knowledge on audiences We need to be better at understanding our collective audiences and the crossovers between them Historical visual arts should be considered within the context of the plan, how can we work with Bowes, Auckland Castle, TWAM and heritage sites to develop links between the historical and contemporary to grow audiences that benefit both (Lucy Jenkins, Durham Art Gallery)

Ideas for articulating our value to all A focus on artists who have chosen to locate to the region, what the region gives them and how they use it as a springboard to connect internationally would be useful to profile and make the case for the region Highlighting the visible and hidden sector to our communities is important, in making the case for ‘ladders of development’ organisations and their valuable role in enabling artists’ careers in order to gain support. Bringing to the public eye the economy we create for employment post school, FE or HE is important, we have routes for young people into jobs.

Engagement and impact within communities Stronger engagement with audiences, reaps huge dividends long term, engaging and experiencing art improves educational attainment, grows the next generation of artists, ensures the next generation of audiences and also embeds arts within the psyche of our communities, those people we engage well with now, will become our advocates, policy makers, supporters at all levels of our community and across all sectors in the future. (Julia Bell, CVAN)

Case making considerations Audience numbers are important, but there is not enough focus on quality of artistic production/presentation in the region. To help the North East be less inward looking, it needs to create ‘world class’ art and sometimes that is not always art that generates the biggest audience. We need to balance the two sides of the argument (Paul Stone, VANE) We don’t think there exists a thorough understanding of the arts ecology by those stakeholders who are most involved in supporting it (or could be in a position to do so) A more thorough mapping exercise of what already exists would be welcome. (Paul Stone, VANE)

The context within which we work and advocate Politically the times are very different from The structures and support mechanisms for culture in our region have disappeared or been greatly reduced in their capacity. We now have LEPs and combined authority (who place International on the front page) and we are working out what devolution means to the arts in our region. On top of that we have the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and the potential prospect of a life no longer part of the EU. The development of this strategy is within this context (Clymene Christoforou, ISIS Arts)