East Durham Creates - An audience-led approach to programming and marketing
East Durham Creates is an ambitious and highly successful programme designed to get more people in the area more people choosing, creating and taking part in brilliant art experiences.
The project started in 2014 and they have done a lot of testing around how to grow arts provision in ways that are sustainable and can last.
One challenge they faced was a very low level of existing arts engagement in the area. To change this, they took an audience-led approach.
In this case-study Nikki Locke talks through practical examples of how they’ve tested different approaches and put the needs of audiences first. The case-study follows the project through its first three years and highlights the steps they took to ensure the audience was at the heart of the arts:
- Embedding action learning in all our work
- Marketing the experience
- Creating relevant work
- Developing shared ownership of projects
