What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our first stop was at the Duncairn in Belfast.

Insights into film audiences in Belfast, and ideas for growing cultural film audiences.

Who is attending outdoor events in Belfast and how you can increase your event attendees.

How engaged Young Adults (16-24) are in Arts and Culture in Belfast and what art forms they are interested in the most.

Insights into arts and craft audiences in Belfast, and ideas for increasing visitors to your gallery.

How engaged Older People (65+) are in Arts and Culture in Belfast and what art forms they are interested in the most.

How engaged Adults (35-49) are in Arts and Culture in Belfast and what art forms they are interested in the most.

The iBeholder pilot was developed to help us discover new ways to gather audience data for non-ticketed visual arts organisations and boost the audience experience. This report details everything that happened throughout the project and the insights we uncovered during the pilot.

Young adults aged 16-24, commonly referred to as Gen Z by marketers, are often considered a challenging demographic to engage. This report, developed by the creative agency We Are Social UK, offers deeper insights into their lifestyles and behaviours. You can read the complete report via the link or read the summary below, written by Alice Bresciani, We Are Social's former Senior Research and Insights Director. We recently created an audience snapshot for this age group and the art forms they're into.

Every year, we mine box office data to uncover insights into audiences for venues and festivals across Northern Ireland. Data includes overall benchmark figures for Northern Ireland, as well as differences by Belfast venues and regional venues.

In this audience snapshot, find out what NI audiences first do when going to a venue, their pet peeves and how venues make them feel.

Find out what NI audiences think of emails and newsletters, and what they want to hear in your communication to them.

In this audience snapshot, learn about NI audiences' summer plans.

In this snapshot, find out how NI audiences' engagement with culture online has changed, what they enjoy about it and what they don't.

In this snapshot, find out what arts and culture experiences represent for NI audiences, why they attend and what it gives them that other things don't.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our sixth stop was at Millennium Court in Portadown, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our seventh stop was at Canal Court Hotel in Newry, Mourne and Down.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our third stop was at Portico of Ards in Portaferry, Ards and North Down Borough.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our fifth stop was at Antrim Castle Gardens in Antrim, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our fourth stop was at High Rise in Lisburn, Lisburn and Castlereagh City.

Find out how lockdown has impacted audiences in NI

In this audience snapshot, find out how NI audiences feel about returning to in-person events.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our second stop was at the Millennium Forum in Derry~Londonderry.

We ran our first focus group with our Audience Panel and they had a lot to say about how they find out about upcoming arts and culture events.

How do NI audiences perceive arts and culture? Find out in our latest audience snapshot.

Find out what art form NI audiences connect with the most and what prevents them from engaging with some art forms.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our eighth stop was at Coleraine Town Hall in the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough council area.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our tenth stop was at Carrickfergus Library in the Mid and East Antrim district council area.

Get to know Jan, our accessibility persona created from the data collected during our Audience Panel.

Get to know Jill, our Young Family persona created from the data collected during our Audience Panel.

Get to know Darren, our Young Infrequent Attender persona created from the data collected during our Audience Panel.

Get to know Frank and Nancy, our Older Frequent Attender persona created from the data collected during our Audience Panel.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our eleventh stop was at Seamus Heaney Homeplace in the Mid Ulster district council area.

What does art mean to people's lives? This year, we are going places to meet 100 audience members in all 11 council areas of Northern Ireland to find out. Our ninth stop was at the Fermanagh House in Fermanagh.

Ofcom have released their report into what the people of Northern Ireland are watching and listening - and how and where they are doing it. Here's our quick summary of the report - and the implications for the cultural sector.

A national survey from Arts Council of Ireland looking at attendance and participation in the arts in ROI.

Our Foundations report shows what the ticketed landscape was like in Northern Ireland in 2019-2020. It uncovers insights into audiences for venues and festivals across Northern Ireland and identifies benchmark figures for our region.

Our Foundations report shows what the ticketed landscape was like in Northern Ireland in 2020-2021. It uncovers insights into audiences for venues and festivals across Northern Ireland and identifies benchmark figures for our region.

This report from Arts Connect explores how people aged 10 to 19 relate to arts and culture.

Earlier this month, we were invited to take part in the Festivals Forum, where we presented some of our findings on festival audience attendance over the last 4 years. The meeting provided us with great insight into trends from across NI festivals. Eve discusses in this report.

Insights from the ticketing data of up to 343 cultural organisations across the UK, Ireland, USA, and Canada.

Spark ideas and reach solutions.

Have the confidence to gather the data you need.

Surveys, postcode mapping, focus groups, and visitor profiling.

Join us at The Duncairn to chat all things loyalty and engagement. How do you develop a committed relationship with your audience?

Book a free one-to-one chat about your audiences.

There is a two-way relationship between you and your most loyal audience members. Understanding this relationship thoroughly and using this understanding to develop similar feelings of loyalty with other members of your audience is the key to increasing retention. Let's Talk Loyalty at our next free workshop!

Watch our last Fourth Wall Session with Jenna Hall from Belfast Community Circus School to learn more about their evaluation process, how they do it and why they do it.

We recently designed and delivered research for Belfast Stories in which we took a creative approach to craft our questions.

How Young At Art create relaxed performances and an accessible festival experience for their young audience members with additional needs.

Last June, The Crescent Arts Centre decided to try something new for their Belfast Book Festival: a Pay What You Want scheme. Read our case study to find out how it went.

Robert Jones from brand consultancy Wolff Olins chats to Thrive CEO Margaret Henry. They discuss branding in the cultural sector - who is getting it right, and where brands are going wrong.

Paul Connolly, lead singer of the Wood Burning Savages writes our third dream blog in which he reimagines NI cities and town centres where empty buildings are filled with arts and culture for the common good.

Maurane Ramon shares her thoughts as an arts marketer new to Northern Ireland’s geographical, cultural, and political landscapes.

An interview with Sarah Hughes, on how business partnership can be as an audience development tool.

Last month, we sat down with representatives from organisations across Belfast to discuss their thoughts on the impact of various art forms on audiences. Find out how the meeting went in our latest blog written by our Sector Programme Coordinator Eve Murtagh.

Working with the Barbican to gather insights into what young people want from their membership in future.

This toolkit, created by Museums Association, will help you to measure and evaluate the positive impact your museum has on your community

Our insights director Chris looks at the ticketing trends and what they say about where people get their cultural fix in NI. Do ticket-buyers in Belfast stick to city venues - and vice versa?

Queen's University Belfast student Isaac Ellis looked at our audience survey data to identify hidden trends and insights.

Open House Festival is in the unusual position of having moved location from Belfast city centre to the seaside town of Bangor. We explore why they made the move, and how it has affected their audiences.

In this guest blog, Paul Kane from Belfast Over the Hill Music Collective shares his views on the way art and artists are perceived in our society and what he wants to change.

Every year, we mine box office data to uncover insights into audiences for venues and festivals across Northern Ireland. Data includes overall benchmark figures for NI, as well as differences by Belfast venues and regional venues.

An interview with visual artist Ellie Niblock on her first experience making work for and with an audience.

Thrive's Sarah Blake Knox shares the latest arts marketing news and resources from this year’s Arts Marketing Association conference.

What our latest ticketing research says about customer loyalty in theatres and arts venues across Northern Ireland.

How popular is online booking with Northern Irish arts ticket buyers - and how does it differ between urban and rural contexts?

This Spring, Let’s go on an Art-venture and get back to our city centres!

We ran a series of workshops to support arts and culture venues to think creatively about how to improve their Access for Disabled People. This is what we learned.

What ticketing data can tell us about the effects of funding cuts on the arts in Northern Ireland.

Want to say hello? Here's how to find us.

If you want to know what makes NI audiences click and stick, sign up to our Audience Panel newsletter to receive fresh insights straight to your inbox.

Our CEO Margaret updates on the movement towards a citizens' assembly for the arts on the island of Ireland. How it could happen, and what it could mean for the cultural sector here.

Before we can see the effects of GDPR, here's a breakdown of how well Northern Irish venues are capturing contact details and permissions for their ticket buyers.

Have questions on the IMPACT Survey? Read on for more information.

Why green issues matter to audiences and how the cultural sector is well-placed to make a positive impact on the environment.

When it comes to engagement, do you see yourself as more product-led or people-led? Our Head of Sector Development Laura has gathered together some excellent resources together that can help you find the answer!

Our client relationships director Fiona Bell shares some thoughts on the arts sector after her travels across the length and breadth of Northern Ireland this year.

In this guest blog, Sarah McAvera from Golden Thread Gallery, shares her experience of attending "free" cultural events with her family, which often come with hidden prices. She explores whether this outcome is inevitable or if organisations can implement changes to provide more budget-friendly and accessible family programming.

Our Client Relationships Director Laura Cusick is back from maternity leave. Read her blog to find out more about how she plans to lead our team to further support you and the rest of the sector.

Read the Arts Collaboration Network's latest statement on 27th January 2021

A roadmap for digital tailored to Northern Ireland’s arts and culture organisations’ needs

A recent visit to Dundee shows a city that is investing in people-focused culture and heritage. What are the lessons for Belfast's future cultural strategy?

Read our latest guest blog from the Changed Future series, written by Holly Foskett.

In July 2022, we began work on a fascinating project: Northern Ireland in 100 Stories. For the past year, we met with a total of 120 people from across all 11 council areas in Northern Ireland to find out what arts and culture means to their lives. As we near the end of the project, we wanted to gather in one place all the resources that came from it.

New Era, New Audience: How can we make the arts appeal to the wider public during the pandemic and beyond? is our first guest blog of 2021, written by playwright Rosemary Jenkinson.

Community Asset Transfer (CAT) has been successfully utilised across the UK, yet Northern Ireland has seen only one major success story so far – the Open House Festival's ownership of the Court House, Bangor. Its triumph prompts an important question – Why aren't more Northern Irish communities trying out asset transfers to revive cherished local buildings?

We found that demonstrating the value of arts and culture, and the impact it can have on people and their communities is not an easy task. EastSide Arts' project 'The Gert and Friends' is a great example of how it can be done through co-creation.

The Foundations 2019-2023 report was made to study look at the ticketing landscape in Northern Ireland in recent years, including festivals. We learned a lot from it. So, we decided to talk to a few Northern Ireland festivals that weren't in the report. We wanted to find out what they thought about the trends for the next year.

Your website is often where your audience member starts their visit. If it's not accessible - what message are you sending to potential disabled and d/Deaf audience members? Here are some practical steps to make your website more accessible.

A comprehensive toolkit and checklist to help you welcome LGBTQ+ audiences to your venue, festival, or event. Produced in collaboration with Outburst Arts.

How many tickets for arts and culture events in Northern Ireland are offered at no cost? Insights from our Foundations Report have shed light on this. This prompts us to examine why organisations opt for free events and ticket giveaways. Are there benefits to sharing your valuable, often pricey, work for free?

Grassroots venues play a vital role in maintaining the longevity of the music sector. In this blog, Eve explores the challenges facing local grassroots music venues and what could be done to support their long term success.

The lowdown on the newest ways cultural organisations can use digital to connect with their audiences.

The Arts Collaboration Network have issued a statement following discussions about the impact of Covid-19 on the NI Arts and Cultural sector #InThisTogether

Kelly-Anne Collins from Dance Resource Base writes on the importance of taking the time to understand and communicate the ‘why’ of your organisation.

There is wealth of free information about your current and potential audiences available through your social media and website. Here's how to access it and build a picture of your online audiences.

VR is an exciting new opportunity for arts, culture, and heritage. But is there really an audience for it, and can it be used as an audience development tool? Fiona Bell reports from the Culture Geek conference.

Fat Chance is the second blog from our Dreams Guest Blog series. Caitlin Magnall-Kearns tackles the issue of diversity on our stages, specifically how Plus-Size Bodies are represented and what can be done for change.

We ran Hitchhiker's Guide to the Arts in 2014 to see if planned group visits could increase engagement from those who don't normally attend cultural events.

Our latest Foundations report, indicates a fresh wave of individuals engaging with arts and culture in Northern Ireland following the pandemic. We wanted to take a closer look at both emerging and diminishing audiences more closely.

As we move towards spring, it's a fitting time to take a moment and consider December, a pivotal time of year for the arts. With recent reports suggesting a downturn in sales for pantomimes and Christmas shows throughout the UK, it's worth examining whether this trend extends to Northern Ireland as well.

Fiona Bell asks whether arts venues go out of their way to be truly welcoming to everyone - or are we in danger of simply talking the talk?

Our client director Fiona shares her tips on how to facilitate a meeting or ideas session. How do you get everyone working towards the same goal, get those ideas flowing, and actually agree on some practical action points by the end of the day?

How trying to serve and attract everyone can harm your cultural organisation.

The Duncairn is our Audience Delight Award winner for Best Community Vibes. Read our case study to find out what is it about them that makes their audiences click.

The significance of arts and culture is frequently downplayed, yet it profoundly shapes people's lives. The Northern Ireland in 100 Stories project has gathered first hand accounts from people across the region demonstrating the impact arts and culture have on local residents. In this blog post, Laura examines the key themes from the project, highlighting how integral arts and culture are to are to local communities.

Read our third guest blog from the Changed Future series, written by Paul Connolly.

Audience development. It’s an objective that is close to our hearts here at Thrive. This summer, we decided to delve deeper into it, meeting with people from various parts of Northern Ireland’s arts and cultural sector (festivals, producers, galleries, and venues) The aim? To get an insight into the unique challenges each group faces around building and maintaining audience relationships.

How National Theatre of Scotland is using digital creatively to improve access and grow Deaf audiences.

Carrickfergus Museum transformed an empty space within their building into an area specifically designed for a new audience. We're looking at how they succeeded and how they integrated it into their regular programming.

Outburst Queer Arts Festival introduced their own ticketing strategy 'More if/Less if' to make their programme more accessible. They're one of our 2019/2020 Audience Delight Winner.

Read theatre director and writer Jess Williams' blog, the latest entry of our Dreams Guest Blog series.

Are cultural organisations too focused on new audiences - at the expense of encouraging and rewarding loyal visitors? Here's how and why arts organisations should be promoting audience loyalty.

Libraries are routinely reaching audiences that other cultural organisations struggle to. What can we learn from libraries about attracting a more diverse and representative audience?

How to design a membership scheme that increases customer loyalty and improves your organisation's bottom line.

The Around the Town Festival in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, highlights the impact of community-driven efforts on local culture. Led by Positive Carrickfergus, the festival aimed to showcase the town’s potential and boost its arts scene. For this case study, our Client Programme Coordinator Sarah spoke with Creative Producer Lynn McKenzie to find out how she and the team turned community aspirations into a successful festival through collaboration, planning, and responsive organising.

We've talked audience development with hundreds of organisations across Northern Ireland (and further afield!). So here are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear about understanding and growing cultural audiences.

Two months since introducing our IMPACT survey, Research Analyst Laura has taken a first look at the data for early insights from the responses. Her initial review offers a pulse check – what does the data reveal about the impact of arts, cultural and heritage events and activities so far?

How using focus groups helped The Crescent understand how their audience sees them, and led to a new brand and website that's showcasing the best of what they offer.

YouGov and Experian have been collecting data on the cost-of-living crisis and its impact on consumers. We wrote a blog about the implications for arts and culture audiences.

Struggling to get responses to your online survey? Here's how we worked with EastSide Arts to improve their response rate by over 500%, along with our top ten tips for improving your own online surveys.