Research conducted by the Family Arts Campaign and Indigo, who has conducted the largest UK research study into audience intentions during COVID-19, suggests families are a willing and important audience segment at risk of exclusion.
The research talked to over 200,000 audience members about their attitudes to missing live events, how they were engaging with culture during lockdown and when they anticipated returning to live events in the future.
Uniquely, family audiences recognise the sense of urgency in providing cultural experiences for children, whose creative development is vitally important to them.
“This could be an opportunity for the culture sector to rebuild their audiences,” says Anna Dever, Head of the Family Arts Campaign, “Cultural organisations have an opportunity to develop interesting and interactive experiences for families, particularly around digital and outdoor activity. The data suggest that family groups are more interested than ever in arts and cultural experiences and are actively looking for things to do in person and online. It’s important we don’t ignore or overlook families in these challenging times.”
Significant findings from the study suggest:
“I would love to see some outdoor, family-orientated, socially distanced daytime performances in the coming few months, I’d be happy to pay the same as for an indoor performance... we are fed up with screen time,” said one audience member.
Katy Raines, Partner and Co-Founder of Indigo said, “Our research shows that families are an engaged and receptive audience, and perhaps more willing to try (and pay for) new experiences digitally or outdoors than other audience segments. They are acutely aware of the impact of a creative void in their children’s development, and so I would urge our cultural sector to review their family offer and think creatively about how they can provide memorable, fun and safe experiences for families.”
The Family Arts Campaign and Indigo will host a free webinar “Welcoming Back Family Audiences” on Tuesday 13 October in partnership with the Arts Marketing Association (AMA).
Organisations and artists are invited to share learning, ideas and examples on how these findings can help welcome families back to cultural experiences. Following the webinar, a full report on family audiences during Covid-19 will be released.
Sign up for the webinar here: https://www.familyarts.co.uk/training-events
Read the headline findings on the Indigo blog: https://www.indigo-ltd.com/blog/act-2-family-audiences
To receive the full report on its release in October, sign up to the Family Arts Campaign mailing list: http://familyarts.co.uk/#email_signup
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