Giving Audiences What They Need

There has been resurgence over the last couple of months in discussions online around the Need vs Want issue in programming for the arts. Should we give audiences what they want, or what they need, and how do we know which is which?

Tips on Theatre Touring

Today I spent the day in a room with 130 other people interested in theatre touring, at the 2013 Victorian Theatre Touring Workshop. Present were venue managers, artists, producers, writers, theatre companies, support agencies and managers. What a fascinating conversation!

A chance to talk about touring

I was very pleased a couple of weeks ago to receive notification of the 2013 Victorian Touring Workshop, being organised by Regional Arts Victoria, Theatre Network Victoria and the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres. As the topics of programming, marketing and touring are three of my key interests, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about all these things with other people in the industry.

Should audience data inform programming decisions?

A couple of weeks ago the UK's Stage Newspaper asked a question - Should theatres make more use of audience ticketing data when deciding what shows to stage? Here’s my take on it.

Is the Programming Strategy to blame?

There was a lot of media coverage last week following the announcement of mass redundancies at Arts Centre Melbourne, caused by a rumoured $8m operating loss for the last financial year. So what went wrong?

What is the future for the Presenter Driven model of Programming?

When I first started working in Arts Administration in Australia I was intrigued by the complex theatre touring landscape and the reliance on what is referred to as the Presenter driven model of programming. I was amazed to discover that large numbers of venue managers got together two or three times a year to collectively choose work to put on their stages.

An exercise in Arts Programming for the small screen

For those who may have missed all the blatant promotion, I’ve recently been working with Renegade Films on their new television show Studio at the Memo with Tim Rogers. They engaged me to work with them on developing a program of appropriate artists to appear on the show, which I describe as a sophisticated (but a little bit edgy) variety show, sitting somewhere between Later with Jools Holland and a night at the Famous Spiegeltent.

Is Arts Centre Programming Really Failing?

For a couple of months I've been thinking about how I might put down on paper my own thoughts on the role of arts programming in audience development. It's taken some time as I've been sidetracked with programming of a different kind for the past couple of months. But this blog post by Ricky Bryan has got me back on track.

Bringing the Famous Spiegeltent to Melbourne

In my time working at Arts Centre Melbourne I spent the good part of 5 years working on presenting the Famous Spiegeltent on the Arts Centre forecourt. The Famous Spiegeltent is a wonderful travelling Belgian mirror tent with an impressive pedigree – most famously hosting a performance by Marlene Dietrich in the 1930’s.

To visitors, the Spiegeltent mysteriously appears for up to three months at a time in Melbourne, and then disappears again to another location on her touring circuit. The Spiegeltent arriving is an exciting time, but behind the scenes getting it to Melbourne each year is a highly complex project.

Influences on Programming in a Performing Arts Centre

Performing arts programming is something I have a real fascination with. When I studied for my Masters degree at Northumbria University I wrote my dissertation on influences and issues in theatre programming in the UK. Since then I've spent five years working in the Programming unit of a large performing arts centre, and during that time I did a lot of work on programming strategy.

We were constantly juggling multiple and often conflicting priorities, and one of the constant challenges was balancing the financial and attendance targets with artistic aspirations. In fact it's a constant reality for most arts organisations!

In order to make well-informed programming decisions you need to have a good understanding of these kinds of issues (in no particular order):