M&G NSW talks Audience Research at MA National Conference

Lunching on the lawn at the 2012 MA Conference

I recently attended the Museums Australia national conference In Adelaide and spoke about the State-wide NSW public galleries audience evaluation study Guess Who’s Going to the Gallery. Though I have been talking about this project since 2008, every time I return to it I am reminded of how important it is as both a data set and a bench mark for gallery audiences in Australia. 

There were, of course, several other presentations in this session. Reagan Forrest & Jenny Parsons talked about a project using skills of corporate volunteers to track the pathways of audiences in the Aboriginal galleries of the South Australian Museum and how that data was interpreted and its results implemented. Gillian Savage from Environmetrics Pty Ltd spoke about a simple template for a short questionnaire on evaluating a program or event. Carolyn Meehan from Museums Victoria spoke about the need to share data on our audiences... and led by example. The final presentation from Jan Packer (University of Queensland) looked at evaluating audience experiences along 15 qualities.

The Guess Who’s Going to the Gallery: The NSW State Report can be found here.

Gillian and Reagan & Jenny’s presentation can be found here.

Following the session, I ran a workshop Getting to Know You on learning more about your audiences. Originally aimed at volunteer managed and run museums, it was clear from a little bit of audience research, that the people in this workshop were far from beginners. In many ways the workshop proved the point that knowing who you are talking to should absolutely frame the type of research you do and the way you go about it.

With this group, I spoke though some of the basic ideas behind why audience evaluation is of use as well as some resources available – with a more comprehensive list included in this post.

You can download the basics of the workshop Getting to Know You here

Finally you can always contact me at M&G NSW with any questions.

Michael Huxley

Guess Who's Going to the Gallery? launched last Friday

From Left: Michael Huxley, Finance & Administration, M&G NSW, The Hon. Virginia Judge, Minister for the Arts and Fair Trade, and Michael Rolfe, CEO, M&G NSW

As someone involved quite closely with gallery audiences over the past few years it was genuinely exciting in my new role as CEO of M&G NSW to introduce NSW Minister for the Arts , Virginia Judge, as she launched our much anticipated gallery audience evaluation study  Guess Who’s Going to the Gallery , in Sydney on Friday.

Three years in the making, with over 7000 responses across 41 public galleries, the report’s key findings confirm that galleries offer an accessible, stimulating and engaging form of cultural activity for people from all walks of life – in communities throughout NSW.

In short, the research reveals that if you have 10 people standing in front of an artwork in a public gallery, it is likely that:

·        At least one will speak a language other than English

·        Two will be under 35 and at least three will be aged between 35-54

·        At least five will live in the local area

·        Three will be first time visitors

Significantly, survey results also highlight the importance of cultural tourism to the gallery audience base, with over 20% of all visitors describing themselves as a tourist. I would expect that this figure is also reflected in museum visitation – adding impetus to calls for Tourism NSW to sharpen and renew its focus and support for regional cultural tourism campaigns and strategies.

Strong connections are also being made locally. In Regional NSW for instance, some 72% of audiences live within the local government area of the gallery visited.  Statewide, 13% of audiences are from culturally diverse backgrounds, a figure which rises to 20% in metropolitan Sydney, and across age groups, income levels, education and work commitments, visitors express an overall 98 % satisfaction rating of experiences had.

It must be remembered that all this happens within an extremely competitive market for all sorts of leisure and general recreational pursuits. Reinforcing (for those that didn’t already know) that cultural activity is a significant and important part of many peoples lives – indeed it just might be a driving force!   

Follow the link below for access to the detailed report (which we hope might inspire a bit of blogging in response)!

http://mgnsw.org.au/resources/guess_whos_going_to_the_gallery_the_nsw_state_report/

To view the ABC Story click here: www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/28/3124239.htm?section=justin

To view the SMH Story click here: www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/art-galleries-draw-the-young-the-old-and-most-of-those-in-between-20110128-1a8dg.html

 I look forward to talking to you soon.  

Michael Rolfe

CEO

M&G NSW