Archive for the ‘Building audiences’ Category

Creative New Zealand has just announced the keynote speakers for its 21^st Century Arts Conference: Dream it, Do it, Prove it.

Each year Creative New Zealand runs this excellent and inspiring conference that focus on audience development and the challenges facing arts organisations. This year the conference will be in Christchurch on 21-22 June and the initial announcement indicates that its going to another outstanding line-up of speakers: including the inspirational Richard Gerver, Claire Eva (Head of Marketing at the Tate in the UK), Andrew McIntyre from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, James Ashcroft (Artistic Director of Taki Rua productions), Emere and Wharehoka Wano (Sounds Aotearoa and WOMAD), Jenny Harper (Director, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu) and Robyn Archer (Artistic Director of Melbourne’s The Light in Winter). I’ve heard both Claire and Andrew present before and they are not to be missed!

The conference is based on the 7 Pillars of Audience Focus, a concept developed by UK arts consultancy Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in partnership with Creative New Zealand which encourages an approach that is: vision-led, brand-driven, outcome-oriented, inter-disciplinary, insight-guided, interactively-engaged and personalised. The themes for this year’s conference are vision-led and outcome oriented.

While the conference is invite only, if you’re really interested in attending you could contact susan.nelson@creativenz.govt.nz and if there are any spaces available you may get lucky!

Creative New Zealand publishes most of the keynotes on its website, so its an excellent resource to check out. At the 2008 conference, the standout was an inspiring and challenging opening keynote from Diane Ragsdale. The 2009 conference, featured the impressive Alan Brown, talking about audience segmentation. You can read the conference reports online and also see videos of some of the presentations.

The dynamic teams from the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT) and TIHI Ltd have put together a much needed music market – Sounds Aotearoa. The inuagural two-day music showcase will be held on 10 and 11 March in New Plymouth just before WOMAD on 12 to 14 March and will:
- promote New Zealand music and culture with artists from across the country
- provide professional development opportunities to enhance capacity and capability.

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Artists and arts organisations around the country, already opening their doors to disabled audiences and gallery visitors, are profiled in a practical guide called Arts for All: Ngā toi mo te katoa.

Published by Creative New Zealand in partnership with Arts Access Aotearoa, this practical guide provides low-cost and long-term ways to increase access to the arts, market events to the disabled community and build new audiences. Among the organisations profiled are Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Touch Compass Dance Trust, Fortune Theatre, Te Papa, City Gallery Wellington, Jolt Dance Company, The Court Theatre, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and WOMAD.

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As a follow-up to the truly excellent 21st Century Arts Conference in Wellington at the end of June, Creative New Zealand has teamed up with The Big Idea to connect us in online conversation with experts in branding, online marketing and arts patronage.

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A glass of wine at a book launch is as natural a combination as fish and chips on the beach, and there are many who feel passionately about both.

Last year New Zealand Book Month held an event in Auckland which promised free beer. Oh the wrath received from cultural curmudgeons; that such a thing should be thought of. But New Zealand Book Month is a campaign for all Kiwi tastes and palates so, once again, Kiwi beer is on the menu for 2009.

Boutique breweries across the country have taken up the challenge of beverage with books: Auckland’s Epic Beer, Nelson’s Founders Brewery, Hawke’s Bay Brewers, and the Twisted Hop in Christchurch are just a selection of the brews that can be found with books at this year’s events.

To sample beer and books concurrently try:

– Off the Radar at the Nelson Arts Festival. Thursday 22 October, 6.30pm for a complimentary tasting of organic beer from Founders Brewery. Tickets through http://www.everyman.co.nz

– Crest to Crest book launch in Christchurch at the Twisted Hop Brewery. Tuesday 27 October, 5.30pm.

– The 10pm Question Experience Dessert and conversation with Kate De Goldi, 29 October, 8.00pm. A special 10pm cocktail available or fabulous Kiwi beers Epic or Moa.
For further information on upcoming events see http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz

An opportunity that’s too good to miss: cultural tourism and the Rugby World Cup 2011

Crowds at the Auckland War Museum; photo by Nicole Scheid (flickr @*Nicci*)

It’s the third largest event in the world. A tournament lasting 44 days, at 14 venues, involving 20 teams, plus 60,000-70,000 international visitors and 2,000-3000 international media – all with time on their hands between matches. Not to mention a ‘stadium of 4 million’ – that’s us – Aotearoa New Zealand: the host nation.

The Rugby World Cup 2011 is an amazing opportunity for New Zealand to showcase itself to the rest of the world. It’s also an opportunity that’s too good to miss for the cultural sector.  It’s a chance to show the world that New Zealand has more to offer than a wonderful landscape and adventure tourism.  It’s an opportunity to show that we have a rich and diverse culture, that our arts are among the best in the world and that our history is just as interesting and engaging as anywhere else.  Research shows that for many international visitors New Zealand is a ‘must-see destination’ – one day.  The Rugby World Cup is the catalyst that will get them here – it will turn the desire into action.  For those who don’t come this time, the TV exposure is an opportunity to create a lasting impression of what New Zealand has to offer.

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Not only a great event in its own right, the Export 33 Parklife Invitational Rail Jam is a clever way to build audiences. As an organisation, you can’t always expect people to come and see you, sometimes you’ve got to take what you’re doing to the people. And that’s exactly what The Remarkables and NZSki are doing – trucking snow off the mountain and right into the city centre, giving people a taste of some the best freestyle skiing and snowboarding around.

The August 7 event is free for the whole family with busting tunes from Sunshine Sound System and P. Diggs. Now that’s one heck of a party and a brilliant promotion to get people skiing and snowboarding!

How are you taking your ‘mountain’ to the masses?

Photo: Nick Hyne wows the crowd at the 2008 Parklife Invitational. Image courtesy of NZSki.com.

By Marianne Taylor, Executive Director, Arts Access Aotearoa

Many of us take the arts for granted. We go to the theatre or a concert; take painting, dance or creative writing classes; and book our tickets to the New Zealand International Film Festival every year.

But what if you have a disability that makes it difficult for you to participate? After all, an estimated 660,300 people (17% of the population) reported a disability in the 2006 Statistics New Zealand survey. Perhaps you use a wheelchair or are sight-impaired. Maybe your disability is less obvious: you experience epilepsy, asthma or migraines.

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As a follow-up to the truly excellent 21st Century Arts Conference in Wellington at the end of June, Creative New Zealand has teamed up with The Big Idea to connect us in online conversation with experts in branding, online marketing and arts patronage.

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In June 2009, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage ran a cultural tourism workshop (convened by Tim Walker) with cultural organisations in the Auckland region. The workshop focused on opportunities presented by the Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC) to the cultural sector and vice versa. It looked at ways the cultural sector might add value to major events such as the Rugby World Cup through establishing partnerships and collaborative ventures with tourism and other parties in the Auckland region. An underlying purpose of the workshop was to support conversations between tourism, culture and economic development agencies and to encourage collaboration between the sectors in developing and/or enhancing exciting, authentic cultural tourism experiences up to and beyond the RWC 2011.
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