Extending The Margins - Grundtvig Funded : 2010 - 2012

AEN completed its Extending the Margins programme submitting a report in November 2012. The programme aimed to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experience of cultural managers and exchange best practice.  The knowledge acquired through this process enabled managers to engage more effectively with their target client groups, making arts and culture more accessible to the widest spectrum of the population.  It is particularly valuable in enabling managers to benefit from a diverse range of backgrounds, traditions and cultures offered by the Audiences Europe Network drawn from a wide pool of European countries and regions. With these widened perspectives, it is  believed that managers could achieve greater impact and creativity in their own local endeavours in widening the accessibility of arts and culture and promoting cultural and creative education.
ABOVE
Belgium's Extending the Margins conference "New Technologies for New Audiences" hosted by AEN Partner Peter Bary and CultuurNet Vlaanderen.
The project focused on five core topics that explored how better partners can engage with disadvantaged adult learners, a priority group for European funding:
  1. How cultural institutions can engage more effectively with culturally diverse and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities - particularly in in the development of learning programmes for groups of 'community cultural ambassadors' 
  2. How to engage people from disadvantaged backgrounds, (particularly young people not in education, employment or training) in creative cultural programmes - such as in the delivery or workshops that raise creative and practical skills, familiarisation and taster sessions that generate understanding and sense of belonging, organising visits to events etc
  3. How i-technology can be used to communicate with 'non-traditional' cultural attenders - particularly in providing interpretation and information on cultural events and programmes in ways that are meaningful and attractive to target learners
  4. How the power of local communities can be enlisted to create cultural events and programmes (eg festivals) by working in collaboration with and supported by 'mainstream' cultural institutions
  5. How new and contemporary arts can be made more accessible to people who lack sophisticated educational backgrounds through workshops, interpretation and outreach work

Get in touch with AEN if you have any interest in these topics - it may be that your organisation or project could be showcased at one of the AEN seminars in the future or on the community network as a features blog post.

Links & Resources

Partner Event - "New Technologies for New Audiences" - Ghent  session summaries with speaker slides.

NT4NA Event Livestream Archive on Bambuser

Partner Event - "Insight/Out"  - Rotterdam session summaries with photos, speaker slides and embedded livestream Bambuser archived video podcasts.

Toolkits & Resources

Knowledge Bank

#SMDC
Social Media & Digital Communications
#OCAF
Organisational Change & Audience Focus
#UTA
Understanding Your Audience
#OE
Outreach & Engagement