Blackfriars Arts Centre

BACKGROUND

venue /organisation desciption 

Blackfriars Arts Centre was established in the 1960s by a group of volunteers and still remains an independent centre, managed by a group of local people.  It has an excellent reputation for its work with local communities and an experienced staff team that includes a dedicated education and outreach department, a Theatre in Education company, a thriving Youth Theatre and art-form specialists.

main aims and objectives of the initiative

There were four aims to this project;

• Consultation: to find out the Blackfriar’s family audience needs and wants through a process of consultation with current family user groups.
• Resources:  to make small but significant improvements to the Centre.
• Marketing and Customer Care:  to appoint an Outreach Marketeer to develop a more creative approach to marketing family events by visiting local groups and organisations, giving new family audiences a flavour of what they might expect from a visit to Blackfriars; to set in place training for Arts Centre staff to create a family friendly atmosphere; to create advertising, conduct a direct mail campaign and produce family friendly design and print.
• Programming:to programme an exciting and diverse range of family friendly music events.

Outcomes

The family friendly initiative has been very successful and has resulted in a programme of interesting workshops and performances of high artistic quality, staff trained in family customer care, new approaches to marketing family work, an analysis of the cultural needs of families and a range of popular new resources. One of the most significant results has been the important cultural shift among workers, volunteers and Board members, ranging from an understanding and acceptance of what constitutes ‘the family’ within the context of today’s flexible society to a greater awareness of arts provision for families.     Blackfriars is now firmly at the forefront of family-friendly programming within the county, and its reputation has spread across the region.  It is a model of good practice that has been achieved through common sense and flair. 

PRACTICALITIES 

Main activities and resources used 

• Family audiences for music events was the focus of the New Audience funding and programming took a variety of forms:
• the Summer Family Fun initiative, made up of 12 events, some free ‘drop-in’ sessions, designed to attract families who had not visited Blackfriars before and others which were very modestly priced. The programme also included a Super Special Summer School that took place for 8-14 years old. The young people worked on an adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are and gave two performances in the gardens of Fydell House at the end of the week. 
• the very popular Christmas pantomime
• family events which were part of the wider on-going programmes and which were clearly identified as being suitable for family audiences, both in the main Events brochure, in the Autumn 2002 Film Guide and in separate Family Events leaflets

Resources

Research has shown that there is a set of minimum resources that a venue should strive towards. Ensuring that the majority of these resources are in place has been an important part of Blackfriars’ family friendly programme. The Centre was built on the remains of a Dominican Friary; stringent planning legislation relating to historic buildings prevents major structural changes such as automatic wide doors for buggies, shallow steps for small legs, a ramp or lift to all floors or designated parking for families.   Blackfriars concentrated on the achievable, investing in a range of capital improvements that would enhance the accessibility of the venue for families and to make sure that the resources were well planned, well designed and well used.    Improvements took the following form:

• appropriate signage at child-friendly levels
• booster seating or cushions - We purchased 20 seats, advertised them in their brochures and ensured that audiences could see that the seats were available for each performance.  This gave the stewards a positive role in handing out the seats, talking to families and engaging in direct interaction. 
• baby changing facilities
• a portable play area for children in the foyer:  well designed, colourful structures were purchased from Espo for the foyer. These have been very well used and have provided a secure and child-friendly oasis in a very busy space. 
• new telephone system; A new automated system was installed which enabled a much more efficient ticket booking system.  An additional computer terminal has also been installed.

Capital improvements expenditure

Baby changing facilities                                     £370.00

Booster seats x 20                                           £600.00

Child friendly signage                                      £800.00

Portable play area                                          £550.00

Child-friendly foyer seating                               £300.00

Improvements to box office                               £3500.00

Total:                                                                        £6120.00.

A grant of £44,320.00 was awarded overall from the New Audiences Fund.

MARKETING AND AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT 

Target audience / Publicity – what worked well and not so well

There are several important elements to Blackfriars’ marketing strategy:

Print: grant enabled us to produce lively, dedicated family friendly print. Each season had its own family leaflet, pulling together all the workshops and performances that were particularly suitable for family audiences.  Text and pictures in bright colours made the print very appealing and a ‘family friendly’ symbol (a happy smiling face) takes the pain out of decision-making for adults.  A budget of £1200 was allocated for this.

Outreach marketeer:  Blackfriars employs one full-time Sales and Marketing Manager to market the entire programme of the Centre, which leaves little time for audience research and analysis.  The initiative enabled the appointment of an Outreach Marketeer (12 hours per week) on a short-term contract to develop a more creative and consultative approach to programming and marketing.  Their role was to:

• research and compile a database of existing family oriented organisations that may be interested in family activities
• visit relevant groups to deliver printed publicity materials and a strong verbal message about what Blackfriars can offer to families
• research and develop a distribution route that focuses on places where families often go (eg doctors surgeries/community centers/swimming pools etc)
• distribute printed materials to these places
• be present at Blackfriars Family Friendly events in order to promote forthcoming Family Friendly activities
• get feedback from the families contacted through the outreach process on their needs and expectations of the Blackfriars Family Friendly programme
• feedback to the Sales and Marketing Manager and Director with observations and information gleaned from outreach visits

It was apparent that there were families at the drop-in sessions who had never been to Blackfriars before, and a huge amount of enthusiasm – queues of people waiting for a music workshop to start.  Young people commented ‘We like it here’ and Summer School participants made the Centre their home for part of the holiday.   Many of the first-time users have been back! 

Pricing policy:  Workshops that made up the Summer Family Fun music programme, which took place in July and August 2002, were either free of charge (the drop-in sessions) or very modestly priced (between £3.50 and £2 depending on the length of workshop).  For most of these workshops, the young people had to be accompanied by an adult.   This was an excellent way of encouraging adults and young people to work together.

Family tickets were offered for performances and these ranged from £16 to £25 for either two adults and two children, or one adult and three children.  Concessionary tickets were also available for families whose numbers exceeded the family ticket rate.  There have been comments that two adults accompanied by more than two children are not being fairly catered for, and that the pricing should be more generous.  

EVALUATION

evaluation and monitoring methods

Evaluation took the following form:

• several face to face interviews with the Director, Sales & Marketing Manager and Outreach Marketeer of Blackfriars Arts Centre
• attendance at performances and preparation of show reports for specific shows
• attendance and report on a family workshop by Snap Theatre Company
• advice on staff training
• on-going monitoring and advice, acting as a ‘sounding board’ for ideas

Family Forum

As part of the New Audiences funding the Director and Marketing Officer began to put into practice a series of measures which they hoped would result in an active family forum, ideally a small group of committed families who would advise and comments on family programming and other related matters.

A short questionnaire, a pen, and an invitation to join a family open group was given to all parents who attended the production of Aesop’s Fables in September.  The families were invited to join staff in the revue bar after the show for refreshments and informal discussion. Two free cinema tickets were offered as an ‘inducement’ and 17 families attended; 14 people said they would be interested in joining a forum, from which Blackfriars selected six to take the idea on to the next stage.

The following month a slightly extended questionnaire was sent out to 500 families that were identified from the 2001 pantomime attenders.  53 replies were received out of which a further two families were identified for possible membership of the forum.  Three other people subsequently put their names forward, giving a total ‘pool’ of 11 people.  These were invited to the first Family Forum meeting in November but only one person came to this, possibly because it was a wet and stormy evening and possibly because people may not have fully understood what was expected of them.

However, the Board of Blackfriars have decided to address the whole issue of the ways in which audiences can contribute to the decision-making process, and are setting up a Membership Forum to widen access and participation.  A Board member has been assigned to this and is liaising with groups in the town who may have an interest in a family forum that would be part of a wider, Board-led initiative to canvass people’s opinions.  The Membership Forum is likely to meet three times a year and suggestion boxes have also been provided.   There is also a Users Forum that meets twice a year and there will be opportunities for families to input into this.