HERITΛGE is excited to announce the release of the inaugural AHEAD training seminar video, Introduction to Audience Development. AHEAD (Accessible Heritage Experience for Audience Development)  is a project co-funded by the EU’s Creative Europe program that aims to encourage the cultural heritage sector to adopt human-centered approaches, learning by doing, impact and data-driven methodologies to innovate working practices, become more relevant for our communities, financially sustainable and create opportunities for social, cultural and economic growth.

This first video is hosted by University of Deusto’s Macarena Cuenca and Jaime Cuenca and  is part of AHEAD’s comprehensive capacity building program, which aims to equip heritage professionals with the essential tools and knowledge to foster audience development, entrepreneurship, and effective marketing strategies.

Fostering active audience engagement and access to culture is a major challenge for the cultural sector, and one which entails reinterpreting the relationship between cultural organizations and the public. In this context, audience development is becoming a key component of cultural sector strategy, as evidenced by the support for it from the European Commission. 

AHEAD’s first seminar is aimed at practitioners working in the cultural heritage sector who are interested in putting audiences at the center of their work and implementing an audience development approach in their organizations. It is made up of two presentations. The first starts with a reflection on the democratization of culture and cultural democracy and related considerations of ethics. It then introduces the concept of audience development. The second presentation is focused on the eight main strategic areas of intervention in Audience Development that were identified in a European-level relevant study on Audience Development (Bollo et al., 2017): Programming, Audience participation and co-creation, Digital, Use of Data, Place, Alliances and Collaboration, Organizational change management, and Capacity building.

Watch the seminar video now to gain valuable insights into the AHEAD program and the importance of audience development in the cultural heritage sector at your convenience. Become a member of the AHEAD network for more news, videos, training opportunities and upcoming events.