There is support available for projects and programmes to improve your audience engagement.
A good first step is to talk to your MDO. If your museum is in the accreditation scheme, you can also get in touch with SHARE’s regional lead for Audiences in the East, Kathy Moore, to find out more about the support SHARE can offer in this area of work.
National Schools Surveys
For anyone planning educational activities and considering how schools are thinking about potential museum engagement during Covid-19, their needs and priorities and how you can best support them, the following reports may be helpful.
- National Arts, Creative and Cultural Education Survey – July 2020 – Summary of Findings – from Royal Opera House Bridge
- Teachers’ Survey on Digital Learning – from National Museums Scotland
The Audience Agency
The Audience Agency can help you overcome audience challenges and improve your relationship with them. They can support in the following areas:
- Access and inclusion
- Audience profiling and segmentation
- Audience-centred design
- Digital confidence
- Evaluation and impact
- Participation and learning
- Place-shaping and collaboration
- Resilience, innovation and enterprise.
They have a number of resources freely available on their website or you can contact them to discuss working with them more closely: support@theaudienceagency.org.
Bounce Forwards: Digital Audience Survey – The Audience Agency have created a free digital survey for you to gain a snapshot of your digital audiences as you adapt your online offer.
Evaluation resources
Evaluation toolkit for museums (SHARE Museums East, May 2020) – a toolkit intended as a guide for organisations, both small and large, to provide them with
the confidence to commission and recognise effective evaluation delivered by
consultants on their behalf, and / or carry out evaluation themselves. Commissioned by SHARE and supported by Arts Council England.
Please note, the following four resources and templates have been made for museums to use for free. However, if you wish to quote from them please make sure the authors are credited and do not share on other websites without talking to your MDO first.
- Evaluation Planning Introduction and Guide
- Appendix 1 – Evaluation Report Template
- Appendix 2 – Photo Permission Form Template
- Appendix 3 – Evaluation Glossary
Online learning
GEM: learning resources
Digital Culture Network (DCN): delivering online webinars and talks
South East Museum Development: SEND Toolkit (March 2018)
My learning: Reaching new audiences and inspiration for your online work
SHARE Museums East: Tips on creating resource boxes and other learning sessions
Digital
- Digital guide: working safely online with children and young people from the National Lottery Heritage Fund
- How to Make Videos on your Smartphone – YouTube tutorial created by The Digital Culture Network
- 15 tips to guide your web design – also from the Digital Culture Network
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