Project Type: Audience Development

V&A Adobe Creative Residency Programme

Flow Associates were asked to undertake audience research for the Adobe Creative Residency Programme to explore the reach and experience of underserved audiences across learning programmes at the V&A. Each year, three creatives work for 12 months, full-time, based in a studio space at the V&A South Kensington. Each Adobe Creative Resident is paired with a curatorial mentor who acts as a guide to the collection throughout their time. Residents also work with a designated audience (schools, families or young people) and collaborate with the learning team to expand access to creativity, design and making. The programme ends with a display of their work at V&A South Kensington.

Our overarching question for the first two years of this research project was, ‘What can we learn through the Adobe Creative Residency Programme about removing barriers to engagement and learning for diverse audiences at the V&A?’. Our Year One report set a baseline with KPIs and targets for ongoing evaluation by establishing who was attending these activities, their motivations, barriers, and levers for change. In Year Two, we explored how the conditions for deeper engagement are being created, and in Year 3 we are looking at the internal culture, sharing best of practice and processes will enable them to sustain the change they are bringing about.

Through analysis of the c.40,000 participants each year, observation and interviews, we have supported the V&A to understand how artist-led activity and collaboration with its internal teams can create the space for diverse audiences to engage with its programmes. We worked closely with the V&A’s Learning and Audience Research teams to refine their data collection from bookings and audiences, establish an evaluation framework, and carefully define stretch goals and KPIs for the programmes. Our evaluation work has enabled teams to create more efficient processes for understanding their audiences, demonstrate internally and externally their impact, and capture innovative working practices with artists and the wider public.

 

Ashmolean Museum: Branding review

The Ashmolean Museum, Britain’s first public museum with collections splanning from Egyptian mummies to modern art, sought to deepen its connection with a key growth audience of “Children-First Families.” This segment represents visitors whose primary motivation for a museum trip is to provide a rewarding and educational experience for their children, creating shared family memories. Our approach was framed by experience design – how can the Ashmolean better design the visit experience and its communications to shift preconceptions and the emotions of families so that they feel able to step through that imposing front door, and they leave smiling and wanting to return.

To effectively engage this audience, the museum partnered with us to conduct formative branding research. The goal was to understand how the museum’s existing brand identity and communications could be adapted to be more welcoming and appealing to these specific visitors, ultimately guiding future strategy for galleries, marketing, and family-focused offerings. Flow created a highly actionable guide to be used by their marketing, design, exhibitions and public programming teams to respond to the needs of this audience as they go on to build this offer. 

Our research was designed to gain qualitative insights directly from families who fit their audience profile. The methodology involved a multi-pronged approach that included:

  • Consultation and Interviews: We conducted in-depth interviews with families, including both adults and children, to capture their perspectives on the museum. These interviews took place both online and in-person at the museum and out in the city centre.
  • Audience Profiling: We built upon the museum’s extensive existing audience research to create a comprehensive profile of Children-first Families, exploring their motivations, priorities, and potential barriers to visiting.
  • Visual & Messaging Testing: During the interviews, we presented participants with various visual and messaging concepts related to brand identity, including different fonts, colors, imagery, and key messages. This allowed us to observe their reactions and preferences in real time.

This blended approach allowed us to gather rich, actionable data that provided a holistic view of the audience’s needs and perceptions in order to deeply understand their experience.

The research yielded a number of key insights that will inform the museum’s future brand strategy. Through our strategic research, we provided the Ashmolean Museum with a clear, data-driven roadmap to tailor its brand for a new generation of visitors. We provided a working guide for the museum to leverage their aesthetic approach to better resonate with families and signal a dedicated, welcoming experience. 

The result is a powerfully revitalized brand identity that not only preserves the museum’s gravitas but also confidently communicates its child-friendly approach. Our work has empowered the Ashmolean to develop communications and experiences that speak directly to the needs of Children-first Families, overcoming their hesitations and fostering a lasting connection that will pave the way for a lifetime of museum enjoyment.

Tate Artist Rooms

Tate commissioned us develop a framework and supporting toolkit with resources to capture the impact of the new form of Artist Rooms. This framework will enable a better understanding of audiences, thedevelopmental impact on the touring exhibition for partners and provide Tate with insights to further develop this new model of packaged touring exhibitions.

The Evaluation Framework enabled Tate to:

  • Define and capture evidence of change, giving them a deeper understanding of their impact
  • Gather evidence of successes and challenges, enabling them and their partners to learn and grow the programme
  • Provide materials to champion their work and advocate for their touring programmes
  • Deliver high quality evidenced reports to funders and stakeholders
  • Empower their Learning team to share their insights with partners and peers

This framework and methodology underpinned the key ambitions for Artist Rooms in enabling access to collections nationally. It supported exploring how working in partnership can enhance access to international artists, particularly for younger people.

Flow provided:

  • Planning how it can be integrated and delivered by the Artist Rooms team into the package of resources provided to support partner venues
  • Understanding current evaluation and any barriers to effective collection and analysis
  • Creating a simple and useable toolkit for staff who are collecting evidence and requiring simple methods for analysing it
  • Advising on how evidence collection can be integrated into visits to the exhibition, related programming and use of supporting resources
  • Delivering training sessions with staff on using the framework and its tools
  • Making recommendations for future evaluation plans

Clandon House – National Trust

Clandon House is a major project for the National Trust, reimagining the role of historic homes in their ownership. In 2015, a fire destroyed the house leaving just the bare bones of the once grand home. The opportunities for the interpretation and  architecture to bring in new types of audiences and create new programmes for a diverse range of visitors were informed by in-depth visitor research, consultation and collaboration with the National Trust’s teams.

Flow Associates collaborated with exhibition design studio Pimental and Partners:

  • Contributing to the delivery of RIBA Stage 2 and 3
  • Create an audience plan to guide design and to carry out consulation to iterate the interpretive approach
  • Refined the National Trust’s target audiences for a new kind of historic home experience
  • Guided the National Trust in consultation for the statutory planning permission process creating a toolkit for best practice and supporting the design of public exhibitions
  • Worked with the exhibition team to refine the interpretation to engage new future audiences
  • Guided workshops for architects Allies and Morrison through feedback from public consultation on the design and identifying areas for co-design with the local communities

Charging Schools: Why and How?

This research is a snapshot of the charging models at Museums and Galleries across the UK in 2024. As schools and the cultural sector face a challenging economic climate, the National Portrait Gallery asked Flow Associates to undertake research into current charging models for school visits across the museum and gallery sector to inform their own work.  They have kindly agreed for us to share a summary of the research to support the sector as a whole in understanding the approaches taken by organisations to ensure both equitable access to cultural education, and the drivers for financial sustainability.

This will be a helpful document to enable my powers that be to understand why we need to be careful with price rises for educational bookings.” Museum educator in response to our Facebook post in ‘Learning in Museums and Galleries’

We wanted to understand the following:

  • What charging models exist in Museums and Galleries for Primary school, Secondary school, College and Special school visits?
  • How much do they charge? Are concessions made/bursaries given to e.g. for schools with high pupil premium?
  • How much do other, comparable Museums and Galleries charge and what are they charging for?
  • By charging schools can you cover ‘real’ costs?
  • Is charging likely to be a barrier for schools in general and/or for particular types of school?
  • How might charging for schools impact negatively on Museums and Galleries?

Download PDF “Charging Schools: Why and How?”

As this paper emerged from research for its commissioner, the National Portrait Gallery, our comparitive review looked at the learning programs offered by 22 Museums and Galleries and selected organisations that were either National Museums as designated by parliament, or based in London and therefore catering to a similar demographic. Our focus here was on museums and galleries which are free to the public, and the majority have charges for special events and exhibitions. We included two relevant london galleries who charge general public for entry, the Photographers gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Both offer free entry for schools. In addition we ran a quick review of a further 19 organisations to establish whether or not they charge schools for their programmes.

An open online survey to members of the Group for Education in Museums network, saw contributions from a further 61 organisations and we have included their anonymised responses in this paper.

 

 

Natural History Museum

A major research and consultation project working with curatorial and Learning teams to develop a new Children’s Gallery, a global international education initiative, onsite programming and online activities. We worked alongside the teams onsite on remotely to establish the guiding principles for the project, develop key interpretive themes and programming which engages young people with caring for and understanding their immediate natural environments and ecosystems as well as those globally.

The research explored how to:

  • Optimise the experience of the new Children’s Gallery, through activities on themes of Wild Voices, connecting with animals’ lives in different habitats.
  • Lift barriers of access to schools, families and groups with intersecting factors of disadvantage or SENDs, by consulting them, travelling to settings with activities, and easing their experience of the NHM as a whole.
  • Inspire and acknowledge young children as imaginative friends of the natural world, and provide templates for partners in the GEI, through online resources for digital and real-world play and nature connection.
  • Develop skills of adults (including NHM staff and volunteers) to reconnect with nature and support children through a ’School of Nature Play’.
  • To do action research as the activities are developed, to serve the global initiatve with insights.

Milton Keynes Young Creatives

An on-going three year evaluation of a collaboration between Milton Keynes College, local schools, MK Gallery and Arts and Heritage Alliance MK capturing the impact of implementing a creative curriculum for students and developing career opportunities for NEETs.

This involved the development of a Story of Change with the stakeholders leading to the creation of an evaluation framework in order to focus a diverse set of ambitions and impacts. We are mentoring the young people in the programme to take control of the evaluation process and supporting each cohort in cascading this to new participants. The programme recently moved from in-person to online and so the data collection approach has moved to online observation of sessions, interviews and online surveys.

GLAM Oxford Non-Visitor Research

Working with the museums, libraries and gardens which make up the GLAM Oxford group, we undertook research and consultancy to help them better plan for how they reach local non-visiting audiences.

Through focus groups, online surveys and telephone interviews, local people and organisations from across Oxford contributed to us building a picture of the barriers to cultural engagement in the city.

We created actionable steps for the venues individually and as a group to help them build a strategy which opens the door for them to serve their local communities and audiences.

Museum of London – Deep Time

Flow were commissioned to test the concept for Deep Time, a space within the new Museum of London site at Smithfield Market which
will invite visitors to experience the magic of the Museum store.

This space will include a working store, styled to highlight the enormity of the collection, and a digital portal into the museum’s other stores. Visitors will be able to explore the collection in a number of ways, physically and virtually, and through this the histories contained within them.

Key to the concept is a sense of discovery and play. Adults and families will be invited into a space which is usually set for Key Stage 2 school groups, so it is important that it is designed to cater for all.

Our research tested with key audience groups how people can connect with the space and its content on a physical, emotional, and
intellectual level, ensuring that it is accessible to a range of audiences. Through workshops and site visits with families and young “Experience Seekers”, we tested object handling approaches and looked at how groups interacted with working museum storage spaces.

 

A report, presentation and set of recommendations was produced to inform the design brief and curatorial approach within the gallery.

 

Scarborough Museums Trust

Scarborough Museums Trust is formed of the Rotunda Museum, Scarborough Art Gallery and Woodend House. Working across Collections, Exhibitions and Curatorial Flow helped build a Story of Change for the Trust to align their ambitions and identify their impacts. From this we created an audience development strategy and evaluation tools which will evidence and provide guidance as they work towards the future.

Flow is also supporting the Futurelab exhibition which is bringing three contemporary practitioners into the Art Gallery to re-imagine and explore what the Trust’s spaces can do for the people of the town.