The pilot project is complete and a final report is now available to download from our Resources page, along with the Family Friendly Toolkit.
The pilot programme focused effort on embedding a positive, strategic approach to developing family audiences and thereby increasing participating in the arts by children, young people and the adults in their lives. The project delivered the following objectives set out by the Arts Council in their project brief:
- Promotion of the Family Friendly Toolkit within the North East and development of a consistent culture of ‘family friendliness’ in arts organisations across the region
- Offer additional support to and work closely with a selected group of 7-10 cultural organisations to implement the toolkit to include audit, policy and action plan
- Implement a training programme on family friendliness, helping arts organisations to attract and retain family audiences
- Establish a Family Friendly Network where ideas and good practice can be shared amongst participating organisations
ANE worked with more than 60 individuals from 16 organisations covering visual arts, music, performing arts, museums, the outdoors and literature. Feedback from participants was positive and there is a good deal of support for a follow up project.
New knowledge sets and practical skills have entered the workforce of a substantial number of cultural organisations, and will be disseminated widely as a result of the training elements of the project. Nascent partnerships and collaborations have sprung up out of the networking opportunities created by the project, and the project has undoubtedly been instrumental in redefining some of the participating organisations’ perceptions of what it means to be family friendly.
Although the scope of the pilot project was wide, there are still many areas for future development.