Creativity online

Background 

This is one of a series of five articles showcasing the interim insights of the Learning through the pandemic project.

Common Vision and Creative United have been commissioned by Arts Council England to deliver the project, listening to cultural practitioners and sharing community engagement and participation best practice from the first two years of the pandemic.

Each of these articles are a preview of content which will appear in a final playbook; they include an overview of the learnings under this theme followed by practical resources you can explore. The playbook will expand on this with top-tips, case studies and consideration points

This article was written by Matilda Agace, Senior Research and Engagement Manager, Common Vision.

Learnings

The last two years have seen a gear shift in the use of digital tools and channels by cultural organisations and practitioners, and in the level of digital skills and confidence within the sector. Almost every cultural organisation has shifted to online engagement and delivery, driven by an imperative to keep supporting and connecting with their communities. 

The use of digital channels has broken down physical barriers to participating in culture, has allowed people to engage in creativity and culture on their own terms in their own environments; prompted innovate delivery methods and formats; and facilitated new collaborations and partnerships. However, shifting online is rarely straightforward. Through workshops and interviews we heard about resourceful approaches to developing new delivery formats for an online environment, closing the digital skill gap among staff members, producing new kinds of content, building digital communities, and expanding the reach of arts during lockdown. Some of the most popular approaches included:

Streaming has helped audience outreach and development during the pandemic

Musicians and theatre companies particularly turned to streaming to keep audiences entertained and connected with performance, but so too have libraries and community arts centres, which have streamed tutorials and workshops to audiences on social media. National Videogame Museum in Sheffield reached 5,000 people with their YouTube and Twitch steams, designed to help families stuck at home by teaching kids how to make games with free online tools. Kingston’s Library Service worked hard to engage a wider audience and support the most vulnerable through a new digital library offer, starting with the first ever live streamed rhyme time, they expanded to create over 450 original videos and 140 interactive events which were used by thousands of residents to keep connected and active in lockdown. Some organisations found that streaming was most successful for reaching people who were already active and engaged, and we heard that cultural organisations had less luck reaching targeted groups with this approach.

Interactive digital event delivery

A common approach for many cultural organisations through the pandemic has often been to transfer group learning and engagement from in-person workshops to online video calls, using platforms like Zoom. This is different to streaming in that interaction between participants is enabled. Examples include how Megaphone Writer Development Scheme shifted from in-person to Zoom delivery, enabling new participants who have caring responsibilities or trouble traveling to take part on an equal footing. Yorkshire Dance found that their small group Zoom sessions enabled a safe and interactive environment that had space for socialising and for art, and new participants who had previously struggled to attend live sessions due to their disabilities could take part. And Sonia Sabri Company worked in partnership with Sahel Asian Women’s Project provide 77 Zoom dance classes for women who would not normally have access to the arts, giving them a chance to step away from their daily lives, build confidence, and improve wellbeing.

Reaching new participants via social media and mailing lists

Social media use by cultural organisations and practitioners has blossomed. Many have shifted from seeing social media sites as marketing platform, to a tool they could use to talk to, engage and support community members. This has not been without its challenges - producing a steady stream of good social media content is harder and more time-intensive than it looks, but it can facilitate strong interaction. Black Country Living Museum’s TikTok channel gained over half a million followers in 6 months, engaging a new and younger audience with the museum, whilst London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Learn in and Listen series on Instagram reached hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with a weekly opportunity to reflect through listening to soothing music. Others focussed not on producing new content for social media, but facilitating interactive discussion, like Derbyshire Libraries’ popular Detective Book Off series, and many others used it to market interactive activities and live workshops.

Digital-first content production

Beyond shifting existing activities into digital formats like streamed performance, many organisations and practitioners experimented with producing content like videos, podcasts, and interactive websites. This approach enabled organisations to deliver high-quality content tailored to the needs and preferences of their communities. For instance, participatory theatre company Made by Mortals worked with their core group of older isolated adults produce their highly popular podcast series for kids Armchair Adventures; Emergency Exit Arts worked with young Thamesmead residents to produce TEMO TV Lockdown broadcasts to entertain watchers and develop participants digital production skills; and Duckie’s Posh Club produced Posh Club TV to keep their older and isolated members connected, alongside a full programme of analogue engagement. Theatre and dance companies like SouthPaw Dance and are also now exploring how to make performances that build on the possibilities of digital tools, rather than are constrained by them. Producing digital content has required staff to develop whole new skillsets which undoubtedly will continue to be important skills far into the future.  

Resources

The below are a selection of the resources which we have been pulled together to celebrate what works when it comes to digital engagement, help overcome challenges, and demonstrate the wealth of expertise that exists within the arts and culture sector. More will be available in the ‘Learning through the pandemic’ playbook due to be published by Common Vision in early 2022.

Introductory resources on digital culture:

Libraries Connected: Engaging with a digital audience toolkit: This is a general best-practice guide to developing and engaging audiences online, produced for library services, but useful to any organisation starting out creating an online profile.

Local Trust: Digital Toolkit: This is a good entry-level guide to the different kind of digital platforms, software, and resources you might want to use in community engagement work.

Audience Agency: Digital Culture Compass: A free online toolkit to help you integrate digital technology into your work. It contains a tracker to help you find out your strong points and areas you might want to develop, and a charter of best practice for inspiration. 

Resources for good digital facilitation and creative activities:

Collective Encounters: Participatory Theatre Top Tips for Online Facilitation: The guide includes top tips for getting online, accessibility, fostering a welcoming environment, helping participants feel safe, making the most out of digital space, object play, postal packs, and a list of guides on zoom functionality.

A New Direction: Reset digital facilitation toolkit: A resource for cultural educators working with younger audiences, this toolkit contains great ideas for activities to do online which boost creative engagement, support participant wellbeing, and help with evaluation.  

Kazzum Arts: Gamejam, a guide for online arts facilitation: Packed with practical idea for creative and accessible online arts facilitation, this guide is designed for arts leaders supporting isolated and excluded young people during the pandemic. 

Culture Hive: Remote Intimacy How to lead at a distance: This listicle by RADA Business tutor Claire Dale tells describes the challenges of creating a sense of intimacy with audiences online, and gives eight top tips for overcome it as a facilitator or performer. 

Collective Encounters: Games and exercises for zoom and social distancing: A collaborative, open-source google sheets document with online activities to run via video calls crowd-sourced from participatory theatre practitioners. 

Libraries Connected: Running digital events for adults: A useful breakdown of different kind of activities that libraries are using during the pandemic to engage adults, with examples and reflections on why certain techniques do and don’t work. 

Resources on digital content creation for different platforms and artforms: 

Digital Culture Network: Engaging audiences with social media: This entry-level resource looks at the pros and cons of the main platforms: Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and gives examples the ways these platforms are being used to engage with an audience. 

Arts Marketing Association. Everything has changed, but what role does digital streaming have in the future? A write-up of an experiment in running a hybrid streamed and in-person festival ‘Unlimited’ by a marketing manager at the Southbank Centre. It has useful reflections on accessibility and engagement for hybrid events. 

Collective Encounters: Making digital participatory theatre: A series of filmed essays and case studies that explore the work of those making participatory theatre using digital means and platforms both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Locality: Engaging your community in a meaningful way: Pages 16 to 37 of this practical guide reviews and weighs up the benefits of using different kinds of digital tools to support and engage communities. Although it is designed for a neighbourhood planning context, the same advice would apply to most creative community engagement. 

Resources on evaluating online work:

The Audience Agency: Using evidence to evaluate online activities: A practical guide for helping you think about how to use data to evaluate the impact of your online work. It covers setting objectives for online engagement, reviewing data and identifying gaps, collecting data and reviewing the data that you collect.

Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance: Evaluating Remote and Online Creative Activities During the Pandemic. This write-up of a discussion about evaluation methods during the pandemic raises some important considerations for evaluating online engagement. Though not a practical guide, the discussion might be useful for framing your evaluation approach.