Learning path for audience development - Visual Arts 3: the role of artists
Who is our audience? Who are we reaching today? And who do we not? What place and role does our audience have within our organisation? And how do we involve artists to engage in our audience development?
Are you responsable for the audience development in your organisation? We would like to get to know you better! Together with other colleagues, we will talk about the challenges around audience development in the visual arts sector. We will put different themes on the agenda such as access, exclusion, diversity and the social role of the arts.
We will organise three sessions within the theme of audiences this year.
- Session on mission and vision - 25 March 2025, FOMU (past)
- Session working on thresholds and access - 6 May 2025, Kunsthal Gent (past)
- Session on the role of artists - 7 October 2025, GC De Pianofabriek
The role of artists
Artists also think about their audience, whether in their work or in the way they present it. What can we learn from artists? And are there any examples or best practices of how to give artists that space?
Morning: open forum
During the morning, the programme will be filled in by the participants themselves. Please let us know via the registration form if you would like to share a project or discuss a proposal. This could be a successful or unsuccessful project, a concept you want to roll out, an internal discussion you want to have with colleagues, an educational experience with successes and failures, a method for working on access or with new audiences, or something you are struggling with.
Afternoon: discussion about the role of artists
Herlinde Raeman (Different Class) will talk to Peter Morrens, Simon Delobel, Jakob Van den Broucke and Kasper Demeulemeester about the role of artists in rethinking the relationship with the public.
- Case 1: An integrated approach to creating, presenting and experiencing
- Artists like to contribute to an open and imaginative relationship between their work and the public. If the public already has a place in the creative process, how do artists collaborate with organisations on audience development, and how ad why do artists themselves curate and mediate?
- Guest speaker: Peter Morrens, artist
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Case 2: The artist as public mediator
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Art organisations not only actively involve artists in the mediation of their work, but also involve them in their policy and practice around audience development. How do artists give form to mediation, and how do they relate as artist-mediators to the work of the artists being presented?
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Guest speaker: Simon Delobel, director of KIOSK, Ghent
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Case 3: Artists and audiences working together
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Artists create work in and for a specific place and engage with its function, history and users.
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Guest speakers: Jakob Van den Broucke and Kasper Demeulemeester, Temporary Information Centre (TIC)
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Who?
Artists or art professionals (freelance or staff) responsible for the audience development programme of organisations presenting contemporary visual arts such as museums, arts organisations, local initiatives such as culture houses and youth organisations or private art collections.
Programme
9.30am Reception
10am Presentation Landscape Sketch of the Arts
10.30am Open forum
12pm Lunch
1pm Introduction session on the role of artists
1.15pm Case 1: Peter Morrens
2pm Case 2: Simon Delobel, KIOSK
2.25pm Break
3pm Case 3: Jakob Van den Broucke and Kasper Demeulemeester, Tijdelijk Informatie Centrum (TIC)
3.45pm Open conversation
4.30 End of the day
When and where
Tuesday 7 October from 9.30am to 4.30pm in GC Pianofabriek, Brussels.
The session takes place in Dutch.
Register
Register via the button at the top right.
Places are limited: priority will be given to participants who also attended the first sessions.
Kroniek Publiek
In the Kroniek Publiek (NL) article series, we explore developments in dealing with audiences. Who participates and who detaches? How do audiences challenge existing ideas about art? And where do we see opportunities for the audiences of the future?
Head over to the Dutch page to read the article series.
More information
Do you have questions or in need of extra information? Contact our colleague Lissa.
Partners: FARO, Publiq, Lasso
Image: Anne van der Pot
