Audience Finder is a national audience data collection and development tool delivered by The Audience Agency, enabling cultural organisations to understand, compare and apply audience insight. With support of ISAN organisations across England are starting their third year of audience survey data collection.

With over 17, 000 audience surveys collected so far, you can download the Year 2 report (see left) to find out more, but we've summarised the highlights for you below:

Younger audiences

Outdoor Arts audiences are of mixed ages, and is particularly strong in the younger and middle age ranges. This is much more marked than for other artform audiences, such as those for visual arts. The emphasis on the younger age categories may be connected to the nature of the visit, as respondants are often in groups with families and friends.

Other arts involvement

Survey responses show that Outdoor Arts attenders have a wide range of levels of engagement in the arts outwith these events. Whilst many have previously been involved with a range of artistic activity, there were significant parts of the audience for which arts attendance is not a regular activity, with 10% not having attended any other arts activity in that year.

Reasons for attendance

In 2014, more organisations asked questions about reasons for attending. This, combined with other questions and comments collected, gives a clearer sense of the motivations of the audience and the factors of a successful Outdoor Arts event. For example, there is a strong preference for a combining a social and entertaining event with something that is different and out of the ordinary.

Local contribution

The majority of audiences for Outdoor Arts events appear to be relatively local to the event. Results also imply that events affect a sense of ‘local pride’, as 70% of people strongly agreed that an event is good for the image of a place.

How to get involved

Many Outdoor Arts organisations are still collecting audience surveys using Audience Finder and we will continue to publish results about the overall picture of visitors across England as well as support individual to use their own findings to develop their own audiences.

Collecting audience survey data within Audience Finder is free and gives you standardised methodologies with results in an easy to use dashboard helping you to put your data in context. To find out more visit the Audience Finder dashboard or request survey set-up using this webform.

Download the Year One Report here

Download the Year Two Report here

In July 2018, The Audience Agency published the Outdoor Arts Audience Report, using audience data from 2017 - 18. This more recent report gives an encouraging picture of audiences' engagement with the art from.

See the Outdoor Arts Audience Report, 2018