News

Interview: “Different methods to reach out to audiences”

27 September 2010

One of the main projects of the 2010 Gaudeamus Music Week (8-12 September), member of the European Conference of Promoters of New Music (ECPNM), was a sound sculpture exhibition including the 'Klankkaatser' (Sound-Reverberator). In an interview in the framework of the “Open The Door” project on 15 August 2010, Henk Heuvelmans, Director of the Gaudeamus Music Week, spoke about the different approaches of a festival to get in touch with broad audiences. What is the one project in your festival you think shows the most your social relevance? On 14 August 2010, we opened a sound sculpture exhibition – “Sound as Matter” – which takes place in and around the Muziekgebouw, in the public spaces of the concert hall. The biggest item in the exhibition, that lasts until 12 September, is called 'Klankkaatser' (Sound-Reverberator), a work from sound-artist Hans van Koolwijk. This project was actually selected already as one of the innovative best practice examples of the FestLab for Creativity and Innovation, another project of EFA 2009. This egg-shaped room is ten meters high and can fit five people at a time. The egg contains a light installation and a sound machine emitting composed sounds which are reflected by the entire wall to a central point at ear level. Because the sounds are not emitted from a certain direction, but rather from all directions, listeners experience at that central point the sensation as if the sounds are created in their heads. The exhibition presents 13 different sound sculptures and attracts a very broad audience from young children and their parents to their grandparents. Each sculpture has its own character. People just walk into the Muziekgebouw and choose their own path from one sculpture to the other, from one sound experience to the other; also the time they want to spend at each experience is up to themselves. This is informal approach and the idea of learning or discovering by doing is something you don’t usually see in what is often considered as high-brow cultural activities, which are the concerts within concert halls that attract people with high education and a better knowledge of what is presented. In this exhibition, which is also part of the new music scene, we reach out to audiences which don’t have this high education or knowledge of new music but which are attracted for other reasons, which also have a different experience and which talk in different ways about what they experience. This makes this new music activity a much broader social event. In how far do you collaborate with partners from social or educational field? The organisations we cooperate with are mostly from the education sector. For instance this year, for the first time in Holland, there is a special governmental approach to involving children between 10 and 18 and during the year at school they have to do a traineeship: they have to spend a number of hours as a volunteer in either a social, cultural or “society based” organisation. They then work within these organisations, which we can maybe refer to as “social organisations”, to learn what culture is or how it can be organised. This is not necessarily to train them in culture itself but more or less on the role it plays in our society. How do you reach different target audiences? Each event has a number of different methods to reach out to audiences. It is not one overall publicity campaign. In some of the events we have special workshops, talks, courses or guided tours for young children. These events are approached in a different way than for example a concert that takes place at 8pm for people who know the ensemble and the festival. There is also an event called “The Night of the Unexpected which takes place in a pop music centre. It is a festival in a festival: it consists of very short acts of 15 minutes each in different places in the building. It varies from dance music to improvised music, to classical music and a choir on the balcony and sometimes very serious contemporary music. The audience sometimes comes for only one very famous act but is very loosely guided through all these different acts and thus also gets in touch with classical music and other genres. This festival in a festival has to have very different approaches because a dance music audience requires a different publicity campaign than a classical music audience. When you try to reach a younger audience, for instance, you have to use all the social media. We use Facebook and Twitter a lot. We reach older people through print material and invitation letters sent by post. There are a number of film clips being made for the website and for other film based media. Then we of course try to involve all the “old-fashioned” media like radio, newspapers etc... Which is more and more difficult of course. Can you describe the impact of these activities on your artistic, cultural and social environment? At the moment in Holland we are trying to have a new government. One of the parties thinks that culture is a left-wing hobby. Through the involvement of broad audiences, from young to old, from educated to less educated people, into our activities, we try to prove that the value of culture is not just being a hobby but that culture has a value for life and that it also has a big economic impact. All these right-wing parties think that we only depend on subsidies. We try to prove that a small bit of financial help brings a bigger income through taxes since we have many people buying tickets, staying at hotels, buying food etc… This is a big problem; we have a big campaign going on throughout the country. There are a number of researches being presented to politicians to make them think differently about the value of culture. What is the ONE recommendation you would make to public authorities in order to improve the conditions for festivals? We have just opened the cultural season. It gives an excellent view into how young creators today are not only thinking in ivory towers and making high-brow arts but are really part of society. They express this in their way of making music. So representatives of public authorities should come, have a look and let themselves be influenced; to become happier and more open minded people. The interview was published in the latest edition of the EFA newsletter FestFlash" target="_blank"> which takes place in a pop music centre. It is a festival in a festival: it consists of very short acts of 15 minutes each in different places in the building. It varies from dance music to improvised music, to classical music and a choir on the balcony and sometimes very serious contemporary music. The audience sometimes comes for only one very famous act but is very loosely guided through all these different acts and thus also gets in touch with classical music and other genres. This festival in a festival has to have very different approaches because a dance music audience requires a different publicity campaign than a classical music audience. When you try to reach a younger audience, for instance, you have to use all the social media. We use Facebook and Twitter a lot. We reach older people through print material and invitation letters sent by post. There are a number of film clips being made for the website and for other film based media. Then we of course try to involve all the “old-fashioned” media like radio, newspapers etc... Which is more and more difficult of course. Can you describe the impact of these activities on your artistic, cultural and social environment? At the moment in Holland we are trying to have a new government. One of the parties thinks that culture is a left-wing hobby. Through the involvement of broad audiences, from young to old, from educated to less educated people, into our activities, we try to prove that the value of culture is not just being a hobby but that culture has a value for life and that it also has a big economic impact. All these right-wing parties think that we only depend on subsidies. We try to prove that a small bit of financial help brings a bigger income through taxes since we have many people buying tickets, staying at hotels, buying food etc… This is a big problem; we have a big campaign going on throughout the country. There are a number of researches being presented to politicians to make them think differently about the value of culture. What is the ONE recommendation you would make to public authorities in order to improve the conditions for festivals? We have just opened the cultural season. It gives an excellent view into how young creators today are not only thinking in ivory towers and making high-brow arts but are really part of society. They express this in their way of making music. So representatives of public authorities should come, have a look and let themselves be influenced; to become happier and more open minded people. The interview was published in the [http://www.efa-aef.eu/newpublic/upload/efadoc/3/FestFlash%20of%20the%20European%20Festivals%20Association%204_2010.pdf]latest edition of the EFA newsletter FestFlash that explored the importance of suitable communication approaches and the use of new and innovative (communication) technologies in festivals for the fostering of access to culture. The interview is part of a series of [http://www.efa-aef.eu/newpublic/upload/efadoc/8/EFA_Open%20The%20Door_Interview.pdf]interviews with festival directors in the framework of the EFA “[http://www.open-the-door.eu/]Open The Door" target="_blank">latest edition of the EFA newsletter FestFlash that explored the importance of suitable communication approaches and the use of new and innovative (communication) technologies in festivals for the fostering of access to culture. The interview is part of a series of [http://www.efa-aef.eu/newpublic/upload/efadoc/8/EFA_Open%20The%20Door_Interview.pdf]interviews with festival directors" target="_blank">latest edition of the EFA newsletter FestFlash" target="_blank"> which takes place in a pop music centre. It is a festival in a festival: it consists of very short acts of 15 minutes each in different places in the building. It varies from dance music to improvised music, to classical music and a choir on the balcony and sometimes very serious contemporary music. The audience sometimes comes for only one very famous act but is very loosely guided through all these different acts and thus also gets in touch with classical music and other genres. This festival in a festival has to have very different approaches because a dance music audience requires a different publicity campaign than a classical music audience. When you try to reach a younger audience, for instance, you have to use all the social media. We use Facebook and Twitter a lot. We reach older people through print material and invitation letters sent by post. There are a number of film clips being made for the website and for other film based media. Then we of course try to involve all the “old-fashioned” media like radio, newspapers etc... Which is more and more difficult of course. Can you describe the impact of these activities on your artistic, cultural and social environment? At the moment in Holland we are trying to have a new government. One of the parties thinks that culture is a left-wing hobby. Through the involvement of broad audiences, from young to old, from educated to less educated people, into our activities, we try to prove that the value of culture is not just being a hobby but that culture has a value for life and that it also has a big economic impact. All these right-wing parties think that we only depend on subsidies. We try to prove that a small bit of financial help brings a bigger income through taxes since we have many people buying tickets, staying at hotels, buying food etc… This is a big problem; we have a big campaign going on throughout the country. There are a number of researches being presented to politicians to make them think differently about the value of culture. What is the ONE recommendation you would make to public authorities in order to improve the conditions for festivals? We have just opened the cultural season. It gives an excellent view into how young creators today are not only thinking in ivory towers and making high-brow arts but are really part of society. They express this in their way of making music. So representatives of public authorities should come, have a look and let themselves be influenced; to become happier and more open minded people. The interview was published in the [http://www.efa-aef.eu/newpublic/upload/efadoc/3/FestFlash%20of%20the%20European%20Festivals%20Association%204_2010.pdf]latest edition of the EFA newsletter FestFlash that explored the importance of suitable communication approaches and the use of new and innovative (communication) technologies in festivals for the fostering of access to culture. The interview is part of a series of [http://www.efa-aef.eu/newpublic/upload/efadoc/8/EFA_Open%20The%20Door_Interview.pdf]interviews with festival directors in the framework of the EFA “[http://www.open-the-door.eu/]Open The Door” project.