Alessandra Gariboldi pointed out that audience development isn’t only about developing audiences, but rather about developing cultural organisations. Cultural organisations often have to change within themselves before they can help empower change in society. Alessandra listed barriers to overcome to successfully develop audiences, such as involving the whole organisation and make teams work together, dare to take risks as well as to develop empathy to erase stereotypes.
Inês Câmara introduced the participants to the methodology ACED, which will be made available as a blueprint to other organisations at the end of 2021. The ACED methodology is based on change, Lewin’s three-step model and Design Thinking.
Susana da Silva explained how ACED worked in a real museum context when the Gulbenkian Foundation developed its own prototype based on the methodology for the project 15-25 Imagina. She shared a video that explains the project Imagina, which invited young people to peer programming and curatorship. Gulbenkian Foundation went through four major phases when testing and prototyping the ACED methodology: listen, ideate, launch/ test and learn. Gulbenkian Foundation is planning to make the method part of the regular programming process.
The speakers
Alessandra Gariboldi
Senior researcher and consultant in the fields of visitor studies and cultural project evaluation, with a primary focus on audience development and participatory approaches. She’s the President of Fondazione Fitzcarraldo and collaborates with the Cultural Observatory of Piedmont, Italy.
Inês Câmara
Founder, CEO and Creative and Special Projects Manager at Mapa das Ideias. Responsible for the development and implementation of conferences, vocational training programmes and the establishment of international partnerships. Communication Studies major and PhD candidate in Communication Sciences on “Museum and Visitors”.
Susana Gomes da Silva
Head of education at the Modern Art Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and head of education of the Gulbenkian Museum. Responsible for the vison, strategy and methodology of the Education Department of the museum and its programmes, managing a wide team of museum educators.
