Audience agencies approve merger
Rebecca Atkinson, 13.12.2011
Audience development agencies to create single agency following the loss of arts council funding
The boards of All About Audiences in the north west, Audiences South West and Audiences London have approved plans to create a single national agency, provisionally called Audiences Plus.
The new agency will be made up of a northern and a southern hub, with a network of advisers working across the regions.
Audiences South West and Audiences London will merge in early 2012 to form the southern hub serving the south east, south west and the east of England. Anne Torreggiani, chief executive of Audiences London, told Museums Journal that Audiences Plus should launch by April 2013.
Ivan Wadeson, chief executive of All About Audiences, said: “As a single national organisation we will be better placed to meet and respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing cultural landscape.”
The organisations are now in discussions with two other audience agencies, &Co in Yorkshire and Cultivate in the East Midlands.
Audience development agencies lost out when Arts Council England (ACE) announced its new national portfolio funding in April this year; none of the seven agencies in England that had been receiving ACE funding under the regularly funded organisations system were given national portfolio status.
Audiences South closed in August, and Audiences Central and Audiences North East have announced that they will close on 31 March 2012.
The new agency will be made up of a northern and a southern hub, with a network of advisers working across the regions.
Audiences South West and Audiences London will merge in early 2012 to form the southern hub serving the south east, south west and the east of England. Anne Torreggiani, chief executive of Audiences London, told Museums Journal that Audiences Plus should launch by April 2013.
Ivan Wadeson, chief executive of All About Audiences, said: “As a single national organisation we will be better placed to meet and respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing cultural landscape.”
The organisations are now in discussions with two other audience agencies, &Co in Yorkshire and Cultivate in the East Midlands.
Audience development agencies lost out when Arts Council England (ACE) announced its new national portfolio funding in April this year; none of the seven agencies in England that had been receiving ACE funding under the regularly funded organisations system were given national portfolio status.
Audiences South closed in August, and Audiences Central and Audiences North East have announced that they will close on 31 March 2012.
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