News Comment

Jonathan Drori’s recent report ‘Encouraging Digital Access’ (AP216) put the onus on arts organisations to get to grips with the ways in which emerging technologies can build and improve on their education and learning, content, interpretation, customer service, PR, marketing and so on. But the key issue for any organisation should be to develop an identity in the digital space which ties into its core values and mission. This solid backdrop then makes it much easier to work out how to behave and what content is right for the audience. Yes, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are all important right now, but who knows what they will evolve into and what we’ll be using in a few years time? By having an established strategy for digital, organisations can be flexible – it shouldn’t matter what platform they are on, as their core values will guide them and give them consistency.

I’d advise organisations to set up steering groups with members from all departments to push forward digital developments. These conversations should not just happen outside the building, but inside with the staff exchanging ideas and sharing content. This also helps to ensure that organisations are continually asking: “Is this relevant to the organisation’s mission and message and if not, why are we doing it?”
It’s interesting to see a flip in hierarchy when it comes to digital. I led Tate’s social media groups, which led to greater openness, workload sharing and a large increase in social media audiences. With a cross-departmental group driving change forward, decisions on things like tone of voice and strategy can be agreed with consensus and no one in the organisation need feel left out.
It’s also a fantastic opportunity for organisational learning, development and debate. The Arnolfini gallery in Bristol, for example, is creating a digital thinktank to explore key topics around the digital space later on this year, bringing together a mix of people doing really great stuff in digital across the arts.
Sharing best practice, however, is now easier than ever. Programmes such as Art of Digital allow organisations to create spaces for collaboration and exploration of ideas. More often, conferences are also exploring digital themes. I attended the MuseumNext conference last month and was incredibly impressed by the broad range of activity going on globally.
Recently, I’ve been developing monitoring tools for organisations to listen, respond appropriately and to track effectiveness of messages. Being in the social space creates affinity and awareness, and the arts audience is certainly no longer a passive one – it is participating, responding, suggesting, and even leading.