Speakers

Linda Spurdle is the Head of Digital at Birmingham Museums Trust, leading on digital strategy, digital engagement and ICT across Birmingham Museums Trust. She has spearheaded Birmingham's open access policy, which has made thousands of out of copyright images free to use without restrictions. The online image resource and the partnership with Unsplash has resulted in these images being viewed millions or times and downloaded by hundreds of thousands, and the lockdown period saw more people than ever use these resources.

Early in 2020 Cut Copy Remix project challenged artists to create new works with open access images. Working with Cold War Steve and the Black Hole Club, the project was to culminate in an exhibition and opening event in April 2020. As a result of lockdown it became a digital first project, and was the perfect tonic for the time, having a huge reach and inspiring many people.

Despite the challenges of shutdown and three quarters of staff being furloughed, the museum has been more digitally engaged than ever, with new projects that have focused on community, well being and creativity.

Abby Corfan is Director of Marketing at the Donmar Warehouse, a job she started a week before theatres were closed… Since lockdown began the Donmar has been experimenting with new ways of sharing stories with audiences; firstly online with a digital production of the one-woman play ‘Midnight Your Time’, and by partnering with the National Theatre for a NT at Home stream of the Donmar’s hit production of ‘Coriolanus’. And last month, the theatre was one of the first to (temporarily) re-open with a socially distanced sound installation – ‘Blindness’ – where visitors listened on headphones to the voice of Juliet Stevenson in an immersive binaural soundscape. The initial run of Blindness sold out and was extended by two weeks. Abby will share some of the challenges and learnings from these different projects, and how Donmar audiences have responded to these new kinds of theatrical experiences.

Prior to joining the Donmar Abby was Director of Marketing & Digital at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She is a board member for the Arts Marketing Association.

Katy Raines (Founding Partner, Indigo) is regarded as one of the UK’s leading consultants on data-driven marketing for Cultural Organisations, and as such has developed and led research and implementation programmes for large and middle scale organizations throughout the UK and Europe. Prior to becoming a consultant in 2006 she held a number of senior marketing roles in large scale cultural organisations, holds a Music degree from Cambridge University and a 1st-class MBA from Durham University.

During the 2020 Covid-19 crisis she recognized the need for the audience voice to be critical in the rapid decision-making that needed to happen in cultural organisations, and as a result she developed and delivered the largest survey of cultural attenders’ attitudes to returning to events – After the Interval - working with over 500 organisations and capturing responses from over 250,000 attenders.

Over the last 6 months she has worked with a range of organisations to help them with their plans for re-start, including UK Sport, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, HOME Manchester, The MAC Belfast, Outdoor Arts UK, Creative Scotland, Family Arts Campaign and Culture Central.

Helga Henry is a consultant who, prior to lockdown, worked extensively with staff teams and boards in strategic away days.  Specialising in working in the cultural sector, her work literally shut down on March 16th along with the theatres.