ADESTE+
The Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc is one of 15 partners in the European Commission’s ADESTE+ (Audience DEvelopment STrategies for cultural organisations in Europe) project, which concerns audience development. The aims of the project are to develop new ways of working with the audience, enact organizational change, cooperate with European partners, attract new audiences, and increase the engagement and participation of existing audiences.

The project is funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe Program.

Duration: 44 months (August 1, 2018 – March 31, 2022)
Partner countries: Croatia, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain
Number of partners: 15
Project leader: Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, Milan
Project budget: 1,150,000 euros
Project objectives: to develop a methodology for change within organization with the audience as the focus. An action plan and innovative management practices with employees will be developed, and elements of project implementation with the public will be funded.

Activities:

  1. The development of an ADESTE+ draft (blueprint) for the implementation of audience development programs in cultural organizations
  2. Five capacity-building workshops will be held for several participants from each organizations, at the locations of the organizations, with the following topics:
    1. Who is our audience and who can be our audience? (Research and analysis of collected data and prioritization for each organization)
    2. What do we say and how do we say it? (Identifying communication strategies and implementation)
    3. What can we do to become more relevant? (Specific offers for target audiences)
    4. New business models (Possible revenues from different models of focusing on working with the audience)
    5. What next? Support and long-term implementation of introduced changes (through action learning)
  3. Development and implementation of six individual audience development programs, for each partner institution, from July 2019 to September 2020 (changes within the organization and action towards the audience). The partner in the implementation of the Zajc program is Kultura nova. Activities for each partner: 5 new activities of the institution involving the audience; 15 mentoring workshops led by a facilitator (from Kultura Nova) for a group of employees of the institution; buddy program (15 virtual exchanges of knowledge and experiences) between CNT Ivan pl. Zajc and the Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) and mutual visits by the project leaders.
  4. Cascade program for the transfer of acquired knowledge and experience: three international seven-day summer schools for cultural professionals, with each summer school attended by approximately 300 people:
    1. Lisbon, Portugal – September 2019
    2. Rijeka, Croatia – September 2020
    3. Turin, Italy – September 2021
  5. Extended cascade program in 2021: workshops within partner countries (5 new institutions) and in new countries: Estonia, France, Germany, Greece and Norway.