Audience Development Consultant

Contract Type: Freelance

Fee: £6,500 including expenses and VAT

Closing date: Monday 5 August 2024

 

The Museum of East Asian Art is seeking an audience development specialist, with demonstrable experience of audience development in the cultural sector (preferably within museums), to work with our small team to research and define our current and potential audiences, and develop our strategy for growing and sustaining engagement in our work.

The Museum of East Asian Art was established thirty years ago as an independent educational charity. It is based in a converted Georgian townhouse in Bath, just outside the town centre and close to the heritage sites of the Circus and Royal Crescent. The majority of the nearly 2,000 objects in the collection are of Chinese origin, spanning from 5,000 BC to the present. They were donated by the Museum’s founder, Brian McElney, who was born in Hong Kong, educated in the UK, and spent his whole working life as a prominent Hong Kong lawyer.

In late 2023 the Museum took part in the Museum Development South West’s Organisational Health Check which identified audience development and marketing as key priority areas of work. The Museum has some data on audiences, but has not previously been systematic about collecting visitor data, nor undertaken research into local audiences and their needs or barriers to engagement. The Audience Development Consultant will therefore conduct research into our current and potential audiences including demographics of the area, developing an understanding of our marketplace and how we might best position our brand within the wider context of museums and attractions. You will then work with the team to develop an Audience Development Strategy and Action Plan along with a Marketing Strategy for our Museum.

It is important that the resulting Plan is ambitious but achievable for a small organisation such as ours, with practical steps and processes for delivery, and achievable targets and outcomes for engaging, developing and evaluating ongoing relationships with audiences over the next three years (April 2025 – March 2028).

Download the full brief here: MEAA Audience Development Consultancy Brief 2024

This opportunity has been made possible through a grant from Museum Development South West, with thanks to support from Arts Council England and the Art Fund.

Please email your tender document to Caroline Frances-King, Museum Manager, at museum.manager@meaa.org.uk by Monday 5 August. If you would like to arrange an informal chat about the Brief, or require any further information, please send an email to Caroline.