Our friends at the Cultural Human Resources Council have recently released a new tool on Workplace Harassment and Violence, as part of their HR Management Toolkit. This important work has been done to help managers in the cultural sector to create more respectful workplaces. The Workplace Harassment and Violence tool is available for free download on the CHRC’s website.
Archives: Resources
Google Analytics for Arts Organizations
Google Analytics has become the standard application for analysing web traffic, but it imposes a steep learning curve on those engaging with it for the first time! It’s a powerful tool that tracks far more data than many organizations have use for, or time to deal with. However, if you know where to look, Analytics can be used to make data-driven decisions for your organization.
After the somewhat traumatic experience of wading into Analytics and installing their tracking code onto Orchestras Canada’s website, I decided it was time to broaden my knowledge by completing a Google Analytics for Beginners course. This free course takes around 4-6 hours to complete at your leisure, and is structured as a series of videos, web pages and interactive activities. It is also available in 14 languages, and can be found here.
One of the most striking aspects of this course was the layers of jargon that peppered the presenters’ speech, making much of what they had to say difficult to understand without prior knowledge. Here is some of the basic vocabulary that can help in getting your head around the language used in Analytics.
Google Jargon – English Dictionary
Users: Visitors to your website.
Reports: Tables and graphs that show data on how users are coming to your website, what they’re doing there and where they leave from. These are broken down into Real-Time, Audience, Acquisition, Behaviour, and Conversion reports.
Bounce Rate: How often your users leave your website directly from the page they land on.
Dimension: A piece of data about your users. These are presented in the first column of your reports, and could be information such as location of user, age of user, method by which they came to your site. This is the data you are measuring.
Metric: The how much of whatever dimension you have selected. Metrics are numbers, presented in the interior columns of your Reports, showing you information such as number of new or returning users, number of browsing sessions or number of pages viewed.
Medium: Tells you how people found your web page. These are very general in nature, and include organic (for free search engines), cpc = cost per click (for advertisements on a search results page), or referral (for links from another website).
Source: This goes into more detail on how people found your web page. For example, if the medium was ‘organic’, the source could be Google or Bing. If the medium was referral, the source would be the address of the website the user found you from (such as Facebook, or the Orchestras Canada website).
What can I do with all this data?
Find out who your current audience is:
Find out who your current audience is:Under Audience reports you can find a myriad of data about the people who visit your website. The ‘Overview’ will tell you general information about how many users visit your site, and how many pages they navigate to while they’re there. ‘Geo’ reports tell you the country, city and browser language of your users. If you enable Demographic and Interest Reports, then you can also find out information about your users’ age, gender, and their interests (outside of attending every concert and event that you run, of course).
See how they’re finding you:
See how they’re finding you:Under Acquisition reports, you can find out where your users were directly before arriving on your website. Through analysing the ‘All Traffic’ report, you can see the source and medium (source et support), describing where your users came from. Knowing which other sites are generating traffic towards yours can be useful in making marketing decisions when the budget is tight.
Find out where they’re spending their time:
Find out where they’re spending their time:The Behaviour reports show which areas of your website are performing the best, by showing you how many page views each page has, how many users visit each page, and how often the page bounced (was the only page your user visited in their session). Through the ‘Content Drilldown’, you can also see which sections of your website are performing well.
Gain insight as to why they might be leaving:
Bounce rate is the most useful metric when it comes to evaluating the slightly more complex question of why your users are leaving your website. This number tells you how often users land on your site, take no action and leave. This could mean a number of things; perhaps the link leading to your site didn’t accurately describe what was coming up, perhaps the content wasn’t engaging, or perhaps your user found exactly what they were looking for and moved on. Most times, you want to avoid a high bounce rate and keep people on your website. This information can be found in Behaviour reports, under ‘Site Content’.
In some arts organizations this kind of data collection and analysis can be something that is put into the ‘too hard’ pile. We tend to spend more energy on the transactional data we’ve collected from subscribers, donors and single ticket buyers. Website analytics, however, can provide powerful insights into these people, as well as the people who have not yet been converted to the cause. Analytics can also help us identify bottlenecks on our websites that might be discouraging conversion. Attracting new audiences and ensuring a smooth web journey to these groups is an important part of growing a loyal fan base. The more you know about visitors to your website, the easier it is to let them know what your organization can do for them.
Preventing, Reacting and Recovering from Workplace Harassment
As part of our National Conference in May, we held a panel discussion on how orchestras can prevent, react and recover from workplace harassment. The moderator of this panel was Marca Strategy‘s Luiza Campos, who also runs the A branded world podcast. The first part of this discussion was featured in the latest episode of her podcast, and outlines some methods to prevent harassment in the workplace, both to protect staff within an organization, and to protect the brand and reputation of the organization itself. Panelists: Scott Crockatt, John Gilmore, Dana Kiefer, Jeanne Lesage.
Creating Cultures of Inclusion
How might we co-create a culture of inclusion with our patrons? This was the inspiring question posed by three passionate and knowledgeable panelists at the recent Canadian Arts Marketing, Development, and Ticketing Conference in Toronto, presented by ArtsReach. You can find the PowerPoint slide deck from this presentation here.
April Moon (Associate Director of Audience Services, Canadian Stage) provided an outline of the accessibility challenges at Canadian Stage: three different venues (none of which are fully accessible), and a significant number of people served each year. This calls for detailed accessibility planning where nothing can be taken for granted.
April’s counsel was practical: pay attention to show reports filed by front of house and the box office, not only to discern issues and patterns, but also to identify patrons with accessibility needs.
April observed a number of concerns expressed by one patron in particular, and followed up with her, asking her to make a special trip to the theatre so that they could tour it together. The findings were both surprising and revelatory: for instance, April learned that the patron (a woman using an oversized electric wheel chair) couldn’t use the “accessible” stall in the women’s washroom at one of their venues, because she couldn’t transfer out of her wheel chair and close the washroom stall door. Door openers were inconsistently placed, lifts were not well-maintained, lobby tables were too high for someone using an wheelchair, and some entryways had high thresholds, making it challenging for someone using a wheel chair to enter. From this one comprehensive tour, Canadian Stage made a list of small and larger renovations, and is now undertaking a program of comprehensive improvements.
Kevin Devaux (Manager of Patron Services, Toronto Symphony Orchestra) spoke next, and talked of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s passion for classical music and for its patrons. As a tenant organization of both Roy Thomson Hall and the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the TSO is committed to working with host venues to coordinate accessibility efforts and communications to ensure a seamless experience for patrons.
The TSO team meets regularly with event services staff at its venues. They study show reports with care, follow up with patrons to address concerns, and make notes in patron records so that team members can check back with patrons at their next visit. The TSO team also looks at Yelp reviews and a mapping app called accessnow.me, to better understand the user experience and respond proactively.
With their colleagues at Roy Thomson Hall, the TSO team has developed a checklist, a customer service plan (that includes re-seating, if needed) and agreed-upon messaging if the Roy Thomson Hall patron elevator is out of service, to ensure speedy, responsive, consistent and comprehensive communications across a range of channels. As well, the TSO website provides detailed information on accessible services at all of its venues, with an intuitive short URL: TSO.ca/access. Staff at these venues receive regular training, and accessible services are regularly reviewed.
Kevin emphasized: invite your patrons to help, then prepare improvement plans that cover services, resources, and training – with a budget to implement them!
Rachel Marks (an autism awareness consultant with significant experience in the performing arts), spoke about relaxed performances, and some of the things that organizations can do to fully welcome individuals on the autism spectrum, along with their families and friends.
Rachel observed that many things can induce anxiety in patrons on the autism spectrum, especially if the experience is new. She recommended a number of approaches, customizable for different kinds of organizations, to help people engage with the experience. While they require thought and preparation, they are well worth doing from both a social and an economic perspective. Among the options Rachel described:
Maps of your venue that highlight the sensory experiences it offers: smells, sounds, touch, visuals.
Accessibility packs: could include a fact sheet about your company, written in plain language; fidget toys (available through Autism Ontario); sunglasses to help manage bright lights; character guides as appropriate; or a social story (a step-by-step, first-person, positive and highly visual explainer document that walks the individual through the experience of entering the theatre, finding the box office, finding the washrooms, exploring the lobby, entering the theatre, taking their seat, expectations of behaviour during performances).
Offering “touch tours” and backstage tours BEFORE the performance: if you let people come to the venue for a guided tour when it’s less crowded, they’ll be far less anxious about their performance experience. People on the autism spectrum are often extremely logical: if a first-time visitor to the theatre understands what’s going on and how effects are achieved, they are far more likely to enjoy the performance.
Addressing the human element: Front of House staff, box office staff, and artists should be well-prepared for the experience For instance, there can be a lot of movement in the house during a relaxed performance, and this should not be interpreted as a demonstration of a lack of interest.
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I walked into this session with the assumption that we all want to make our orchestras as accessible to as many people as possible; I left with a clearer idea of the concrete steps we must individually and collectively take to live out this aspiration. I’m grateful to April, Kevin, and Rachel for sharing their knowledge and commitment with us, for reviewing this post before publication, and for sharing their PowerPoint slide deck, too.
Tools and inspirations
Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s accessibility guide
Canadian Stage’s accessibility guide
Orchestras Canada’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Declaration
Organizations and programs that can help
Blue Umbrella program, offered by the Alzheimers Society
Other resources referenced during the session:
New York’s Theatre Development Fund (which runs the TKTS booth in Times Square, among many other services) has a comprehensive set of resources on their website related to relaxed performances. Note in particular their use of video to walk people through the Times Square experience!
A mapping app that highlights accessible facilities (which you can also find on your favourite app store)
The AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) Toolbox
A highly useful set of resources on the AODA and the Ontario Human Rights Code
A series of resources from Trusty Sidekick, designed to prepare children on the autism spectrum for the experience of attending a performance
Building and Engaging your Audience for Small Orchestras
The topic for Orchestras Canada’s recent Greater Toronto Area Orchestras Workshop was Building Audiences and Profile in a Crowded Market. Thirty board members and arts managers at orchestras and arts organizations from Kingston to Kitchener and Owen Sound gathered in North York on June 9 to share the issues they face, and to discuss what they have been working on to build their audiences. We brought in three panelists to present what their organizations have been working on with regards to engaging audiences with limited time and funds. They were Margaret Chasins (Director of Operations, Sinfonia Toronto), Tim Crouch (Senior Manager of Marketing and Audience Engagement, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra), and Michael Morreale (Director of Digital Content, Toronto Symphony Orchestra).
Each of the panelists discussed a different aspect of how to find and connect with new audiences. Margaret spoke on Sinfonia Toronto’s use of social media, Tim spoke on ways in which Tafelmusik has adapted their live concert experience, and Michael told us about the digital strategies that he has used to improve the concert experience with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. We’ve compiled the top ten tips (out of the many) that they shared with us.
1. You can’t count on people to look for you on Social Media. Your followers are busy, and often don’t have time to search for you on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. And of course you want new people to notice you and start following. You need to be present and post regularly, whatever that might mean for your organization. Join groups likely to be interested in your programs and post there too where relevant.
2. Make sure that all of your content is in line with your organization’s image. It’s important that everything you share has some kind of connection to your organization, but don’t just advertise! Share content that is relevant to your followers and supports your message.
3. Social media should be a conversation. Engage with people who engage with you by replying personally to everyone who comments; always send a thank-you tweet to anyone who retweets you.
4. Reach out to your audience. Meet your new audiences where they are by going to them. Tafelmusik has run outreach events in long-term care facilities (with the Health Arts Society of Ontario), chats in libraries, free concerts as part of community days and movie nights for this purpose.
5. Engage your audience at your events. Allow your audience somewhere to prepare for, or to reflect on the concert that you’re giving. This could be anything from pre-concert chats to parties at intermission to simply giving people a chance to talk to the musicians after the concert.
6. Remember, you’re competing with Netflix. As smaller orchestras, we aren’t competing for audiences with each other. Rather we are competing with the ever-tempting idea of staying home and binge watching hours of television. What does your audience experience live that they can’t by sitting at home?
7. Create a Spotify playlist. Audiences want to be informed before getting to the concert hall, or even before purchasing tickets. An easy way to help in this respect is to create Spotify playlists for audience members who are curious to see what they’re signing up for.
8. Prepare your audience for the concert experience by educating them. Less than half of elementary schools in Ontario have a dedicated music teacher, and this means that orchestras need to step in and inform their audiences. Interviews, ‘sneak peeks’ and helping people find recordings of the works you’ll be performing are great ways to prepare your audience.
9. Investigate Google Ad Grants. Google Ad Grants is a program that offers certain non-profit organizations the opportunity to advertise for free, which can help move you to the top of Google Search results.
10. Digital content takes up time, but it takes less of a budget. Many of the digital tools that orchestras use are free and cost only the time it takes to use them. Livestreaming through Facebook Live and YouTube’s video hosting service are two examples of low-cost ways orchestras can put their content on the web. (That said, permission from participating musicians and, where relevant, approval from the Canadian Federation of Musicians is required.)
Margaret, Tim and Michael can also be found on their Twitter accounts, or attending one of the many wonderful concerts given by Sinfonia Toronto, Tafelmusik or the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Big Data and Data Marketing
From OC Calgary 2018: Orchestras and arts organizations are “drowning in data”, but finding the purpose of all of this information is where the real challenge lies. In this session recorded at Orchestras Canada’s 2018 National Conference, Renaud Legoux (Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, HEC Montréal) speaks on what data your organization needs to keep, and how it can be used to foster audience development and loyalty.
A recording of this session is available here.
The accompanying slide deck can be found here.
Advocacy Panel
From OC Calgary 2018: How can orchestras best communicate their needs and issues with funders, government and other organizations? An advocacy panel discussion with moderator Micheline McKay and guest speakers Jean R. Dupré (Orchestre Métropolitain), Allan Northcott (Max Bell Foundation) and Patti Pon (Calgary Arts Development).
A recording of this session is available here.
What Makes a Good Negotiation?
From OC Calgary 2018: A rousing panel exchange, with speakers bringing an array of perspectives to the room, including Gary Hanson (Toronto Symphony Orchestra), Eddy Bayens (Edmonton Musicians’ Association), Donna Neumann (Windowpane Management Inc.) and Bernard LeBlanc (Symphonic Services, Canadian Federation of Musicians).
A recording of this session is available here.
Lessons from the First Canada Council Engage and Sustain Results
During our 2018 National Conference, OC consultant Thérèse Boutin presented two sessions that looked into the results of orchestras from the Canada Council for the Arts’ Engage and Sustain funding program. The slide deck from this presentation is available here.
The following interview with Thérèse was originally published on May 18th, 2018 in anticipation of her sessions at the conference.
Thérèse Boutin and the Engage and Sustain Program
As part of our 2018 conference in Calgary, Orchestras Canada will be welcoming experts and thought leaders from musical and arts organizations across the country. Many of these, are current or former leaders of Canadian orchestras, including the delightful Thérèse Boutin. Thérèse has served as administrative leader of both the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières and the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, and was also Chair of the Orchestras Canada Board for two years.
Thérèse’s impressive resume and experience have given her significant insider information into the workings of national granting organizations, and it is in this area that she is currently doing research for Orchestras Canada, specifically with regards to the Canada Council’s Engage and Sustain grant.
This grant program is designed as a means of ongoing support for arts organizations in their presentation of artistic activities that engage a diverse range of people in their communities and beyond. It also aims to encourage organizations to reflect the diversity of these communities through their staffing, programming and public engagement responsibilities.
We recently had the opportunity to learn more about Thérèse’s research, during which she has spent a significant amount of time analysing grant applications from orchestras across the country to better understand what the Canada Council’s peer assessment committees were looking for.
Could you tell us a bit about the research you are currently undertaking for Orchestras Canada on the Canada Council’s Engage and Sustain program?
We put a call out for orchestras who wanted to be involved in this study on a voluntary basis to send us a copy of their Engage and Sustain grant application. Fifteen orchestras agreed to participate: ten in the Catalyst category (orchestras with a budget of less than $2 million), and five in the Institution category (orchestras with a budget of more that $2 million). From this cross-section, we had a wide variety of applications to analyse.
Did you notice any particular differences or trends between the different grant applications that you received?
I haven’t yet completely finished, but I have been able to figure out some trends – less in terms of what orchestras need to do, and more in terms of how orchestras interpreted the application form and questions. That’s what I found to be the most interesting – the Canada Council for the Arts form is the same for everyone, but each orchestra interpreted the questions in a different way. This isn’t to say that their responses weren’t well thought out, but rather that there were no two grant applications that looked the same.
And what happened in terms of the results of these applications?
Each orchestra was successful in their application, but there were some who received increased funding, and others who did not. My goal isn’t to lecture those who didn’t get increased funding this year. Rather, I wanted to see if each orchestra expressed their message clearly, and if they were effective in bringing this to the forefront of their application. I also wanted to see if there was anything else they might have included, or ideas that they could have presented in other ways. This study is designed to collate a series of best practices for grant applications and to shed light on some of the “red flags” that orchestras might want to address. I’m working with a wealth of extraordinary information that I could do so much with, but unfortunately I only have an hour for my workshop!
Are you analysing applications from this year only, or from previous submissions as well?
The Catalyst orchestras sent me their applications for this year, and the next two years, while the Institution orchestras sent me their applications just for this year and next year. I don’t have access to their older applications, so I can’t comment on what people wrote in the past. However, I can certainly say that the Canada Council’s expectations have greatly changed over this time. We are all a little resistant to change and I noticed that several orchestras (some more than others) managed to fall back into old habits in their applications. It happens – people have other demands on their time, and it can be difficult to prioritize in a busy workplace.
Do you have anything else to say about these applications? Or any advice to give to artists applying to these kinds of grants?
I found them to be very interesting – if I was lucky enough to be independently wealthy, I’d spend the whole of the next year travelling across the country to attend some of the projects mentioned. There are wonderful concerts and activities happening, but there is always room for improvement.
It hasn’t been my goal to give advice from this study. Rather, the idea was to allow orchestras the opportunity to see places where they could have framed things in a different way; to see where they hadn’t been clear enough, where they hadn’t understood the thrust of the questions, or where they could have found a more original way to answer the questions they were given. I’m very happy and thankful for the orchestras who agreed to take part!
The Middle Space: Cultivating Equity and Diversity in Canadian Orchestras
As part of our 2018 National Conference, Ethnomusicologist Parmela Attariwala and equity arts consultant Soraya Peerbaye presented the findings of their research, conducted on behalf of Orchestras Canada and supported by the Leadership for Change grant program, on Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility in the orchestral sector.
You can find a recording of this presentation here.
The accompanying slides can be found here
The following interview with Soraya and Parmela was originally published on May 25th, 2018.
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility with Soraya Peerbaye and Parmela Attariwala
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility are perhaps not words traditionally associated with the classical music institution, but they are integral to corporate, political and Canadian culture. As part of our upcoming national conference, Orchestras Canada will be hosting Soraya Peerbaye and Parmela Attariwala who will lead two sessions on these subjects and will be sharing the research they have been doing for us. Soraya is a Toronto-based writer, curator and consultant who focuses on equity and diversity in the arts. Parmela is also based in Toronto, and is a violinist/violist, composer and ethnomusicologist with research interests in areas as varied as multiculturalism and democracy in music, improvisation, and the music of medieval India. We had the pleasure of speaking with them last week, to talk about decolonization in the arts and where Canadian orchestras are in terms of conversations about inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility.
Parmela and Soraya started their research with a series of questions, the purpose of which were to find out what orchestras are currently doing in the field of inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility; to find out what is currently working and what is not, and to find areas where Canadian orchestras need help, and how Orchestras Canada might be able to provide this.
The list of questions involved in this project grew almost immediately. Soraya says, “It didn’t take very long for us to ask about the conversation that is so current in the arts sector around decolonization. What are the implications of that word politically and culturally? What are the possibilities of that in relation to an art form that emerged out of white European cultural traditions?” From these new sets of questions, they wanted to map some of the conversations happening on these subjects in the orchestral sector, and saw that these were the same as those happening in other art forms.
Soraya and Parmela met with key stakeholders in the orchestral sector, largely Executive and Artistic Directors, to talk about the ways in which their organizations engage with these ideas. “We quickly realized that because of who comes into this art form, and who rises to positions of authority within it, we were still speaking primarily to white artists and practitioners,” Soraya says, “We hosted a number of round tables with Indigenous artists, creators and musicians…to give space for a richer dreaming. I’m a little hesitant to use these words, but this idea of a wider frame is very important for me. To move towards something, we need to envision it. We wanted to know not only what is happening, but also what we’re working towards.”
As highly active artists themselves, Soraya and Parmela have the fortune of being able to look at recurring problems within their art forms from dual perspectives as both outsiders and insiders. “I’ve been critiquing the institution of the orchestra since I became an ethnomusicologist.” Parmela says, “I’ve continually brought a culturally reflective lens to my workplace.” This ability to look holistically at the orchestra as an institution has allowed them to engage differently with the way that we speak about orchestras and orchestral music. Parmela explains, “For example, the notion of conceiving of orchestras or Beethoven or a symphony score as great has become mythologized. However, if one looks contextually at the early 18th century, it’s all part of a continuum. Beethoven happened to be in the right place at the right time. Unlike those who came before him, he was able to choose self-employment rather than a church or a court gig, which allowed him to be compositionally self-determined. Being in Vienna, he had access to a large pool of musicians as well as a sonic formula for how to use them crafted by his predecessors; and critically, he could avail himself of the beginnings of a paying, listening audience.”
This is prevalent in other art forms too. From literature to films to dance, what is defined as great (and by whom) is, now more than ever, being examined with a critical lens. These are difficult, but necessary conversations to have. “We use language in very specific coded ways that we don’t really think about.” Soraya explains, “Equity work is all about surfacing the assumptions within the language that we use. In literature we talk about the canon, and that’s deeply connected to orchestras in terms of the notion of repertoire. What is universal, and who speaks for what is universal…It’s exciting in a way to map out those connections, and to decipher the core assumptions we make in terms of how we see our culture and what language we use to describe this.”
While this is an extensive study into the current state of affairs in Canadian orchestras, it is not intended as a recommendation of best practices or a tool kit for approaching these issues. Soraya says that the study is rather an “acknowledgment that we’re in a cultural moment where there is a vast spectrum of conversations and learnings going on.” The scope of their research is large, notes Parmela, “Canada is an extraordinarily vast geographical space. There are significant differences between Anglophone and Francophone Canada and places where there are different levels of separation or integration between Indigenous people and settlers.” Soraya and Parmela’s presentation at Orchestras Canada’s National Conference is intended to be a continuation of this conversation, with space for feedback and added perspectives from conference participants who were not part of the formal study. They will give a presentation of their research on the morning of May 31st, and will meet that afternoon with smaller groups of delegates to discuss the implications of their observations.
In terms of next steps from this research, Soraya notes that perhaps a change of approach is what is needed the most. “It’s what we hear from every other sector. It’s not about incremental change, it’s about trying to transform the conversation that you’re having at the heart of culture.”