One of the constant challenges for arts organisations, especially those
that tour work like Hoipolloi do, is building a relationship with an
audience that can be sustained - even when work is not out 'on the
road'.
Talking about 'the audience' all too often means thinking about the
people who experience your work as a homogenous unit, when they are
anything but.
Hoipolloi has been fortunate that Hugh Hughes, who we've
been working with since 2005, so readily embraces social media. This
enables some degree of a continued conversation, but we also know that
twitter and facebook are not everybody's cup of tea. We've also been
open to exploring opportunities beyond the stage, and the recent success
of Floating on Radio 4, that that earned Hugh a BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy Drama, also brought us a huge audience.
We were really excited about opening up Hugh's
childhood home online,
because we knew this offer was a unique way to experience the magic of
Hugh Hughes when and where the audience please. We know, however, that
not all Hugh's fans want to experience work in this way, and even those
that do have radically different approaches to the site. Some people
start on the home page and work methodically through the stories as
though they are actually walking through the house; some people jump
straight into a story through a link they found on twitter or facebook;
some people wander around the online space looking at the floorplans and
Hugh's notes without listening to stories at all; some people put
stories on 'in the background' whilst they do other things.
With the glorious variety of Hoipolloi's audience in mind, we've
continued to work with the material that we've made available online at
www.invisibletownstories.co.uk in an attempt to make the experience of
visiting as unique as each visitor. We've started to offer particular
collections of stories, curated by people. My own collection is simply
my favourites at a particular point in time that capture something of
the whimsy and perspective that I think makes Hugh so compelling. Each
collection has a description that will tickle particular fancies - want
a flavour of the site without having to make decisions about which story
to choose? We've got a
single track, curated by Hugh. Or maybe you're fascinated by Hugh's
love of pigeons?
Most exciting of all, perhaps, is that we listened to feedback, and have
created Hugh Hughes FM. We're delighted to announce this development, which
will suit both those who want to listen whilst doing other things, and
those who are open to serendipity and want to be surprised. Find it at
http://invisibletownstories.co.uk/radio
Posts
