Our first webinar on Digital Deficit and Cultural Democracy is sold out - if you'd like to follow the discussion this morning, we'll be Tweeting with the hashtag #artsaftercovid.

https://bit.ly/CS-Webinars 

And we're off - our Creative Director Nancy Barrett is giving an introduction to why we decided to put together this webinar: as a member of the @CPPnetwork, and so much of our work is based being out in the community, how can we maintain those relationships during COVID?

Our facilitator @annafranks1 begins the discussion, emphasising that we want to make sure that those who are 'lesser-engaged' audiences aren't forgotten in the discussion about #artsaftercovid.

Our first provocation is from Anne Torreggiani from @valuingculture and @audienceagents - who begins by asking our audience if they think COVID if amplifying arts exclusion. So far, the majority do.

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Anne asks our audience - in one or two words - what is increasing arts exclusion. Answers so far: age, digital literacy, poverty, access to technology, fear.

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Anne's third question: is digital increasing access? Our audience is ranking the factors that people most value about digital arts programming. Most popular so far: they can do things they would not have been able to do in person.

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Anne's fourth question: do you think digital is increasing access for disabled people? So far... yes.

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Anne emphasises that one of the biggest barriers to attending publically funded cultural events is geography - so a form of access is being provided by the move online.

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Anne finishes with the point that, from the research, 'lesser-engaged' audiences are missing out on the digital offer from arts organisations.

And the answer to the cultural exclusion: hard to say, but can digital mitigate arts exclusion?

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Anne's final point: cultural democracy can drive digital democracy - let's take a human-centred design approach to work with our audiences.

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Our facilitator @annafranks1 welcomes our second speaker, @SyimaAslam Director of @BradfordLitFest.

The festival usually takes place at the end of June and so when COVID hit, they moved their festival entirely online.

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Festival Director @SyimaAslam discusses that one of the strong points of @BradfordLitFest is bringing together groups who might not normally meet each other - so how could that be replicated digitally?

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"How did we approach the move to digital? With a little bit of panic, to be honest." @SyimaAslam also compares the pivot to digital as like setting up @BradfordLitFest for the first time - with unexpected surprises along the way.

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Syima emphasises that it's too early to tell what the impact of COVID and arts exclusion is. And there's a clash between mapping lack of engagement onto lack of digital access - which may not be true all the time.

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"For us, it's been a really interesting experience."

@SyimaAslam thinks that the families who they would capture by chance in Bradford didn't engage digitally with the festival - but some of their audience did become more experimental with their choices.

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Syima finishes her provocation with the point: how much of the digital did we do for ourselves - and how much did we do for audiences?

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Our third provocation comes from @TextArtist: with the closure of cultural buildings, there has been a rush to digital - but this risks as being ableist and exclusionary as before. How much of the work is truly accessible?

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"Something is now happening in my private space - my home... I need to work harder emotionally to be present. How do I stay digitally safe?" - @TextArtist

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Our third provocateur @textartist emphasises that there's a difference between content being accessible and people accessing digital content.

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Our facilitator @annafranks1 opens up discussion between our three speakers: @SyimaAslam says what she has found interesting during COVID is the difference between what bigger organisations are able to do - and what more grassroots organisations can do.

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We're now hearing from @6millionplus about Small Contentments and how digital enhanced the project - and encouraged trust, honestly, conversation and creativity.

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And (we're running a bit over!), our Director Nancy is wrapping up the discussion on #artsaftercovid - how can we take the lessons from digital as we try and meet people in our places again.

And that's a wrap! Thank you everyone for joining us for our first webinar on Digital Deficit and Cultural Democracy: Is COVID amplifying arts exclusion?

We'll be back on Thursday 26 November for Building Back Better https://bit.ly/CS-Webinars 

#artsaftercovid