1. defining & increasing
audiences for the
visual arts in Glasgow
WhiteNOISE
QUOTES
Selected interview extracts: an
aggregation of some of the current
challenges associated with increasing
audiences across the sector
An activity summary and timeline
Designed and managed by Culture Sparks for WhiteNOISE can be found at the
Supported by Creative Scotland end of this presentation.

2. About
WhiteNOISE is a collaboration with the Visual Arts
sector in Glasgow. Through WhiteNOISE, we are
working with not for profit and commercial Visual Arts
venues, organisations and individuals to provide a
picture of AUDIENCES across a range of disciplines
through a programme of research. Our research
findings have established where there is potential for
audience GROWTH and organisational development.
@VisArtsGlasgow
2

3. WhiteNOISE Interviewees
1. Mark O'Neill (Glasgow Life) 12.Alison Fullerton (WASPS)
2. Francis McKee (CCA) 13.Roger Billcliffe
3. Katrina Brown (The Common Guild & GI) 14.Natalie McFadyen (Impact Arts)
4. Jenny Brownrigg (GSoA) 15.Patricia Fleming
5. Elisabeth Gibson (Project Ability) 16.Sarah Munro (Tramway)
6. David Watt (GSS) 17.David Cook (WASPS)
7. Amanda Dobbratz (Ironbbratz) 18.Lynne McPhee (Glasgow Life)
8. Ashley Holdsworth (Make it Glasgow) 19.Dianne Miller (House for an Art Lover)
9. Ian Elder (The Lighthouse) 20.Amanda Brown (Glasgow Life)
10.Victoria Hollows (GoMA) 21.Toby Webster (The Modern Institute)
11.Mungo Campbell (The Hunterian) 22.Kendal Koppe 3

4. public engagement
Everyone is time-starved, and a lot of
our key audience members either have
young children or older parents. The
whole landscape of people’s lives are
different. Everyone is flat out. So you
have got to work quite hard for people
to think, yes, it is [this venue] I am
going to today.
4

5. public engagement
I have identified the difference of how a
member of the public coming into the
gallery behaves if it’s staffed or if it’s not
staffed. If it’s not staffed people will
often put their foot in the door and
leave. If it is staffed, if somebody is in
their invigilating, they will come in and
they will engage with her and it’s always
100% so for us.
5

6. audience
A curator isn’t bothered about there
being noise but... the spaces [are] just
the opposite of liveliness that makes you
think you have got to be quiet. It is that
kind of situation where you end up
whispering to someone and you go why
am I whispering? I don’t know what that
is about.
6

7. glasgow
Glasgow, it’s immense in theatre, but the visual arts is a big
one as well. It can link to the history of Glasgow through
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Art School, design,
Christopher Dresser, all this architecture – there is a huge
wealth of it. Glasgow is promoting it in a very tacky way,
through Glasgow Style... It is not speaking to the people
who are doing it, and understand it. I know people that
are capable of being able to project their design ideas. I
think it is amazing the city doesn’t actually work with them
to do that, to be able to project that in a way that is
modestly ambitious. I think that is what Glasgow is,
modest about itself but very ambitious for itself.
7

8. research
Our reporting is quite one
dimensional... we have just got a
bottom line of figures. They don’t ask
who is coming, is it about... we are
reaching those people in those very
deprived postcodes or it is just the kind
of really motivated people.
8

9. sector
Sense that visual arts
are behind other parts
of the cultural sector.
9

10. resources
[For training] we don’t
have a dedicated
budget so that’s why it
tends to be in house.
10

11. audiences
So even we think people
who know the building
really well don’t know it
as well as they think.
11

12. public engagement
I would say there’s a third of the
[Glasgow] population who are
completely disengaged from most
cultural activities. I would say two-
thirds probably do have some
engagement with art. The people
engaged with contemporary art will be
a small proportion of that.
12

13. sector
I think the contemporary
visual arts sector in
Glasgow is truly
astonishing, it is so
fragile.
13

14. digital
There is quite a lot of
technology out there,
which if anything we’re
running away from at the
moment.
14

15. sector
You only have to walk around the
South Side or the West End and
look in people’s front room
windows to realise that people are
going out there still buying the
stuff, they want to feel part of that,
it’s valued.
15

16. sales
There just doesn’t seem to be a
culture of buying contemporary
work [in Scotland]. There is no
local market [Glasgow], you
know, so in order to kind of
create that local market how do
we do it?
16

17. sector
I think the primary one that I
would want to get across is that
incredibly fragile but rich eco
system that survives on almost
nothing but is utterly at its best
when it is not overly part of large
monolithic organisations, whoever
they are.
17

18. interpretation
I think there always has been and
probably always will be more of an
interest in the safe traditional forms of
painting and drawing that people
recognise as art and I think when it
becomes more challenging there needs
to be more interpretation and
education.
18

19. research & public engagement
Where we can afford it we will
actually have people standing
there but normally speaking
that will only be for a very few
days during the course of a run
of an exhibition, we can’t
sustain it.
19

20. glasgow
Glasgow is quite a
socially conservative,
with a small ‘c’, city.
20

21. audiences
[It’s] the only [venue] that
teenagers go to in significant
numbers willingly. They’re not
just brought. ...it’s also the one
with the shortest dwell time.
21

22. public engagement
Younger people are
more open to
contemporary art.
22

23. strategy
[Glasgow] used to have a very
strong creative industries
strategy which didn’t
particularly do crafts, but it did
design, architecture, film, very
well.
23

24. programming
The main issues we have at the
moment is that there is less
temporary exhibitions and
temporary exhibitions always
give people an extra reason to
go and visit.
24

25. research
Most people focus on the numbers,
and it is difficult to get any
qualitative feedback, unless we have
done some kind of research or
someone has attended a course and
we do a post-course evaluation
form. It is really difficult to hear
what people think.
25

26. resources
At the moment I work
two other jobs to help
the business, to kind of
help cash flow.
26

27. sector
I think they don’t have a clue what visual
arts sector means. I think we in the
visual arts sector and the bureaucrats
who work around it tend to use
language that doesn’t mean anything to
anybody. And I think there’s a habit of
describing artists as if they’re a separate
part of society as opposed to being
people.
27

28. digital
Audiences may use the Glasgow Life
site, I don’t know how much of that
traffic is looking for art exhibitions and
how much of it can be directed beyond
their own venues. I don’t, at the
moment, know of anything that directs
people beyond – even the See Glasgow
thing, I don’t think it does. I don’t
know, I never use it.
28

29. public attitude
I think a lot of people think artists are
financially successful – either they’re dirt poor
and working in a garret, you know in the kind
of romantic old version of things, or they’re
hyper successful driving black Audis and
drinking champagne every night. You know,
there’s very little understanding of it as a sort
of normative profession which might be very
similar to anything else.
29

30. public engagement
I think there’s a massive opportunity and
capacity for a real generational shift in the
relationship between audiences and visual arts
activity. You know, 20 years ago the activity
was all hard to find and grass roots and
whatnot and that has changed. There’s been a
massive development in Glasgow in particular
but Scotland more generally, but somehow that
hasn’t yet broken through to the audience in
the broadest sense...
30

31. public engagement
The person who is in the space doesn’t look up,
doesn’t meet your eye, doesn’t say hello, doesn’t,
you know, tell you that there’s a leaflet you can
pick up or any of those sorts of things. There’s a
great asset in exhibitions in that they tend to need
to have people in the space for security, which
gives you an in – gives you the capacity for
somebody to be there to say hello and make it
that little bit more human and humane than it
might otherwise be. And I think nine times out of
ten that doesn’t happen.
31

32. public engagement
Front of house is massively
important and I think it’s
really un-valued. Not just
undervalued, but un-valued
in the visual arts.
32

33. traditional & digital
I think there’s still an important role for
print. Largely because I think digital
media can only reach the people who
engage with it and there still needs to
be some method to get in contact with
people who don’t and so it’s very
important...
33

34. public engagement
Front of house staff are just about the most
important thing in the world and we invest,
not necessarily financially, but emotionally
and psychologically, hugely in our front of
house staff. Getting people here is one
thing, getting people to come back is
within our control and capacity and so the
idea of making sure that everybody has a
warm welcome and a sort of easy visit is
absolutely vital. 34

35. programming & funding
The principal weakness for everybody is
short termism. I mean, that applies
particularly at the moment with
Creative Scotland making changes to
the funding cycle and flexible funding,
so that is the single biggest weakness.
And short termism has a massive
impact on programming ability.
35

36. public engagement & research
Invigilators: we have a workforce that
changes every year, it’s roughly around 25
– 30 people. They sign up to invigilate for
projects. We’ve been working on
developing their skills within the job, so
we’ve been doing a targeted programme –
the main task of the invigilators is really to
look after the work but also to speak to the
public and feel confident about speaking to
the public. 36

37. public engagement
And for the audience if
the person’s making that
kind of art and they’re
the same age as you, do
you value it more?
37

38. public engagement
...particularly with
contemporary work, you
could argue that there is
going to be a lot of
people looking quite
quizzical. 38

39. research
I suppose the key determinant
of success is numbers, and then
it is feedback on those
numbers, and that is something
that we have slowly started
developing, so that is not
analysed yet.
39

40. research
I gave them the gallery for
nothing, but they had to
invigilate because I can’t just
staff for free. And the number
of times I went in there, and
they were doing the old, sitting
in a chair and so on.
40

41. research
As a customer I don’t like
to be approached with
bits of paper. So I
wouldn’t do it to
somebody else.
41

42. public engagement & research
We have just recruited some new gallery
assistants and they have been selected
for their customer service background.
When I take a turn around the galleries,
it is my objective with every interaction
with a customer, to have that kind of
“ooh” moment, or that smile which is
like, “oh, I never knew that.”
42

43. public engagement
Most galleries, it is just like, man
nods to dog. What does that
mean? I think there is a time and
a place. Certainly the welcome
and the greet, making you feel that
there are people there who are
interested...
43

44. public engagement
Words that they [public] would use
to describe [Glasgow visual arts
sector]:
Incomprehensible. Traditional.
Comforting. Nostalgic.
44

45. public engagement
We’ve tried subtle, it
doesn’t work, we need to
use a sledgehammer
approach to letting
people know what’s
going on. 45

46. resources
A question my board has asked:
“Is it actually worth us opening
on Saturday? That’s paying
somebody for five hours work
at minimum wage, is it worth us
doing it?” I’ve argued the case
that yes it is.
46

47. resources
But when it’s volunteers
or casual staff coming in
on an ad-hoc basis, you
can’t set tasks.
47

48. digital
We’re actually not that fussed
about Twitter. None of the staff
are advocating that that would
be a good idea. It gets raised
and everybody shouts it down,
all of our energy really goes into
Facebook.
48

49. digital
Grid. It makes me angry because
there’s just so little information to
give out, it’s never up to date, the
layout of it I think is just appalling.
It’s so unclear and there’s no
energy about it. I don’t think it’s
hitting any buttons. It’s totally
self-indulgent.
49

50. programming
We’ve been trying to build up a
kind of events programme around
the exhibitions because we are
very aware of how static this
building is actually as well as an
exhibition space and to kind of add
some life into that...
50

51. public engagement
Our programme is operating at capacity.
So we have no interest in recruiting
participants, it’s recruiting visitors to see
what we’re doing. But it’s about entering
them into a dialogue so that we’re not
operating in a bubble. I think there’s
always a danger of that if you don’t have
that discourse which is active and very
present, then you can become quite self-
satisfied. 51

52. research
Front of house have a count of
people coming into the building
but there is no count after that.
Our gallery is manned by
volunteers on a very part-time
basis...
52

53. research
I think somewhere
tracking people’s
movement around this
building would be really,
really interesting.
53

54. audience
Our audience is a fairly
typical arts audience, young
people, student types, as
well as older crowd there are
sort of two types of age
groups.
54

55. public engagement
I think it’s like other things.
People might be interested in
sport, for example, but it may
only be tennis that interests
them, or football and I think it’s
exactly the same with the visual
arts.
55

56. media
There is not really a generic... the
problem with Creative Scotland is that
it’s for those in the know. The List... it’s
really hard to find the information unless
you type in you want to see something
or if you go alphabetically it’s a very brief
description with no picture. It’s not very
interesting looking. It literally is a list.
56

57. media
We are listed on The Grid as a venue
but we haven’t had anything in terms
of exhibitions. But that is something
that has been at the back of my mind. I
need to write that down again because
I keep thinking, ‘Oh yes, The Grid.’ I see
the map and then I don’t get a chance
to....
57

58. audience
Geographically it’s a really wide range.
I am quite surprised we’ve got a
children’s arts and crafts class on a
Saturday and the participants come
from Lochwinnoch, Motherwell all over
the place. They are not from Glasgow. I
expected to get a local crowd for
something that’s a one hour class.
58

59. strategy
Do you have a specific audience
development plan here?
No!
Marketing plan?
No!
Social Media plan?
No!
59

60. digital
Our website’s
rubbish before you
ask.
60

61. collaboration & funding
I suppose the challenges are that a network is quite
difficult to establish and then there’s an awful lot of staff
development time is spent on establishing those networks
and it’s not always easy to know who to speak to. So I
think if there was a collective, I suppose, not exactly a
collective database, but something that people could tap
into and they could also input into and there’s information
about contacts, that it would be easier to source partners.
Also in terms of the funding matrix and what’s out there,
it’s very difficult for people, particularly at this point in
time with trusts and foundations cutting down…
61

62. collaboration
It was one of those
companies, we found out
after the event, had
adopted us for Christmas.
62

63. public engagement
I suppose the target audience are younger
people and older people as well because I think
some of the things that we’re interested in is
about the post-industrial scenario in Glasgow
and a lot of the people who historically met
had trades that would have been actually
almost associated with some of the physical
processes that happened, like welding, for
example, and how we might engage some of
those old men.
63

64. media
It's very superficial. It doesn't in any way cover the range and
depths of the things that are on offer. Probably the worst
magazine is the thing that covers the most and there's very
inconsistent, subjective opinions in the reports from people
who are not necessarily art specialists, which doesn't
necessarily serve anybody particularly well. But I think it's a
capacity thing... you just need to look at The Herald. The
Herald is a really good example. It used to have a much
stronger visual arts representation. It's the journalist’s
preferences, it's how the editor chooses to cut and paste it,
but when you look at the way you've got music coverage in
The Herald, its massive and theatre coverage is massive
proportionately to art.
64

65. programming
...slick turns people off and it needs to
have – DIY kind of punk ethos of just
happens. What’s that, that’s
interesting, and you go and see it and
by the time you’ve gone there, it’s
gone. Glasgow should have more co-
ordination but it can get a bit too
corporate. We have to guard against
that.
65

66. collaboration
...a lot of people have ploughed
their own furrow, especially the
visual arts can be very
fragmented and very
competitive, rather than
collaborative, I think.
66

67. collaboration
I think of all the sectors the visual
arts is the poorest sector. The
theatres are much more
connected and so on, and part of it
is to do with that fragmentation I
talked about and competing rather
than collaborating.
67

68. digital
We need help in the development of digital
publicity and social media. The potential for us
nationally is huge in terms of it. It’s the only
thing that makes sense for us and we think that
because we’ve reached the scale, we could
reach quite a lot of people, you know. I’ve
always thought if there’s 500 artists each
attract 10 people, we’re talking about some
large numbers and then you know it spreads
out from there. We’ve got a good base to build
on. 68

69. public engagement
I think the lack of investment in
education – the education sector
would deny this entirely of course
– and lack of media interest are
things that fuel public perception
that it’s not as important.
69

70. sector
Where do I look for news and
information? I would tend to
be informed by daily contact
with each organisation, Creative
Scotland and their bulletin is
not easy to navigate.
70

71. research
We have forms that people can
fill in or they can email in stuff
and we do get – we’ve got quite
good return rates for that, it’s
been about a third which we’re
quite comfortable with.
71

72. research
The biggest problem with profile gathering
in terms of visual arts is that because it
isn't a bums on seat ticket process, because
when people are in a gallery and they don't
want to talk to somebody. I mean if you're
looking at a piece of work which is very
much a contemplative experience, one on
one, you don't want somebody coming up
and pestering you.
72

73. research & programming
It’s more about evaluation… you have got
to have a clear driven focus of what you
want to achieve. You can’t respond, you
really must not respond to your visitors. If
your front of house staff are being rude, if
you can’t find your way around the
building, if the loos are dirty then fine,
you’ve to deal with it, and that’s where you
will learn about some of those things.
73

74. research & programming
I don’t think it would hurt to
listen to your audience and I
don’t think it should ever stop
you putting on something you
think well most of the audience
might not like this...
74

75. sector
I think one of the things we’re bad at is saying is
how many Turner prize winners, in a row, will it
take before people in Glasgow know this is
something we’re pretty good at? It’s not an
accident. It’s been 25 years in building that, a
wide community of agencies and organisations to
create a community of artists. It’s not any one
single thing, it’s not the School of Art, it’s not us,
it’s a community. And the Council’s been
supportive. But this is something we are world
class at.
75

76. sector & funding
...the broad assumption [is] that artists
will always work whether they’re paid
or not and unfortunately that’s
probably true, but that is taken
advantage of by us as a society because
we assume that we don’t need to put
money in and invest in it and that’s
shocking actually.
76

77. digital
I think a really nice friendly website that had everything
art on it would be fantastic, that would help mobilise
audiences between high profile existing venues and
others. I think the only way that works is if it’s not
siloed into how things are funded. People going to look
at art exhibitions don’t give a shit about where
organisations’ management structures or funding comes
from and I think the single most valuable tool we could
have to promote the visual arts in Glasgow would be a
truly cross-sectoral website that shows the breadth and
variety of activity. Where you can find art, basically.
77

78. sector & digital
I can’t think of a single website
that I would say was very
important to audiences finding out
about Glasgow activity. I think you
really have to push to find
anybody. I think Glasgow’s always
been like that. Come find us.
We’re important.
78

79. public engagement
...we would see it as being involved in
getting people to participate who might
not normally go to a gallery but because
they’re coming to somebody’s
workspace, they have a nosy about… oh,
I can ask questions, it’s less frightening
than walking into a gallery and having to
be one of the cognoscenti before you get
it.
79

80. public engagement
You know, we do more visual art
than we do ship building now, I
think we should try and say, we
should be trying to promote it to
Glaswegians and this is come and
see world class stuff on your
doorstep.
80

81. public engagement
And there are other art forms, but the
visual arts, I would say, punches way
above its weight in national and
international terms. And I think for
local people it should be about pride in
place, and saying we’re good at this.
And do you know about it? This big
secret on your doorstep, come and see
it...
81

82. cultural tourism
People move from London now to be here,
and it’s obvious to us but nobody’s
marketing that. So why aren’t we telling
English tourists – Scotland with Style and
the Style Mile and come and buy in
Glasgow. We’re selling the message that
retail is one of Glasgow’s strengths, but no
message about the visual arts.
82

83. cultural tourism
I think the tourist people don’t believe in
cultural tourism and they don’t believe
people will come here for an exhibition,
but I know, I myself and others will go
down to London and spend – stay in a
hotel, do all the travel, restaurants, to go
and see. Why – people will come and see
stuff here, we’re not marketing that well
enough, and that’s in a Scottish context,
never mind in a UK, international. 83

84. public engagement
...the danger is of course it becomes
this little cliquey thing and then
everybody’s excluded, so it’s a fine
balance. I think Glasgow as a city
manages that quite well. The people
who don’t go at least understand it’s
not something deliberately elitist,
there’s a slight breaking down of that.
84

85. programming
I think we could do more... of being
more co-ordinated, although
sometimes – there’s the bit which is the
unplanned bit, which is the something
down a dark close in a back street is
what attracts people. If everything
becomes very heavily marketed and
rigorously so, and co-ordinated, it could
stifle...
85

86. resources
...my paying job is Venue
Management, whereas the art
that I am making is definitely
something that I am doing in
the evening.
86

87. audiences
Yes I think my current target
audience is more of the same.
More of everybody please.
87

88. audiences
I had one afternoon event where
people could come and do some
knitting and that was lovely, having
a wee left handed 10 year old
laddie being taught to knit by an
experienced granny who does
work for...
88

89. public engagement
...we do have a lot of repeat customers. A lot of
people, who do embroidery, tend to get hooked
and it becomes a bit of an addiction, if you like. As
they get addicted they join the Embroiderer’s
Guild and they do the certificate in Hand
Embroidery which takes them up to a very high
standard because they love doing it. It is an
occupational hazard of doing craft, in that
whatever it is that you love doing, chances are that
you will get addicted to doing it. And there are
worse things that you can be addicted too.
89

90. public engagement
...they know that if they could use a crochet hook
and a ball of wall, I’m not going to look at them in
a funny way. If you craft in public then people
have a little hang up about doing something that
exposes them to public attention, potential for
ridicule and you don’t get that at my place.
...we should de-stigmatise knitting. Craft in public.
90

91. audiences
Children and spinning wheels seem to get
on better than adults and spinning wheels.
I’ve noticed that. I think it’s the whole hand
eye coordination thing. When you are
quite small it seems to be easier to pick it
up because it’s a completely physical
activity so you don’t think about it, you just
do it. Adults tend to overanalyse it.
91

92. digital
...a lot of my business comes through either my
Facebook page, Twitter feed and the website. I
get a lot of queries from my enquiry form on
the website. Queries from people who are
looking for tuition or class. Quite often I’ll get
in on Tuesday morning and find a load of
queries like ‘I googled you’ or ‘I stumbled
across your website because I was looking for
somebody to show me how to thread a sewing
machine’. That simple.
92

93. digital
I know that Twitter is the new thing but
I find it annoying to use. So I try to
avoid it because it’s so easy for things
to get lost in the feed that, unless you
are prepared to spend hours and hours
and hours searching for a hashtag that
suits you, it just vanishes.
93

94. public engagement
There would be certain pieces of
art, maybe certain individual
pieces of art where the reaction
was universally rubbish and other
pieces that people were just sort
of oh, and you never could tell
who was going to love what.
94

95. digital
I do have access to people who have
emailed me and quite a lot of people do
drop me a line and say please put me on
your email newsletter. Fine, except we
don’t have one. I struggled with one of the
programmes I was recommended to use as
well, so I set up a Mailchimp account and I
can’t work out how to use the thing.
95

96. organisational development
Dundee and Ireland in particular, were really well
represented*. It was almost as though Glasgow or
organisations in Glasgow weren’t interested
because they’ve got their network within the city,
and it’s a big city and there are a lot of interlinked
organisations out there and networks for people
that know each other, so it was almost as though
they didn’t need to look beyond the city boundary
for support and development.
*Voluntary Arts Scotland Conference in Edinburgh
96

97. strategy
Well there’s not really any
strategy so that’s really weak!
It’s definitely something that
needs work and improvement.
97

98. public engagement
I think for places like Buchanan
Galleries on the escalator or
something, for us to really put
art in normal places. And then
maybe people would feel
confident to go into art venues
more.
98

99. funding
I did have a meeting with Creative
Scotland ages ago and found that one
of our major failings is that we don’t
have any numbers to back anything up
so I’d be interested to know what they
think are the main... because I wouldn’t
know off the top of my head what
they’d be looking for.
99

100. digital
It needs a lot of work
[the website]. It
doesn’t help that I’m
trying to modify the
code myself.
100

101. audience
It’s not good. And we’re all misfits in here,
that’s part of the beauty of it, so I think
we’re trying to find a place where we’re
cool enough that people – that the regular
gallery scenesters come round but then
also that people, normal kids, feel
comfortable coming too and I don’t think
we’re really focusing on getting the public
in just yet because we’re still trying to build
an identity – we are, we do. 101

102. funding
Will funding issues stop you from doing any
of your plans?
Probably not.
You’ll just find a way?
...we’ve managed to do a lot of things for
no money so… as long as we can pay our
rent, we’re good.
102

103. funding
Will funding issues stop you from doing any
of your plans?
Essentially, yes.
Which ones?
If there’s no support from Creative
Scotland, we wouldn’t be able to exist.
103

104. media
Yeah, we talk to the Skinny
quite a lot. And put things in
the List. Some local radio,
Sunny Govan. The Glaswegian
actually are really good for
writing weird little stories about
young artists.
104

105. media
...actually I’m continually frustrated when
you look at the arts section in newspapers
and it’s only theatre, or it’s an argument
between Damian Hirst and David Hockney
about who’s whatever. Like there’s actually
thousands of young artists in London that
could do with some press. So I guess that’s
kind of like perpetuating the stodginess...
105

106. audiences
...we have this feeling that there’s two
kinds of art crowds in Glasgow. There’s like
the cool ones that go to Transmission
openings and then there are regular art
kids that just hang about and feel left out,
trying to find a way to be in a place that’s
not one where you stand around and look
at who has the best haircut, but it’s like –
sorry! Do you know what I mean though,
there’s definitely like those two things. 106

107. public engagement
Taxi drivers are always my gauge, you
know, when they say you’re from the
sector and culture you know you’re
really winning. And then if they talk
about it in a less hostile manner – over
the years people have got used to this
being known as a cultural place.
107

108. public attitude
I think people think more
negatively of contemporary
visual art. That taxi driver
chats: my five year old could do
that or I could have thought of
that or that kind of normal
thing.
108

109. funding
Have you ever participated in
crowdfunding?
Yeah we did. We did Indiegogo* this
time last year to raise the money to buy
the materials for the walls on the other
side. We did ok.
*’an international crowdfunding site where anyone can raise money for film, music, art, charity,
small businesses, gaming, theater, and more’
109

110. cultural tourism
...if there was a comprehensive
arts trail, you know when people
are coming in and I think it should
be at the point of, going to like a
Visitors’ bureau, George Square,
what’s it called, you know what I
mean?
110

111. cultural tourism
Well I think it’s because they
have a lot of tourists so they’re
coming in and they are
genuinely lost. They haven’t a
clue where they are going or
what’s what.
111

112. digital
...maintain our website as much as I can, and then
use Facebook and Twitter to kind of – well use
Facebook to drive people to the website and to
notify them of events that are happening, but then
use Twitter to kind of put our personality and our
community out there so we tweet different things
that these guys are up to or to just chat with
people, to create that kind of personality online,
and then what else is there? We have a couple of
blogs that are for different products that we have
done or are doing.
112

113. social media
Yeah, a number of them* are
really good at it. ...[he] is
amazing at it actually, he can
make six screen prints one day
and have them sold out by the
next day.
*independently practising artists
113

114. resources
Yeah, if there’s an exhibition on
that requires invigilating, it’s
usually the case where we say to
people in the studio this is
happening, would you mind, or
would you keep an eye out to
make sure nobody’s wandering
through…
114

115. resources
Yes, I’m pretty much all
the staff. Yeah, I’m the
cleaner and the
maintenance lady and
the...
115

116. resources
What’s your technology
infrastructure, like PCs and
things like that?
My personal laptop.
116

117. pricing
It’s interesting because unlike
the other events, the people
aren’t used to paying for
that, in visual arts, you just
wouldn’t ask people for it.
117

118. WhiteNOISE
Activity Summary & Timeline Developing Practice
‘Designing Cultural
Sector Mapping & ‘The Common Guild’
Increasing
February Desk Research
Events’ Ambition
Research presented
Scotland
2012 (existing data
Partnership/Network
to sector/network
/previous 10 years) event (1)
Event with WN
Depth Interviews ‘South Block’
Research presented
[22 individuals: Research presented
to participating
Curators, Artists, to sector /network
WhiteNOISE venues
Marketers, CEOs...] event (2)
Defining
‘Visual Engagement’
Glasgow Household Research presented
Ambition Scotland
Survey / TGI Area to WhiteNOISE
Partnership Event
Profiling analyses stakeholders
with WN
March
Visitor Research 3 Main Strands 2013/14
11 Glasgow Venues Online/social media CPD Events
[1,524 visitors/across analysis [75 orgs] Mobile site create
9 weeks] Network Events con’t

119. Culture Sparks
For more details about WhiteNOISE please contact:
Dianne Greig
Senior Partner
Marketing & Digital Development
dianne@culturesparks.co.uk
@diannegreig
Culture Sparks
Suite 1/1, 6 Dixon Street
Glasgow G1 4AX
+44 (0)141 248 6864
@culturesparks
culturesparks.co.uk