Our organisation is called IMPACT for a reason. The name of our organisation is at the same time our core value. We’re - all about inspiration, togetherness and change-making processes. It also translates into our approach to audience development.
About Impact Foundation: easy to read version in PDF
A SHORT (HI)STORY OF IMPACT FOUNDATION:
FROM ART IMPACT TO IMPACT AUDIENCE
ART IMPACT: Where did we come from?
Impact Foundation was established in 2008 in Warsaw, Poland. At that time we were organising (It was organising) artistic and educational events, inspiring active participation in cultural events and enhancing social integration. We organised and co-organised a few significant Warsaw artistic events.
The distinguishing feature of our work always has been a serious attitude towards audience development, given that artistic events are an important and attractive component of education.
In 2009, Impact took charge of the coordination and promotion of the 4-months long TRANSFORMATIONS by the Vistula Festival. Over 500 artistic and educational events were organised with a total audience of over 150,000 people.
Impact Foundation was also the organizer of re:visions of art. It was Poland’s biggest festival revising the most interesting artistic projects from the circle of independent art. The festival showcased several hundred artists and dozens of music, theatre, dance, film and visual events – throughout Warsaw reaching approximately 15,000 audiences at the time. Want to know more about re:visions? You can still visit festival’s website: http://www.rewizje.pl
IMPACT AUDIENCE: How did we get here?
Our adventure with audience development concept started while we were initiating and organising artistic projects - from small, site-specific actions to large scale festivals. We’ve always been an audience-focused organisation (even back then, when we didn’t realise that it is “a thing”). We were empathising, imagining and planning all our projects with our audience’s interests, hopes, wishes always in mind. We cared and trusted their opinions so they were also involved in the festivals' programme decision making process.
Subsequently we learned that there is this theory, philosophy, process, called audience development. We dove right in, started exploring. Sometimes we just got reassurance that we are moving in the right direction (or a new name for an old habit), but we also got a bunch of new ideas, inspirations and a solid framework for our work. Audience development became the core of our existence, we’ve started sharing our experience with other cultural professionals, “spreading the joy” of it.
Since 2011 Impact has been promoting the audience development concept in Poland and Europe, organising conferences, workshops and individually working with art organisations and institutions.
At the beginning, a lot of our work was based on the expertise of our colleagues from the UK. And let’s face it, the cultural sector over there very much differs from anywhere else in Europe... We needed time and practice to gain confidence and to work out our own methods and tools and to come up with an approach which is - in our opinion - more relevant to “Continental Europe”.
If you wish to know more:
how we define and approach audience development and what we do - go to AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT section of this website or just click the button below and we will take you there automatically.
about what we think and how we work - can be found in the articles in our READING ROOM? or click the button below.
Few facts (we think) you might want to know about us:
About Impact Foundation: easy to read version in PDF
A SHORT (HI)STORY OF IMPACT FOUNDATION:
FROM ART IMPACT TO IMPACT AUDIENCE
ART IMPACT: Where did we come from?
Impact Foundation was established in 2008 in Warsaw, Poland. At that time we were organising (It was organising) artistic and educational events, inspiring active participation in cultural events and enhancing social integration. We organised and co-organised a few significant Warsaw artistic events.
The distinguishing feature of our work always has been a serious attitude towards audience development, given that artistic events are an important and attractive component of education.
In 2009, Impact took charge of the coordination and promotion of the 4-months long TRANSFORMATIONS by the Vistula Festival. Over 500 artistic and educational events were organised with a total audience of over 150,000 people.
Impact Foundation was also the organizer of re:visions of art. It was Poland’s biggest festival revising the most interesting artistic projects from the circle of independent art. The festival showcased several hundred artists and dozens of music, theatre, dance, film and visual events – throughout Warsaw reaching approximately 15,000 audiences at the time. Want to know more about re:visions? You can still visit festival’s website: http://www.rewizje.pl
IMPACT AUDIENCE: How did we get here?
Our adventure with audience development concept started while we were initiating and organising artistic projects - from small, site-specific actions to large scale festivals. We’ve always been an audience-focused organisation (even back then, when we didn’t realise that it is “a thing”). We were empathising, imagining and planning all our projects with our audience’s interests, hopes, wishes always in mind. We cared and trusted their opinions so they were also involved in the festivals' programme decision making process.
Subsequently we learned that there is this theory, philosophy, process, called audience development. We dove right in, started exploring. Sometimes we just got reassurance that we are moving in the right direction (or a new name for an old habit), but we also got a bunch of new ideas, inspirations and a solid framework for our work. Audience development became the core of our existence, we’ve started sharing our experience with other cultural professionals, “spreading the joy” of it.
Since 2011 Impact has been promoting the audience development concept in Poland and Europe, organising conferences, workshops and individually working with art organisations and institutions.
At the beginning, a lot of our work was based on the expertise of our colleagues from the UK. And let’s face it, the cultural sector over there very much differs from anywhere else in Europe... We needed time and practice to gain confidence and to work out our own methods and tools and to come up with an approach which is - in our opinion - more relevant to “Continental Europe”.
If you wish to know more:
how we define and approach audience development and what we do - go to AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT section of this website or just click the button below and we will take you there automatically.
about what we think and how we work - can be found in the articles in our READING ROOM? or click the button below.
Few facts (we think) you might want to know about us:
- Since 2010 we have been at the forefront of audience development capacity-building programmes in Central-Eastern Europe.
- We have gained and shared our experience with thousands of participants of our workshops based on individual processes conducted with culture institutions/organizations: from the largest to the smallest, both public and private, from capital cities to villages across Europe.
- We designed/co-designed and run long-term capacity-building programmes in several - recent European Capitals of Culture.
- We like learning from others, but we love creating new tools and methods even more. We test, develop and evaluate them constantly.
- We treat every case/workshop/organisation individually, and we use our knowledge and imagination to create tailor-made solutions.
- Each team member is a practitioner even though there are few academics among us. When we say: “we know what you mean” - it is because we have been there, we have experienced it.
- We care about ALL people, those influenced by our work directly and indirectly: both culture professionals and their audiences. That is (also) why we never speak of audience development without discussing accessibility.