I help arts and cultural organisations explore how they might matter more to more people.
As an independent consultant, I provide bespoke marketing and audience development consultancy and support, both for individuals and for organisations as a whole, sharing knowledge and ideas in a way that engages a team and helps the organisation to collectively learn and grow.
‘Working with Julie was a pleasure. She combined genuine warmth, insightful observations, and a wealth of experience to motivate and challenge us.
Her approach to involving the whole team meant that we, as an organisation, grew our knowledge and confidence.
The outcome was an audience development strategy that was meaningful, ambitious and most of all, effective. The difference can be seen not only in our box office results, but in our brand, our mindset, and how we think about our audiences and our business.’ [Roddy Gauld, Chief Executive, Octagon]
Current projects include:
- Consultancy to create a 360 degree (whole organisation) audience strategy for Norwich Theatre.
- Audience insight review and an audience ambition workshop for the team at Ely Museum.
- Curator of The Relevant Museum 2026, a year-long programme for museum teams from Germany, Austria and Switzerland collaboratively developing the future of museums. Created by the NORDMETALL Foundation and the Foundation for Art, Culture and History (SKKG)
Recent projects include:
- Consultancy and workshops for the team at Reading Rep, creating an audience strategy for growth
- Consultancy to create a new audience strategy for York Theatre Royal.
- Consultancy, facilitation and coaching for the team at Turner Contemporary exploring audience, brand, digital and segmentation strategy
- An audience and communication audit and evaluation plan for the Museum of the Viking Age
- Consultancy to develop a 360 degree (whole organisation) audience, brand and segmentation strategy for the Octagon, Bolton
- Audience insight audit, brand and audience strategy for Theatre By The Lake
- Consultancy, facilitation and coaching for the team at Royal Exchange Theatre developing a 360 degree (whole organisation) audience strategy
- Audience strategy coaching and consultancy for Gulbenkian Arts Centre
- Consultancy for Stephen Joseph Theatre developing a 360 degree (whole organisation) approach to audience engagement
- Audience development coaching and consultancy for Watford Palace Theatre
- Audience development coaching and consultancy for Taliesin Arts Centre
- Developing an audience, diversity and inclusion strategy for Brooklands Museum
- Consultancy exploring how Southbank Centre might become a world-class, audience-focused organisation
- Developing a communication plan for Supported Pathways a partnership project led by Inclusion London to improve young Disabled people’s chances of gaining paid employment within the arts and cultural sector
- Supporting National Theatre Wales to update their audience development plan.
- Carrying out an audit of audience development activity in venues across the East and South East of England for house (a network of contemporary performance venues). Recommending strategies and next steps for the network.
- Leading Open Up a programme of work exploring how museums might diversify their visitors in collaboration with Mel Larsen and Pam Jarvis. This included developing a toolkit and a plan for future support across the sector.
Let’s talk
If you’re interested in discussing how I might help you and your organisation to develop or reinvigorate your audience strategy, please do get in touch
Background
I am the former Executive Director of the AMA (Arts Marketing Association), a membership body of thousands of arts marketing professionals covering all art forms, and all sizes of organisation, from across the whole of the UK and beyond. Find out more and come and say hi on LinkedIn.
Image courtesy of BFI Film Hub