Touring work around the UK is a key way of elevating the profile of a project and allowing the work to reach a wider audience. Touring programmes or exhibitions involves careful coordination and management to make sure that all the venues are aware and committed to the project and they have all the material they require to support their presentation and the tour in general. When thinking about a project it is important to think about whether you want to tour any aspect of it and incorporate this into the project early on. Touring sometimes emerges after a project has been exhibited as it might then attract the attention of other venues.

Where to show work in the UK

There is a wide range of potential tour partners in the UK ranging from independent and regional cinemas, art centres and museums to film societies and community or artist run spaces. Explore and research potential venues early on so you can take into account their characteristics and requirements. A strong tour partner will have an investment and interest in the project that will help them embrace it when it is at their venue.

To generate this investment it is key that venues are contacted early and relationships are built up with them. Try to be responsive to their experience and advice when preparing a project and especially when preparing any marketing or promotional materials. Think about ways that the venue can actively participate and contribute to the project and relate it to their interests and exhibition programme.

Finally when selecting which venues to approach look at previous tours to see where they went and if possible talk to people involved to see how they found it and which venues needed extra attention. LUX and the Independent Cinema Office (ICO) have extensive information on their websites about their touring programmes listing the venues where they were shown. This information is a good guide to interested spaces in the UK and potential tour partners.

• LUX touring programmes
  www.lux.org.uk
• Indepedent Cinema Office artists' moving image tours:
  www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/artists_moving_image_development.html

Marketing to different audiences

Any exhibition takes place within an existent cultural landscape and it is important to be aware of this and how it varies between different locations and venues. The UK's different venues in the have varying levels of engagement with artists’ moving image work as do the cities or regions. This can affect the way your project will work and whom it will attract. What constitutes an audience varies greatly and one of the interesting things about touring films is seeing how different audiences respond and relate to the work.

Artists' work has a strong cultural association and often audiences reflect the changes in the population as they are shown in different cities. For instance the audience for the recent tour of work by the Scottish artist Margaret Tait (see information on this LUX tour here) differed between England and Scotland. When the work was shown in the Edinburgh Film Festival a large audience attended screenings who knew the areas and locations featured in her work. Whereas the screening in London attracted an audience without that direct link to the locality of her work.

When touring a project think about how it will relate to different regions, the activity there, the space where the work could be shown and the audiences who exist. Talk to venues to get an idea of whom they perceive to be their audience to decide how the programme might work there and how it can be marketed in a way that is relevant in this context. Paying attention to these differences is important and can help the project find an audience but for this to be effective it should be led from the venue and their experience rather than an idea from outside.

Making work accessible in different contexts

The attraction of a project will change in different contexts affecting the way you might market work or present it. The key shift here is between metropolitan audiences and rural audiences but there are other factors that can subtly influence the way work is perceived. This is difficult to incorporate in any materials you may produce but it is important to bear in mind the variety of audiences who your project could appeal to and to provide various routes into accessing the work. Audiences shouldn’t be underestimated or taken for granted as even in metropolitan area doesn’t mean people will respond to the work.

There are also instances of crossover, particularly festivals which attract metropolitan / city audiences to a rural setting (Kill Your Timid Notion or the Berwick Art, Film and Media Festival). These events cater to a mixed audience aiming to draw people from nearby cities to the country and to create a more metropolitan experience for the local community.

The other factor is in local marketing of a project. Wherever possible work with the venue to make sure they have a good understanding of what type of work they are proposing and also for you to get an idea of who they perceive their audience to be.