MAPPING REPORT OF MEASURES TAKEN TO IMPROVE EDUCATION & AWARENESS OF OPERA AND DANCE IN 2008
SURVEY CONDUCTED BY RESEO
SEPTEMBER 2008
SUMMARY
Introduction
Section A: MEMBER-COMPANIES OF RESEO
Profile of member-companies
What is produced by member-companies
Section B: THE ROLE OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IN EACH ORGANISATION
Role and function of the Education Department
Number of staff and size of department
Section C: The economic impact of éducation in opéra danCe.
Budgets andfunding
Special offers for young people
Section D: Educational Activitiés of member-companies
Guiding principles and fields of activity
Productions
Workshops and projects
Educational material and other activities
Number of people involved and methods of evaluation
Section E: PARTNERSHIPS & Cooperation
Conclusion
APPENDICES
Members' Budgets ...... 30
Questionnaire sent to members...... 31
Introduction
This year, RESEO has initiated a project that aims to establish an inventory on the measures taken within its member-companies to heighten awareness[1] of opera and dance.
As a European association grouping together those that work in the sector of “education and awareness” of opera and dance in Europe, RESEO is a forum for exchange in which its members can share information, experiences and ideas. The members of the network are organisations or opera houses that work to develop awareness on opera and dance to a wider audience.
The aim of this mapping report is two-fold: firstly, to provide quantitative information on the current context in the professional sector of education and awareness of opera and dance in Europe and secondly, to enable RESEO to set up projects and activities that are in line with the current situation of its members, providing coherence and clarity.
This study has been elaborated from responses to a questionnaire «Mapping the Opera and Dance Education Sector in Europe in 2008”. This questionnaire was sent out and returned during the months of June and July 2008. The data collected concerns the year of activity for which members had all the necessary information. For most of them this was 2007. This study therefore presents the information collected in a way that enables us to determine quantitatively, an inventory of the current state of affairs in this sector in Europe.
Establishing such a picture of the current situation, will enable RESEO to highlight current trends and transformations at work since the last report was made by Leeds University in 2002. It will thus bring to the fore the evolution and progress in this sector. RESEO would like this report to be useful to each of its members, as well as to individual readers who can thereby position themselves personally and professionally in order to bring together the past, present and future of “education and awareness” of opera and dance in Europe.
This report is divided into five thematic sections:
- Section A: The member-companies of RESEO.
- Section B: The role of the Education Department in each organisation.
- Section C: The economic impact of «education and awareness» activities for the opera and dance sector
- Section D: The educational activities of member-companies.
- Section E: Partnerships set up by members.
1
Section A: Member-companies of RESEO
1- Profile of member-companies
The data collected on the types of organisations that are members of RESEO shows that there are a wide variety of profiles and companies. The first criteria of importance in this aspect is the presence of a variety of nationalities within the network: 20 nationalities for 53 members (summer 2008). For this study, 38 questionnaires were returned providing the basis for our study, corresponding to a level of response of 72%. It is worth underlining that these responses came from 16 different countries (Austria, Belgium,the Czech Republic, Denmark,Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway,Russia, Spain,Sweden and the United Kingdom) which is commendable in itself.
Firstly, it is important to note that the sector of «education and awareness» to opera and dance in Europe is composed of a variety of professional contexts within each national framework providing each representative, in each country with a legal, administrative and institutional framework that is different from the others. Further investigations bring to the fore other important criteria that accentuate the diversity of the sector, such as the size of the organisations, the number of staff members, the number of employees that work on education, the exclusive educational “vocation” of some of them, the activities that are set up, the partnership that evolve, as well as the budgets at their disposal.
Amongst the members of RESEO, 76% are the owners of the buildings they work in. The profiles of the other 24% are mainly companies that are strongly associated with a particular building (Welsh National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper) as well as companies that we could qualify as “nomad” since the productions that they are involved in take place in different venues (Music Platform, Ensemble Justiniana).
The difference in the number of employees working in the various organisations ranges from 4 (Ensemble Justiniana) to 1500 (Opéra national de Paris). Bar graph 1 illustrates the total number of employees in the different organisations.
Section A: Member-companies of RESEO
Bar graph 1
(37 out of 38 answers)
RESEO is composed of 4 organisations that have less that 10 members of staff, as well as 3 that have more than 700 employees. The range and diversity of profiles is therefore significant, but this graph also shows that a large majority of members are similar in size (having a similar number of employees). This graph therefore underlines that a member-company, whatever its size, can meet other members who are similar in size or on the contrary, completely different.
We can conclude that if diversity is the main characteristic, it is also true that similarities in size exist between member organisations.
Section A: Member-companies of RESEO
2- What is produced by member-companies
The types of productions made by each member organisation can be divided into three sections: opera, dance and cross artforms. By «cross artforms» we mean the types of productions that involve and intertwine throughout the production phase at least two different forms of artistic expression. Bar graph 2 shows the percentage of artistic forms used for productions by members within a standard year cycle.
Bar graph 2
( 38 out of 38 answers)
Opera is the predominant sphere with 11 members dedicating 100% of their activities to this field. 57% of member institutions are involved in productions centred on dance and 50% in productions centred on cross artforms.
While analysing the data provided it became apparent that it was sometimes difficult to integrate (or exclude) certain types of performances of cross artforms that had a specific characteristic or that were unusual. This serves to underline the genre-defying nature of current productions in opera and performing arts.
Section A: Member-companies of RESEO
Finally, productions in the field of dance or cross artforms are, contrary to opera, mostly contemporary or modern works[2] (bar graph3).
In total, the percentage of contemporary productions was 35% for opera, 67% for dance and 80% for cross artforms.
Bar graph 3
(37 out of 38 answers)
Section B: The role of the Education Department in each organisation
This section aims to define the role and function of “education” in the member-companies and organisations, using a defined number of criteria: the name given to an educational department and the title given to the staff involved, the number of members of staff and the degree of autonomy of each department.
1- The role of an Education Department
Firstly it is important to underline that 42% of the educational departments qualify themselves as independent (bar graph 4). This percentage was already present in the study in 2002.
The remainding 58% are part of other departments such as public relations (15%), general secretariat (13%), drama (10%), marketing (9%) or ticket sales (3%). Some organisations such as the Ensemble Justiniana, Music Platform and Star World, do not have specific departments because their entire activity is devoted to education(8%).
Bar graph 4
(38 out of 38 answers)
Section B: The role of the Education Department in each organisation
The choice of the title given to those in charge of the educational department, basically came down to two categories: 70%, used the title “head of”, 14% the title of “manager”.The remainding 16% used a variety of names: ‘outreach manager’, ‘co-ordinator’ or ‘producer’.
Naming a department or position varies depending on the activities of the company and the role of staff members, but also on the languages and common usage in each country. By classifying the responses, we have been able to define four categories for naming Education Departments (bar graph 5).
Bar graph 5
(36 out of 38 answers)
As in 2002, bar graph 5 shows that the most important category includes the term «education» and/or «learning» although this tendancy is less marked that 6 years ago. It is important to bear in mind however that the significant number of French respondants, who avoid using the term «education», (which is seen as exclusively linked to work with schools), use the term «cultural development», so, this distorts the number slightly. There is a growing number (23%) of Education Departments that use an invented name to underline their own identity as distinct from the organisation (for example : Opera Domani, Oop!, WNO Max). The category ‘No department’ refers to organisations that deal exclusively with education or those that do not have an Education Department.
Section B: The role of the Education Department in each organisation
Bar graph 6 illustrates line management of the Education Department. We can see that this can be divided into three main strands. For 64% it is the General Director and General Management Office that plays this role. For the rest, it is equally divided into two strands: 18%, Artistic Director and 18% Marketing or Communication Department Director.
Bar graph 6
(33 out of 38 answers)
Section B: The role of the Education Department in each organisation
2- Number of staff members and size of department
The number of employees in an Education Department (full or part-time) varies from 1 to 15. Bar graph 7 represents the total number of staff per category. Departments employing 1 to 5 staff members represents 76% of all cases, that is 28 departments, and within this category, 13 departments only have 1 or 2 staff members. Moreover, graph 8 helps us to understand how each department is set up as it represents the number of staff working full or part-time.
Bar graph 7
(38 out of 38 answers)
Section B: The role of the Education Department in each organisation
Bar graph 8
(38 out of 38 answers)
This chart shows that for a large majority, staff members in Education Departments are employed full-time. They represent 77% whilst part-time workers represent 23%[3]. The number of people working on the coordination of educational activities is 110. It is interesting to compare this with the figure of 11464, which is the number of people working full-time in the member-companies of RESEO. The figure of 1% of people working exclusively for education to opera only represents part of the reality of this sector. Indeed, many other departments are involved in educational activities such as production, drama, orchestra, choir, etc.
Section C: The economic impact of «education and awareness» to opera and dance
In this section, we will examine financial ressources and the budgets of Education Departments. The large majority (75%) of Education Departments have a specific budget. This appears to provide them with a certain form of independence. It is interesting to analyse where the budget comes from, in order to appreciate its effective autonomy.
1- Budgets & funding
The way in which these budgets are obtained, provides similarities with the situation in 2002: the major source of income is still subsidies from public or grant-giving organisations.In 2008, this proportion has reached 60% (bar graph 9). It is worth noting that 16% of revenue is self-generated[4] (fees, sales, etc.).
Bar graph 9
(26 out of 28 answershaving a specific budget)
By establishing the following categories, we can see that most Education Departments have a budget between 200000 € and 399999 € (Bar graph 10). However, the sums vary greatly.
Section C: the economic impact of education and awareness to opera and dance
Bar graph 10
(26 out of 28 answers having a specific budget)
As to the use and allocation of the budget (bar graph 11), most of the funds are assigned to the artists or mediators[5] and production costs (46%). Costs for staff and management represent 37%.
Bar graph 11
(17 out of 28 answershavinga specific budget[6])
Section C: The economic impact of education and awareness of opera and dance
2- Special ticket offers for young people
It is clear that the question of making opera «accessible» to the young through preferential pricing policies is a vital issue for all the institutions as part of their global policy. 86% of them, provide special ticket offers for young people from 18 to 26 years of age (Pie chart 12).
Yes / No
86% / 14%
Pie chart 12
(38 out of 38 answers)
A further examination reveals specific subscription policies or marketing policies. We can define 4 types as follows(bar graph 13):
- Special reduced prices on performances (ranging from 25% to 60%)
- Subscriptions for young people
- «Last minute» offers
- «Cultural passes»
It is worth noting that some members have been able to provide free access to performances.
Section C: The economic impact of education and awareness to opera and dance
Bar graph 13
(30 out of 33 answers offered special prices for the under 26)
Bar graph 14 shows, per category, the average price of a seatfor a performance on the main stage for a young person in a school group. The average price ranges from 6 € to 10 € with 19 organisations in this bracket, representing 53%.
Bar graph 14
(37 out of 38 answers)
Section D: The educational activities of member-companies
In this section we will look at the content of educational activities: how the activities are divided up, the general aims set out, how much of it takes place within a production process or within workshops/projects, the impact it has on the training of staff members, the number of people directly involved and the assessment process.
It appears that the activities set up concern many artistic fields, involve a large number of people and are extremely varied.
1- Guiding principles
It is important for RESEO to include in this survey a chapter on the «ethos» or global vision which fuels and guides our members in the actions they undertake. Three different visions - that are not necessarily in opposition and in fact, that sometimes overlap – were suggested to the members.
- Engagement with opera and dance generally:
”To engage people of all ages with opera and dance by providing them with an experience of opera/dance of the highest artistic standards” represented 51% of all answers;
- Access to the company’s work:
“To help make the work of the opera/dance company more accessible to the greatest number of people” represented 25% of all answers;
- Opera/dance education as instrumental learning:
“To develop people of all ages through a diverse programme of education activities, helping our company establish a dialogue with the communities we serve”. corresponded to 24% of all answers.
Section D: Educational activities of member-companies
Bar graph 15 illustrates the results concerning the «ethos» behind educational activities.
Bar graph 15
(38 out of 38 answers)
2-Fields of activity
Once the guiding principles are defined, we can look at the way opera and dance activities divide up (bar graph 16). 67%, which is a large majority, are focused on opera. Dance represents 18% of the activities undertaken. This figure primarily illustrates the importance of opera in a network predominantly composed of Opera Houses. Out of the 38 organisations that responded to the questionnaire, none of them work mostly for dance, but three organisations devote 50% of their activities to dance and 50% to opera (Het Muziektheater, Kungliga Opera andNational Moravian-Silesian Theatre).Moreover,15% answered «other», indicating activities linked to symphony orchestras and/or other cross artforms.
Section D: Educational activities of member-companies
Bar graph 16
(38 out of 38 answers)
Having examined the guiding «ethos» behind the education activities undertaken and having defined the fields of activities (opera, dance and cross artforms), it is now important to see how these activities are run by members. Educational activities are set up within two different frameworks : the production process and projects/workshops.
3- Productions
The types of activities undertaken show that 76% of Education Departments are involved in the production process.By looking at the number of mediators that take part in the production process, we can see that many artistic disciplines are involved, showing a certain uniformity in which no specific discipline is more involved than the others (bar graph 17).
Section D: Educational activities of member-companies
Bar graph 17
(29 out of 29 answers involved in the creative production process)
The activities that RESEO members set up involve a large number of people, not only mediators but the public that takes part. Indeed, the line separating mediators from participants is very fine because some of them can be both in turn (for example : school children and teachers).
4- Workshops and projects
The majority of Education Departments (97%) set up workshops and/or projects. From the 38 organisations that responded, only one department does not use this type of activity.
Who are these workshops and projects set up for and who are the mediators involved?
Bar graph 18 illustrates the categories of participants involved in projects or workshops. It is clear that these vary immensely and range from the very young (babies) to senior citizens (65 +). However, if we group some of these categories together, we can see that a majority of actions are geared towards school children (from kindergarten and even before, up to University students).
Section D: Educational activities of member-companies
A growing number of departments (50%) work for specific groups of people. For example rural communities, specialised training institutions (music or dance education, conservatoires, etc.), hospitals, or disadvantaged groups or those with specific needs.