Location: Theater Strahl | Berlin/Germany

The Connected Audience Conference is held every two years bringing together cultural professionals, researchers, and policymakers to actively participate in discussions about how to build and engage audiences in cultural organizations (museums, theatres, symphonies, etc.).

The conference 2025 will address the challenges and opportunities for cultural organizations interacting with young people – adolescents and young adults from the age of 14 upwards. Active engagement with cultural activities, artistic and creative content are important components of healthy adolescent development, supporting young people’s personalities and opportunities for a self-determined lifestyle. At the same time including young people offers the organizations new opportunities in shaping innovative program and education formats as well as and new forms of co-creation, participation and inclusion. What do we know about how young people value these encounters and how to facilitate them well? What are the challenges and opportunities of working for and with young people? Answers to these questions require an understanding of young people’s cultural experiences, values and preferences to build on these insights and shape meaningful experiences and mutual learning opportunities together.

To explore these challenges the Institute für Kulturelle Teilhabeforschung (Institute for Research on Cultural Participation | IKTf Berlin) in collaboration with the Institute for Learning Innovation (USA) will bring together experts, researchers, and practitioners from the global cultural sector for discussion and exchange.

Conference Design

Previous years’ participants have described the conference as fun AND informative, and helpful to make important new connections in their field. This international, biennial conference will be highly interactive and participatory. Wanting to create more of a workshop feeling: There will be more discussion than presentation, and you will learn from both experts and colleagues.

The main goal of the conference is to examine how audience research and evaluation can support cultural institutions in gaining a greater understanding of their audiences. This includes how research is both performed and applied. By using these tools, institutions and practitioners will be able to increase participation and better inform their strategic development and overall cultural practice for youth, thus building their future (audiences).

Join your colleagues from around the world to explore the role that cultural organizations can, do, and should play in our communities.

We invite you to share this email with other cultural professionals, and to submit a proposal for a panel presentation or workshop.

Partners