07 May 2024 | Stories
Behind the Scenes at Culture Club
Culture Club is operated by Culture Company staff, funded through Dublin City Council’s funding of the Culture Company and its work in cultural provision and cu
News
07 May 2024
What we’ve learned about Culture Club in its 7 years
Culture Club is seven years old this year.
We have a large number of people who come with us to explore culture on an ongoing basis but we are also welcoming new people all the time.
During the last seven years we have grown from a fortnightly visit to one of our two partner organisations with a handful of participants, to an average of 15 visits per month to 17 partner venues, with over 15,000 people taking part since 2018. This includes people of all ages, from all sorts of backgrounds - some new to culture, others new to particular partner venues.
In this time we've learned that research, feedback and analysing our impact are the best ways to continue to grow and improve our programme.
Research
We want to listen to people and find out what matters to them so that we can respond to this and ensure our work is relevant. One of the ways we do this is through our Tea and Chats engagement programme. Since 2018 more than 5,000 people in Dublin have chatted with us and told us what matters to them, over a cup of tea. We make this data anonymous, we analyse it and we act on it. This research is long-term, open-ended, and a hugely rich source of information for the city.
Feedback and impacts
We appreciate that people participating in Culture Club take the time to give us great feedback about their experiences, either through our surveys or after a Culture Club over a cup of tea or coffee. We use this information to always try to make the Culture Club experience better and to keep our partners (the various cultural venues where Culture Club takes place) informed about what is important to the people who are coming to their venues and engaging with their talks, tours and activities.
People who have joined us for Culture Club over the years have told us about how it has benefitted them in different ways:
Experiencing culture as a group of individuals provides opportunities to meet new people.
"I'm a musician, but my peers are not into classical music, so it's been difficult for me to find people to go to cultural events with. I find cultural events more enjoyable with people rather than alone. This gave me a chance to go to an event with people and just be able to chat afterwards about it."
“As a visitor to Dublin, I am really pleased to have found Culture Club and I feel that I not only got to see an unusual institution but also meet some really great people and be part of fascinating conversations. I've never found this type of experience in my travels before”
Culture Club has removed barriers for people attending Cultural Institutions.
“I don't know anything about art. It was great to have a guided tour explaining the sculptures in a non-condescending way.”
“The leader [Culture Club host] was at the door so one didn't have to wander and ask where to go etc.”
“It is a great initiative and allows people like me to rediscover places I had visited years ago but had been improved since. Also, we get a better insight thanks to the knowledgeable tour guide who point at details and historic facts we would otherwise have been unaware of.”
Culture Club provides information on cultural places and the cultural offer of Dublin city.
“I've always wondered about this building. I didn't know it was open to the public. I love that I have seen behind the doors and know what it's for.”
"It's great to hear about everything that's going on here, I never would have known."
Culture Club provides first-time cultural experiences in a fun, free and easy way.
“This is my first time here and I am so fascinated. This is a real hidden gem of the city.”
"So amazing. I've never been here but I want to bring my daughter. She plays the piano and she has never been here and would love it".
Impacts for cultural partners
We also provide opportunities for ongoing conversations and feedback with our Culture Club partners. Our partners have told us that they benefit from collaborating with Culture Club in many different ways.
- It provides them with an opportunity to welcome people who haven't previously visited their space.
- It helps them to reach new audiences and local communities that may not have heard of them before.
- They get to share information about other opportunities they may have for audiences to visit and engage with.
- It's an opportunity to showcase different kinds of cultural experiences and to create a sense of community and appreciation for different kinds of engagement with culture.
We invite people to see, experience and learn about Dublin’s cultural places.
Culture Club is a series of hosted talks, tours and activities that introduce and encourage people to connect with the cultural spaces of the city.
Working closely with our partners, we open up new ways for people to access cultural activity more easily and confidently in order to develop and expand their cultural habits.
