Research | Sadler's Wells Blog

Do you work in the performing arts? You can help with important research

Parents in Performing Arts (PiPA) are collaborating with Birkbeck, University of London to produce a unique and unprecedented survey focusing on the balance between obligations at work and at home of those in the performing arts. This includes those working across the industries of music, dance, opera and theatre, and PiPA are particularly interested in those with children or in a caring role.

The title of the survey is Balancing Act: Work/Life Survey. Birkbeck will be undertaking the data analysis, which will be used by PiPA to identify the primary challenges for those juggling caring for others and working in the performing arts, and design effective solutions for them.

The more respondents that PiPA can reach, the more accurate the dataset will be. It is therefore important that as many carers, parents and non-parents take part – if you work in the performing arts, please do take 15 minutes of your time to complete the survey and pass it on to any applicable friends or colleagues.

You can access the survey using this link. Please use the grey arrows in the bottom-right corner to navigate.

PiPA enables and empowers parents, carers and employers to achieve sustainable change in attitudes and practices in order to attract, support and retain a more diverse and flexible workforce. By working in partnership, including with Sadler’s Wells, they raise awareness, find creative solutions and promote best practice in the UK Performing Arts.

What do you think of the arts today? Please help us with some research

Do you sometimes see a dance show and wonder ‘what did that mean?’. Or maybe you’ve visited a modern art gallery and thought ‘I could have done that!’?

Sadler’s Wells is a partner in a research project aiming to better understand audiences for the contemporary arts – and we are looking for audience members to take part in an interview with the project’s researcher, Dr Sarah Price.

The interview will last around 45 minutes at a time to suit you, between Wednesday 18^th to Sunday 22^nd July, and Sarah will ask questions such as: what kind of arts events do you go to? How did you become interested in the arts? What do the arts mean to you?

There are no right or wrong answers and there is no need to prepare anything. We just want to hear your thoughts and experiences. As a thank you, anyone taking part in an interview will receive a £10 voucher.

For more information, and to apply, visit the research website page and just scroll down to fill in the form, which should only take a few minutes to complete.

‘Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts’ is a 2.5 year research project undertaken by researchers at the University of Sheffield and Newcastle University, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to explore how people engage with contemporary dance, theatre, music, visual art and everything in between. This project is being run in partnership with arts organisations in Birmingham, London, Liverpool, Bristol and Sheffield.

The final research will help all the partners understand our current and potential audiences better, and we’ll be able to use the findings to test our audience development initiatives, so that we can recruit new audiences and enhance the experiences of attenders.