Resource

In Memoriam at The Arches Worcester Festivals

Audience Development

Special performances in a place to remember those affected by COVID-19 and thank our NHS workers

Without Walls (WW) is committed to supporting the development of the Outdoor Arts sector and audiences in England throughout the uncertain times of Covid-19.

A key example of this work can be seen through the audience development support we offered to Without Walls partners who booked In Memoriam by Luke Jerram in 2020. This ceremonial art installation was created as a memorial to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and to pay tribute to the NHS staff and volunteers who have worked so tirelessly to care for so many.

In October Without Walls supported In Memoriam to tour to The Arches Festivals Worcester for 9 days. As well as taking this wonderful art installation to Worcester, Without Walls also supported The Arches Festivals Worcester through our audience development fund to create a programme of special performances beneath the flags for visitors and to reach out to key areas of their community affected by the pandemic through targeted marketing and increased access provision.

The scope of this work included:

Accessible signage outside of the event site & information boards with access and data capture provisions including QR codes leading to Audience survey, Audio Description, installation soundtrack, socials and artist information.
Capturing three digital and live-streamed performances. The Arches Festivals created a complementary programme of performances which includes a spoken word poem commission from a young poet laureate, a female cello performer, and a male capoeira dancer. These we delivered with external support and offered employment to a videographer, photographer and one aerial photographer.
Targeted advertising to promote the performances to local audience segments defined as hard to reach, ethnically diverse, low and medium culturally engaged and NHS staff.
Reaching new audiences through the NHS. The Arches Festival arranged interviews with a number of NHS staff and captured on video their experience of the pandemic and of the installation. Without Walls helped support the distribution of information to over 10K NHS Staff and Volunteers. The NHS tribute video was shown across GP Surgeries and Hospitals, in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Watch the tribute to the NHS video below, explore more videos of the project here

“For the 1st time in 7 months, we got to do our jobs. A great afternoon shooting Hollow in a World Too Full in amongst Luke Jerram’s poignant artwork.”
Tamsin Fitzgerald, Artistic Director 2Faced Dance

“I really enjoyed being a part of this and hopefully captured in music the feel of the project. It was a privilege to be a part of this.”
Corinne Frost, Cellist

“I think for me, it brought back the feelings of when this all started and also what everyone has been through, us as a nursing community and everyone as a wider public as well. It was a little bit emotional, but actually, it was lovely to walk through it and just feel part of it.”

“The sounds the installation makes are quite eerie and to me, it reflects what it felt like when we went into lockdown. As a GP Practice nurse, I had to go to work and it was my quickest journeys ever because there was nobody about and it was just eerie and strange and weird.”