New Wave is an annual training and development programme that takes a small cohort through a structured programme on working with young adults to develop new, innovative Heritage Open Days (HOD) events, with applications open to 18 January!
… up to 14 places available…
Heritage Open Days writes:
Thinking about organising a Heritage Open Days event? Keen to start working in collaboration with young adults? This year we have up to 14 places available on our training and development programme and we are accepting applications up until Wednesday 18th January at 17:00. Download the application pack for further information on how to apply (New Wave).
New Wave is open to new and existing Heritage Open Days organisers, if you haven’t taken part before you can find out more about becoming an organiser on our How to get involved (general festival) page. If you have any questions about the project or require an alternative format to apply email liam.montgomery@heritageopendays.org.uk.
“I had such a wonderful time on the New Wave programme and as an organisation we have definitely benefited from participating. We have been participating in HODs for a long time but this felt like a little bit of recognition for our hard work and the whole team have been very enthusiastic about my participation throughout. We really surprised ourselves with how well our New Wave event went. It has boosted our confidence and encouraged us to be more ambitious in the future” – New Wave Participant 2022
Why are we doing this?
Over the years the festival has evolved from just opening doors to encompassing a wide range of innovative and dynamic events. However, too often we’re still perceived as only being for traditional heritage audiences. New Wave seeks to change that. It aims to enable the delivery of high quality events that push the boundaries of what people expect of Heritage Open Days, widening our appeal to audience groups that we have previously struggled to reach.
How does it work?
New Wave is guided by three key themes:
- Learning from others – we encourage and support participants to find examples of past events that have successfully engaged young people, both in the cultural sector and beyond. New Wave aims to learn from and build upon the previous work that has been done in this area.
- Understanding our audience – New Wave focuses heavily on utilising audience data to inform and guide our approach. The project aims to build an in-depth understanding of the motivations, aspirations, and barriers when it comes to youth engagement in the cultural sector.
- Co-creation and collaboration – New Wave is about producing events working directly with young adults. Our participants are supported and encouraged to work with this target audience to plan, promote, and deliver their events.
What happened in recent years?
“It was amazing – so nice to do things in a small group setting (especially the in-person session) so that we could get to know one another. Super supportive and responsive team and I will be recommending the programme to others” – New Wave Participant 2022
Each year participants received guidance and support from guest speakers including Decision House, Imperial War Museums, The Tate, The Audience Agency, Y Heritage Leicester YMCA, and Chloé Nelkin Consulting. Building on these training sessions participants conducted their own local research and ran focus groups to better understand their target audience. From these learnings, new connections and partnerships were formed to help them create their final events.
