Transforming Audience Travel Through Art was a collaborative project with Perth Theatre and Concert Hall and embedded artist Helen McCrorie on a year-long project using creative methods to address the environmental impact of audiences travelling to and from their venues, working with a creative practitioner and participants drawn from Perth Theatre and Concert Hall’s audiences. The project was funded through Paths for All’s Smarter Choices Smarter Places fund.
Project programme
The project sought to address challenges around audience travel for institutions like Perth Theatre and Concert Hall (PTCH) that are working on improving their environmental impact and playing an influencing role in broader local decarbonisation efforts. Calculations show that for organisations like PTCH, audience travel to and from the venues is one of the largest sources of emissions associated with their work. PTCH do not have direct control over how people travel to their venues, but they can facilitate and encourage more sustainable travel choices. These choices are also enabled and constrained by broader travel infrastructure in the area.
We worked with a creative practitioner to help audiences share their experiences of travel to and from the venue, discuss the positives of sustainable travel choices, and explain the barriers that may constrain them. Through a series of creative workshops, we provided space to discuss travel experiences, build understanding, create ideas and develop a community of interest. The creative practitioner also worked with audience members to document their sustainable journeys to and from PTCH using artistic methods.
The results of the workshops and documentation were used to spark conversations among audiences, staff and local decision makers through a publicity campaign and events. Results of the project were also be shared to inform similar work that is being undertaken by equivalent organisations around Scotland.
Project purpose
We believe this project is important because:
Audience travel is a major source of emissions associated with arts and culture, but a complex area to change. It is an issue that many organisations are thinking about. This work with PTCH can act as a pilot project that will provide useful information for organisations across Scotland.
Developing sustainable travel requires a mixture of technical understanding and changes to our attitudes and ways of thinking. The design of this project seeks to bring these elements together, combining creative work with an artist and detailed discussion on barriers to sustainable travel with organisational staff and local decision-makers.
Project timeline
May 2023
We recruited artist and filmmaker Helen McCrorie to work with us as the embedded artist on this project.
June 2023
We had a lot of responses to our audience survey. People particularly highlighted the timing and unreliability of evening public transport as a key barrier. The survey demonstrated the importance of buses, which are the only available form of public transport for those travelling into Perth from most surrounding towns and villages.
‘Sustainable travel needs 180 degree changes in thinking about transport as, at present, infrastructure is arranged for the convenience of motorised vehicles.’
‘I travel 65 miles to Perth to see artistic talent and my part electric car is my only option!’
‘Most classical music audience members are old. Evening performances pose difficulties as far as transport is concerned. Most environmental projects seem to target younger/ abler people!’
‘As a woman travelling alone safety is my biggest concern. Too often I have waited for a bus after a concert or performance and the bus did not turn up.’
Selected anonymous survey responses
July 2023
Helen ran a session at Crieff Climate Café about sustainable travel into Perth. People were able to share their thoughts on barriers to and opportunities for sustainable travel and were then invited to design their ‘dream bus ticket’. The local community minibus was hired to transport people to the café from nearby villages.
August 2023
We ran a workshop for families at Perth theatre, including circle games, songs, monoprinting and a giant collaborative drawing. The children had huge enthusiasm for forms of transport other than cars and talked a lot about how these ways of getting around can be more exciting and sociable. They kept some of their drawings, while others will be used for a display we’re creating to go up in the theatre.
September 2023
We visited climate cafes at Aberfeldy, Blairgowrie, and Kinross, where Helen convened discussions on sustainable travel and got people to share their ideas through creative methods. All these contributions were gathered together for a display that was put up in Perth Concert Hall. Visitors were encouraged to leave their thoughts and add dots to a map showing where they had travelled from and with what kind of transport.
October 2023
Passengers on the number 8 bus from Oakbank into Perth city centre on Thursday 5 October were treated to a pop-up performance in the form of a flash mob by Craigie Community Choir. The performance was filmed by Helen and will form part of a film she is creating about the need for sustainable travel in the Perth region.
November 2023
We held a big event at Perth Concert Hall, ‘Ticket To Ride’, which featured the premiere of Helen McCrorie’s new film, a performance by Kinross Kacophony Orchestra, an exhibition of creative work produced by people at the climate cafés, a panel discussion, and a visit from the Travelling Gallery on their bus.
February 2024
We ran a discussion event at Perth Theatre with councillors and others in decisionmaking roles in the area to discuss what we’ve learned from the project and plan next steps for us and for them.
March 2024
We arranged a screening of the film ‘What Carries Us’ with Perth Film Society and ran a sustainable travel to work week with Perth Theatre and Concert Hall staff.
April 2024
We published a blog post by artist Helen McCrorie about her experiences as an artist on the project and how she sees the issue of sustainable transport in Perth and Kinross.
May 2024
We published our report on the project. The project shares our findings from engaging with audience members, recommendations on actions to take, and information on how the creative approaches taken by the project made a difference.
If you are interested in hearing more about this project, please contact [email protected].
Transforming Audience Travel Through Art was funded by Smarter Choices, Smarter Places, Paths for All’s programme to increase active and sustainable travel throughout Scotland, grant-funded by Transport Scotland.
Paths for All is a charity and is the champion of everyday walking in Scotland. Paths for All’s vision is for a happier, healthier Scotland where physical activity improves quality of life and wellbeing for all.
The project was part of our culture/SHIFT programme, which promotes how the arts and culture can transform society in response to climate change.
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