Personal Profile: Hardish Virk
Hardish
Virk has worked as a Marketing and Audience Development Consultant for
nearly fifteen years. This has included developing new audiences from Black
and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities for the arts across the UK and Europe.
Clients have included Arts Council England and the British Council (Denmark,
Norway and Sweden).
Hardish continues to share his practice of developing audiences from BME
communities for the arts at seminars and training workshops.
Particular areas of expertise:
- developing and implementing Audience Development Strategies
- managing South Asian audience development campaigns
- consulting on cultural diversity and audience development
- researching and writing reports on cultural diversity and audience development
- experience of audience data capture and data analysis
- training individuals, companies and venues on cultural diversity and audience development
- presentation and Seminar experience
- management experience
- practical experience of delivering marketing campaign objectives including distribution, direct mail, e-marketing, etc
- marketing and PR experience
- mentoring skills and experience
- policy work on Race Equality, Cultural Diversity and Audience Development
Other related activities:
- South Asian Audience Development Consultant on the following theatre productions: Bombay Dreams; Tara Arts – Journey to the West; Rifco Arts – The Deranged Marriage; Tamasha Theatre Company – Strictly Dandia; Young Vic – Hobson’s Choice; Birmingham Rep Theatre – The Ramayana; Coventry Belgrade Mela
- Director of Multi Arts Nation Ltd – Media, Arts, Marketing – Founded in 1993
- on the Boards of Audiences Central and Black Country Touring
- extensive work with Arts Council England including Audience Development Consultancy on the Eclipse Seminars and the South Asian Touring Theatre Consortium
- advising on cultural diversity for Arts Council England in relation to the Arts Capital Programme
- European work includes audience development consultancy for the British Council and Braendstof in Denmark (working with theatres) and British Council in Norway and SELAM in Sweden
- Marketing Manager for the db Xpo festival: a major festival of culturally diverse arts and artists that took place between February and April 2004
- Project Co-ordinator on the Networking Project: strategically developing African, Caribbean and South Asian audiences for Birmingham based arts venues and organisations using an Ambassadors Scheme 2000 – 2002
- Consultant on a 12-month strategic organisational development project at The Hawth, Crawley: developing South Asian audiences via Amabssadors Scheme 2002 – 2004
- Associate on the TMPL evaluation of the decibel programme 2003 – 2004
- Marketing and PR Consultant for companies such as Collective Artistes, Punch Records, Royal National Theatre and Belgrade Theatre
Publications and research:
- written article on developing South Asian Audiences for arts venues/organisations, Arts Business publication, February 2001
- co-writer: New Audience Development – Guide 2002 (British Council, Denmark and Danish Centre for Culture and Development)
- written audience development research documents and reports and ambassadors guides for various clients including Arts Council England, Birmingham Arts Marketing, Tara Arts, Tamasha Theatre Company, Rifco Arts, Collective Artistes, Northampton Theatres, Young Vic, Royal National Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, Leicester Probashi, The Hawth, Waterman’s, Croydon Clocktower, arts depot and Braendstof in Denmark
