The Fruitmarket is a free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh, providing inspiration and opportunities for artists and audiences.

The Fruitmarket develop and present world-class exhibitions, publications, performances, events and engagement activities, opening up the artistic process and creating a welcoming space for people to interact with contemporary art and culture in ways that are helpful to them.

The Fruitmarket is committed to creating equal opportunities for people to work, engage with, participate in and experience creativity and the arts. They recognise that equalities, diversity and inclusion are separate yet interrelated goals.

They are experienced in evaluation methods and have been surveying visitors for 15 years to monitor and evaluate their programming and marketing activity, collecting a variety of data including demographic, geographic and behavioural information, attendance and participation figures.

The Challenge

The Fruitmarket would like to explore how demographic data gathering can be conducted in a more inclusive and identity positive way. Their challenge is to establish a new approach to capturing visitor data that celebrates the many and varied characteristics of the people that engage with their space.

They would like a Challenge Respondent to devise an approach that makes it possible for protected characteristics (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity, disability, religion and sexual orientation) as well as the less tangible barriers (e.g. social class, health, caring responsibilities) which exist in the communities and individuals who devise, deliver and participate in Fruitmarket’s programmes, to be represented in their data.

The Fruitmarket has set clear objectives and targets for inclusion and diversity across their programmes. They take an intersectional approach to their work, to ensure that diverse audiences are represented across the organisation. The Fruitmarket team have set specific priorities in the areas of race, social class and disability, currently underrepresented in the cultural sector.

A successful solution to this challenge would help the Fruitmarket to measure their impact in the priority areas outlined above to identify where operational and procedural changes are required, and inform their creative programming to address areas of weakness and involve a more diverse group of people in their activity.

The Fruitmarket are looking to work with a Challenge Respondent that is led by individuals from marginal or under-represented communities, or in a co-production approach where these communities are involved in the development of the challenge response.

Applications for this Challenge Project are now closed. If you have any questions please contact our team at creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk.