22 Music Week 07.12.12 PROFILE BRITISHMUSICEXPERIENCE SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
The British Music Experience believes it can dramatically increase visitors to its London base and raise its public profile in 2013
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EXHIBITIONS BY PAUL WILLIAMS
T
he British Music Experience is looking to boost its visitor numbers by 80% next year on the back of extra funding, new exhibitions
and a ticket entry tie-in with the O2 Arena. Backed by the UK music industry, the BME launched with a fanfare in March 2009 at the Bubble within North Greenwich’s The O2, offering visitors a chance not only to view popular music artefacts and history since 1945 but actively participate in the likes of a music room. The site has since attracted thousands of visitors,
but curator Paul Lilley admits it has “struggled” in recent times because of a continual lack of awareness and a non-central location that some consumers can find off-putting. However, he believes it is now turning a corner,
helped by the addition of a first ever development director in Liz Koravos and new marketing and communications manager Kat Donnelly. “We’ve struggled over the last couple of years, although we’ve done great things with great exhibitions and programmes and fair visitor numbers. But we’re turning a corner now,” says Lilley. “We’ve got some more engagement on the board now. Feargal [Sharkey] has come in and [Live Nation Europe concerts president] John Reid as well and Stuart [Galbraith] from Kilimanjaro. “There are lots of factors pulling together. There’s
the exhibition, the marketing and PR, extra funding, the visitor number increase and the PR for that. It feels like a critical mass is building and next year it feels like it’s going to pick up and take off.” One key factor in the progress the BME is now
making is an agreement put in place about six weeks ago with the O2 Arena, allowing anyone who has purchased a ticket to a concert there to gain free entry to the Experience. Koravos says: “So people will come in the BME pre-show, have a look around, go for a drink, go to
“There are lots of factors pulling together. It feels like a critical mass is building and next year it feels like it’s going to pick up and take off” PAUL LILLEY, BME
ABOVE A night at the museum: temporary displays such as this Bob Dylan one (main picture) aim to attract The O2’s gig-goers to the BME
the gig and that has been a really successful model for us because we’ve been able to sell merchandise and get people to join as members and upsell the arena customers.” Lilley adds that this move is creating a word-of-
mouth buzz about the BME, helping to raise awareness amongst consumers in the absence of a deep marketing budget. “You would always like your marketing budget to
be 10 times what it is and we are in an unusual place,” he says. “We’re out here in the east. It’s a job to do dragging people out here. The arena does it obviously very well, but for a museum it’s different.” The BME forecasts footfall this year will be 120,000, made up of 30% of education visitors, 30% tourist groups, 15% families and 25% “culture vulture types”. However, Koravos says it is looking to increase total footfall by 80% in 2012 with an “ultimate goal” of reaching 300,000. Koravos, who has a decade-long background in
charity development, is making a huge difference in accessing funding for the Experience. Lilly says before her arrival it was not really active in trying to secure charity money, although did receive the likes of £140,000 from the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert when Led Zeppelin reformed and £80,000 from a Metallica show, alongside continuing funding from O2 arena owner AEG. As he explains: “Liz’s role is new. She joined
about a year ago working on the whole development side of the charity trying to bring in some kind of charity funding ,which has been successful. It’s good that pop music is being recognised as worthy by the likes of the Lottery and the Arts Council.” Koravos says Arts Council support has included
funding a Bob Marley exhibition it held in the summer and its public programmes, while a Heritage Lottery grant uniquely offered money for the BME to bid for a Freddie Mercury costume. It lost out at the auction to another bidder who surpassed the BME’s limit, but it opens up the possibility to get funding to bid or buy other
artefacts in the future. “Usually they only give money to keep a Turner painting in the country or something like that,” says Lilley. “For them to recognise a piece of pop music memorabilia in that same category is quite a swift change.” In addition, Koravos adds there is now a “solid
agreement” in place between the BME and AEG. “Even though they have been backing us and
bankrolling the museum it wasn’t formal and now we have a large charitable contribution coming from AEG to us, which makes our financials look much more stable than they have in the past,” she explains. The Marley exhibition took part in a relatively
new part of the BME housing temporary displays and has also included a Rihanna one to tie in with her residency at the O2, while a Bob Dylan exhibition currently there will include an event in January with the English Folk Dance Society and a gig and masterclass from British folk music heroes Dave Swarbrick and Martin Carthy. In February an exhibition about the Brits will be
staged, tying in with the awards ceremony taking place again at the arena on the 20th that month. This may include a performance by the Brits Critics’ Choice winner. Running alongside this will be an exhibition marking 20 years of the industry- backed War Child charity. The BME has also recently launched a patron
wall, allowing corporate or individual donors to have their name displayed on one of the red, white or blue bricks. It is yet another example of it moving forward. And while there have been set-backs along the
way, the BME should be put into the context of being still only three-years-old, which is brand new compared to most museums and charities. “I like to look at charities as children,” says
Koravos. “We are in our terrible threes right now and we’re about to go through a development stage which hit four, five and six years, which are much easier years to develop.”
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