Rounding up visitors' feedback.

Throughout the course of the summer, as well as spending loads of time chatting to lovely artists and visitors at The Old Lookout, I've also been gathering lots of data from questionnaires. Someone with a much better understanding of maths than me will be crunching the numbers and analyzing the data properly over the next couple of weeks, but I thought I'd have a quick look over myself and draw some conclusions. I'll be focusing on the visitors to the gallery who filled out surveys over the summer, as this was the biggest sample group, so can provide the clearest answers. I'll be looking at just a few of the questions, ones that I feel are the most significant. I've also rounded the percentages to the nearest whole number. No one likes decimals nowadays.

Firstly, there is the question of our demographic. Out of the 11 age groups, more of our visitors came from the 61+ category than any other, with 24%. The fewest amount of visitors came from the 26-30 group, with only 3%. What I noticed however, is that the groups of 46-50, 51-55, 56-60 and 61+ were relatively equal in terms of numbers, with only the significantly lower percentages coming from groups 41-45 and younger. Apparently we also seem to attract more females, with 60% of visitors being women and 40% being men.
One of the most interesting results for me is the question of where people who visited the gallery live. Only 30% of visitors were local, well live in postcodes CT10, CT11 or CT12 at least. There were a few from CT9, which is Cliftonville, that aren't represented in this category however. This leaves 70% of visitors coming from elsewhere in the country, and sometimes even abroad. This shows us that many of the people who live locally, particularly in Ramsgate and Margate, aren't aware of, or simply aren't visiting the gallery.
As part of this questionnaire we asked people how they found out about the gallery/why they came in today. Without a doubt the most popular response was simply through curiosity, not knowing what to expect. 44% of people said this is why they visited, which considering there were 10 options to tick is a huge majority. The next highest was through seeing the sign outside the gallery, which attracted 23% of people in.
Now, only 41% of people who visited the gallery had been in before, with 59% being newcomers. What is reassuring however, is how many people said they would come back after visiting. The scale was 1-10, with 1 being very unlikely and 10 being definitely. I think we can agree that an answer of 7-10 would suggest that the visitor may well come back again. 78% of people ticked one of these 4 boxes, with 35% ticking 10, suggesting that they will definitely come back. Something else to consider with this question is that several visitors mentioned to the artists that they were only down on holiday, so found it unlikely that they would visit again. They took the question very literally, meaning that their score on this question didn't necessarily reflect their opinions on the quality of the gallery.
A very quick note on whether people would pay to visit The Old Lookout Gallery. When asked, 73% of people said they would be willing to contribute in some way, which is more than I would have expected at the beginning of the project.

In terms of more qualitative feedback from visitors, we asked "What do you feel The Old Lookout Gallery brings to Broadstairs?" Here are some of the most common responses:

- Culture.
- A chance for artists / students to show work to a wider audience.
- Broadstairs history /  appreciation of historic building / historic qualities.
- Curiosity / Interest.
- Brings an artistic element to Broadstairs.
- Something different to do / something non-seasidey.
- Tourism.

And I couldn't resist posting up some of my favourite responses as well:
"A lovely view and a nice stop on the way to chips." (Clearly someone after my own heart!)
"Mind food."
"Better than Turner Museum."
"It is a different world."
"A space for transcendence."
"...a chance to exercise my brain."

In contrast, we also asked visitors "Please provide any further comments or suggestions about how to improve The Old Lookout Gallery." I found that actually, only about half of people wrote a genuine suggestion for things to improve, with lots of people writing many more lovely things instead. Again, here are the most common responses:

- More advertising / publicity.
- Better signage / bigger sign at bottom of stairs.
- Don't change it! / Keep it as it is! / It's great as it is!
- More exhibitions.
- Tidy up / clean up inside.

And once again, how could I not put up some of my favourites?
"Sing sea shanties!"
"Keep the faith."
"Tilt it another few degrees!"
"A lovely lovely place full of niceness!"

It's been lovely to take part in this research project over the summer, not least for the chance to speak to and spend time with lots of fantastic and creative people. I hope this interesting and artistic community continues to grow over many more years. It's been a pleasure.