Audience Development Plan Specialist

  • Contract
  • Remote

The Hovercraft Museum CIO


  • Job Title: Audience Development Plan Specialist
  • Salary: Under £10K
  • Hours:
    Part time
  • Artform: Museums
  • Role: Research
  • Contract: Contract
  • Closing date: Mon, 17 Nov 2025

  • Location:

    Remote

Job Summary

The Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire seeks a freelance specialist to shape its future audience strategy. Help grow and diversify engagement for the world’s only hovercraft museum as it embarks on an exciting NLHF-funded renewal project connecting heritage, innovation, and community.

Job Description

The Hovercraft Museum is the world’s only museum dedicated to hovercraft, holding the largest collection of its kind globally, including the iconic SRN4 cross-channel craft. The Museum is embarking on an ambitious renewal programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), designed to secure its long-term sustainability as a leading heritage attraction.

As part of this process, the Museum seeks an experienced Audience Development Plan Specialist to develop a robust, NLHF-compliant Audience Development Plan (ADP). This plan will shape the Museum’s strategic direction by identifying current and potential audiences, exploring barriers to engagement, and setting out realistic, costed actions to broaden, deepen, and diversify public participation.

Working closely with the Project Manager, Board, and design team, the consultant will:

  • Review existing visitor data, surveys, and local and regional trends to establish a clear baseline.

  • Engage with a wide range of stakeholders including volunteers, community partners, residents, schools, families, SEND audiences, and transport or heritage enthusiasts to ensure the plan reflects diverse voices.

  • Analyse physical, social, cultural, and financial barriers to engagement.

  • Assess the Museum’s market positioning, identifying opportunities and niche strengths.

  • Develop audience segmentation and prioritisation to target both existing and new audiences effectively.

  • Produce a detailed action plan with practical, costed recommendations, staffing implications, and success measures.

  • Integrate audience insights with the conservation architect’s condition survey and the ongoing Collections Review, ensuring that audience needs inform design, interpretation, and future programming.

The project carries an inclusive fee of £5,000.00, with an estimated 20 days to complete the work, equivalent to a maximum of 140 hours to complete the work.

Job Requirements

The Audience Development Plan should include:

  • Baseline analysis: review of existing visitor data, surveys, demographic information, and comparison with local/regional audience trends
  • Stakeholder and community engagement: consultation with volunteers, partners, residents, and wider potential audiences (including schools, families, SEND, heritage and transport enthusiasts)
  • Barriers to engagement: identification of physical, social, cultural, or financial barriers to participation
  • Market positioning: consideration of competition, opportunities, and niche identity of the Hovercraft Museum
  • Audience segmentation: identification of priority groups, both current and potential
  • Recommendations and action plan: practical strategies (short, medium, long-term) with indicative costs, staffing implications, and success measures
  • Integration with the museum’s other commissioned reviewsso that audience needs are reflected in design, interpretation, and programming decisions

How to Apply

Please submit:
• CV and relevant experience
• Short proposal outlining methodology and approach
• Indicative costs to a budget of £5,000.00 and timeline
• Examples of similar work (preferably for NLHF-funded projects)

[email protected]

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