The Kitchen Sessions Equipment Upgrade

2 Jul 2021

The Kitchen Sessions variety arts show presented a weekly live stream of North Queensland musicians, visual artists and arts-aligned businesses in 2020. An upgrade in technology increased the professional output and production values of the project.

What

The weekly Kitchen Sessions live-streamed variety arts show beamed live out of the Rondo Theatre in Cairns every Saturday night from March to December 2020.

Created to support local artists, technical and front of house crews following the impacts of COVID-19, The Kitchen Sessions featured freshly made local music and bite sized pieces of art and culture wrapped in an hour of fun.

The Kitchen Sessions raised funds through PayPal donations for the showcased artists bringing a new cross pollinated audience.

In the hour and half live delivery, the musician or band performed 10 live original songs, interspersed with two by three minute pre-recorded packages showcasing a local visual artist (The Pop In), a local restaurateur or cafe proprietor (The Cook Up) and an interactive zoom cross to a boutique and family owned wine tasting segment (Wine Time with Frank).

For the 20 weeks of performances in 2020, the Kitchen Sessions team were presenting their wonderful and varied performances using rented and borrowed equipment.

The Kitchen Sessions raised funds through PayPal donations for the showcased artists bringing a new cross pollinated audience.

The Digital Adaptation funding enabled the Kitchen Sessions team to purchase higher quality equipment to deliver a series of shows towards the end of Season 1 sessions in 2020 with higher level output.

This enabled the donations from the community to continue and in fact, raise slightly, most likely due to the higher quality broadcast being delivered as a result of this funding.

Additionally the higher quality broadcast assisted the participating artists in taking home a higher quality 'show reel' to support their long term tool kit of publicity assets.

When and where

Saturday 10 October 2020 – The Top Pub - Cooktown - The Barefoot Belles and Ella Hartwig
Saturday 7 November 2020 - Cairns, Rondo theatre - Mau Power - Patrick Mau
Saturday 21 November 2020 - Cairns, Rondo theatre - Swamp Donkey
Saturday December 5 - Cairns, Rondo theatre - Tessa Devine

Key stats

Four out of a series of 30 shows in 2020 were presented with higher quality production values.
Technical upgrades increased the Kitchen Sessions audience, profile and reach.
Employed 18 artists and arts workers from a projected 6 employers.

Arts Queensland investment

$10,000 support under Digital Adaption in August 2020.

Digital Adaptation supported the creation and delivery of digital programming for the arts and cultural sector in a post-COVID-19 recovery phase and beyond. Digital Adaptation is part of the Queensland Government's Arts and Cultural Recovery Package of $22.5 million over two years to stabilise Queensland’s arts companies, secure employment for artists and arts workers and deliver COVID-safe cultural experiences for Queensland audiences.

Outcomes

Build the Kitchen Sessions' audience by leveraging off five very diverse artists, cross promoting across the artists' existing audiences, while enabling those distinct and diverse artists to develop a new audience.
Hand-pick 4 to 5 regional communities and digitally unearth artists within those communities, continuing the Kitchen Sessions energy and brand in a slightly re-imagined format.
The team learned new skills and refreshed existing skills through the purchase of equipment from this fund.
The team became 'pivot' ready, whilst reaching an audience eager for fresh regional content.
Online community: Creation of an online community connecting artists, arts businesses, and audiences

Learnings and reflections

Proof that your model of delivery was correct

The Kitchen Sessions’ model of delivery which included a combination of music, art, wine and food from a regional location was a popular format - Roz Pappalardo - – Creator/Producer

Engage with local artists

“Engaging with and featuring local personalities each week, ensured an ever ready audience, all the time developing a new audience for the project. - Roz Pappalardo

Challenge of keeping performances creative, during the impacts COVID-19

“Consistently delivering the shows with fresh enough content firstly weekly then moving to fortnightly as COVID-19 restrictions eased and live venues slowly opened was a challenge” - Roz Pappalardo

The Digital Adaption Fund support kept our creativity

“The Digital Adaptation Fund enabled us to keep creating, keep working, keep our skills fresh and in use, develop a new audience engagement tool, learn new skills, develop a strong audience engagement platform for future if the need arose.” - Roz Pappalardo

Feedback

“To Roz and the Kitchen Sessions team, Thank you so much for giving artists such as myself an opportunity to perform, create and express in the challenging times of COVID through your wonderful show the Kitchen Sessions. It was great to play original music and connect with a local and national audience in real time, and great to work with an awesome talented team who are passionate artists themselves. Regardless of what happens through COVID restrictions in the near future, it would be a terrific thing for our arts community, and our community at large, to see the Kitchen Sessions not only continue streaming, but to grow and develop further possibilities.” Thank you. - Eddie Skiba

“When Roz approached me to perform on Kitchen Sessions I was over the moon. Due to COVID, in a space of 24 x hours I'd lost my long-term day job of 5 x years, and had to cancel my whole tour so was feeling pretty unsettled. I then had the wonderful opportunity to perform again and be reminded just how much people desperately need to hear music, especially during these times. This was proven by the large number of donations received, which enabled me to pay a few urgent bills, delivered me a new fan core base, and filled me with hope." - Leanne Tennant

“My involvement with ‘The Kitchen Sessions’ allowed me not only an innovative way to perform live during this pandemic, but also opened me up to a new audience with the crossover of interests and people involved during the live stream show. I noticed an increase in my business Facebook following after the show. It also allowed me to earn an income from my art which I didn’t think was possible given the circumstances with the cancellation of upcoming touring due to the shutdown of venues. I believe “The Kitchen Sessions” is a great platform for all creatives to not only continue being seen or heard - but also the chance to make an income where they otherwise wouldn’t. – Greta Stanley

Tips for others

“Engage a marketing expert” - Roz Pappalardo

What next?

Future audience engagement with the Kitchen Sessions using the equipment purchased with the Digital Adaptation fund, will be focused towards reframing the show to appear in 4 to 5 local ‘kitchens’ per year, in regional areas like Innisfail, Mission Beach, Tara and Tully and further afield.

The intention is to deliver a slightly shorter show, with the program in the person's home with the artist playing acoustically or one on one, or a visual artist actually creating a work, cooking a favourite meal while the show is broadcasting, giving Australia and the Kitchen Sessions audience a real insight into artist's homes and lives.

Continue to digitally unearth artists in newly targeted regional communities, continuing the Kitchen Sessions energy and brand in a slightly re-imagined format.