Culture Shift and School of Humanities

The project team planned to work together on a community consultation to inform the development of the Art at the Heart programme, with Irralie working with us to develop the methodology, identify relevant research and support the development of a bid to Big Lottery Reaching Communities fund.

In July 2014 partners (University of Brighton, Horizons and St Leonards Children’s Centres) met to review the first consultation events at Priory Meadow (Feb 2014) and the Big Local event (June 2014) and modify our questionnaire for use over the summer. Between July 2014 and March 2015, Sharon Haward, Catherine Orbach and the Creative Champions (volunteers) led activity and consultation at a further 15 events.

In October Laura Barritt, a business studies student from the University of Brighton in Hastings was recruited through Active Student to assist with data analysis. She was supported by Catherine Orbach, Irralie Doel and Jackie Haas from Horizons.

Our Creative Champions led creative activities at family events to engage communities in the value of creative activity and, as part of this, they asked people to fill in a questionnaire. Our business studies student devised an access database to hold the information from the questionnaires, analysed the data and produced a brief report.

Outcomes

Knowledge into various aspects of working with communities, programme design, ethics, capacity building and sustainability, data collection and analysis, research and development, funding, bid writing, communication of the project, partnership development and dissemination of findings was exchanged and developed. The data collected and subsequent analysis provides a good snapshot of what kinds of creative activities people do and would like to do, the kinds of things that prevent or enable them to take part and the perceived benefits of doing creative activities. We also identified potential volunteers and captured demographic data. The student volunteer used this project for her UC501 Learning Through Practice module (level 5) which helped her develop a variety of skills directly related to her degree and to enhance employability including the development of skills in: designing an access database appropriate for the captured data, data analysis, the communication and presentation of data, working with clients and partners, working on community consultation and community education/arts projects, fulfilling a brief, project management, working independently and in collaboration, and meeting professional deadlines.

For the community, the project created a moment to focus on the arts and explore what kinds of activities they might like to see in the future. The involvement of Creative Champions at well attended events has given the project necessary exposure. The pressure now remains to secure funding to make the project happen. For the university, the project enabled Irralie Doel to engage with community organisations and partners, exchanging relevant knowledge and learning about the dynamics of local structures, organisations and groups and some of the existing and projected arts provision in the area which can inform future development work.

Around 600 members of the community have been involved over the 17 event/workshops which were run as part of the project.

Future Partnerships

We are currently meeting with potential partners to share our outline proposal, understand how it connects or complements their activities and to ensure there is no proposed duplication of activity. Catherine Orbach and Irralie Doel will work on a funding bid this August. The role of the creative champion is integral to the future programme proposal and we have a list of 40 people interested in volunteering collected through the consultation process. We have already discussed with Horizons the opportunity of developing a combined volunteer offer in which our creative facilitation programme is an optional module/pathway.

For more information on the project contact Catherine (catherine@cultureshift.org.uk) or Irralie (id30@brighton.ac.uk)

Evaluation report attached