Project Type: <span>Evaluation</span>

Tate Artist Rooms

Tate commissioned us develop a framework and supporting toolkit with resources to capture the impact of the new form of Artist Rooms. This framework will enable a better understanding of audiences, thedevelopmental impact on the touring exhibition for partners and provide Tate with insights to further develop this new model of packaged touring exhibitions.

The Evaluation Framework enabled Tate to:

  • Define and capture evidence of change, giving them a deeper understanding of their impact
  • Gather evidence of successes and challenges, enabling them and their partners to learn and grow the programme
  • Provide materials to champion their work and advocate for their touring programmes
  • Deliver high quality evidenced reports to funders and stakeholders
  • Empower their Learning team to share their insights with partners and peers

This framework and methodology underpinned the key ambitions for Artist Rooms in enabling access to collections nationally. It supported exploring how working in partnership can enhance access to international artists, particularly for younger people.

Flow provided:

  • Planning how it can be integrated and delivered by the Artist Rooms team into the package of resources provided to support partner venues
  • Understanding current evaluation and any barriers to effective collection and analysis
  • Creating a simple and useable toolkit for staff who are collecting evidence and requiring simple methods for analysing it
  • Advising on how evidence collection can be integrated into visits to the exhibition, related programming and use of supporting resources
  • Delivering training sessions with staff on using the framework and its tools
  • Making recommendations for future evaluation plans

Turner Contemporary Emerging Producers

Flow Associates were commissioned in 2021 to evaluate Turner Contemporary’s Emerging Producer project, following the progress of 8 Emerging Producers as they worked together towards an exhibit in 2023, responding to the 1953 short documentary film “O’Dreamland!”. This project focuses on the experience and development of the Emerging Producers, and explored what this could mean for future projects run by Turner Contemporary. Flow led the group in exploring experience design for their exhibition, “Oh, Dreamland!”, running workshops and acting as critical friends during its development.

The Emerging Producers were a group of eight young people recruited in Autumn 2021 by Turner Contemporary to lead on the development and delivery of their summer exhibition opening in 2023. They were recruited via an open call for young people aged 18 to 25 living and/or studying in Kent. This co-creation project would provide an opportunity to gain experience of working in the arts sector, building their CVs while working alongside filmmakers, artists, and exhibition makers. The call stressed that no previous experience was necessary, just a desire to ‘collaborate, get creative and commit to the programme’. Crucially this was a paid position, allowing the Emerging Producers to integrate the part time position with other work, study and life commitments, and all eight Emerging Producers were involved until the end of the project. The group met weekly on a Thursday morning, and additional hours for research or taking part in other events was paid at the hourly rate of £9.30, which increased part way through in line with the gallery’s commitment to paying living wage.

At the start of the second year the core focus for the project shifted and some of the final stated outputs (i.e. to co-create a major exhibition, and create a toolkit of best practice for running co-creation activity) gave way to an outcomes-driven process of collaborative working where the group were able to take on production roles to deliver Salamagundy ’22 a variety show at Dreamland featuring a range of local acts; and to co-create Oh! Dreamland, an immersive exhibit running alongside an artist-led exhibition in Turner Contemporary’s Clore Learning Studio. This was run alongside Mark Lecky’s, “In the Offing“, activating the exhibition for younger audiences by curating a social and fun space for them within the gallery.

SOUTHBANK UNDERCROFT TRANSFORMATION

In 2019, Flow Associates were commissioned by Long Live Southbank and the Southbank Centre to carry out an evaluation of the long term impact on the skate community following improvements made to theUndercroft skate space. The Undercroft, which is managed by the Southbank Centre, has been used since the 1970’s by skateboarders and is thought by many to be the home of the sport in Britain. The Undercroft’s location in an unused space within the Southbank Centre was appropriated by skateboarders, BMXers and inline skaters who found its sheltered, smooth surfaces and unusual architectural forms ideal for skating. The space also attracted other creative uses, with dance, music and filming all taking place. In March 2013, plans were published by the Southbank to create two new buildings alongside the Royal Festival Hall. The construction of these, and funding to sustain them, would require the closure of the Undercroft space. The proposed project included the development of commercial and retail properties, closing the area to skateboarding and other uses. In order to safeguard the iconic site and continue its heritage of skateboarding, Long Live Southbank (LLSB), was formed. LLSB is a non-profit organisation which campaigned to sustain the use of the Undercroft by skaters and its community. The team of Southbank “locals”, skaters and volunteers successfully applied for the area to become an Asset of Community Value in 2013. LLSB’s campaign drew the support of 150,000 signatories to a petition, and from a number of organisations and individuals including English Heritage, Kate Hoey MP, The Twentieth Century Society and Lambeth Council.

This three year project to evaluate the impact of the improvements on the skate space looked to capture how access and engagement was changing, and what impact it had on skaters wellbeing and a sence of community. We carried out quantitative and qualititative research, using strcutured observations, visitor counts, interviews and surveys at Southbank, building a trusting relationship with the skate community to really understand how the development was changing how the space was used and by who. The eventual report drew on 116 hours of observation between March 2019 and June 2022, responses from 294 skaters within the Undercroft who spoke to our researchers and completed our surveys, and in-depth interviews with 17 skaters about their experience of the space.

Our evaluation enabled the partners to:

  • Evidence the vital role of this iconic central London space
  • Demonstrate the value of open public access to health and sport
  • Understand the barriers that some face in using the space and how to overcome them
  • Advocate for the sustainability of this at-risk public resource

Infographics from our research went on to be featured in Somerset House’s exhibition, “No Comply: Skate Culture and Community”, showing the impact of the sense of community between skaters and their spots.

National Portrait Gallery Schools Programme

The National Portrait Gallery has undergone a huge transformation, reopening in 2023. We worked as critical friends and evaluators with the Learning Team to develop and test the delivery of new workshops for schools to align with their new hang and the National Curriculum.

The National Gallery wanted to test and refine a new schools programme that delivered two strands: art and history. The fresh curation of the galleries offered the opportunity to explore representation and challenging histories in the galleries and the art and photography workshops would benefit from new studio spaces.

Flow reviewed session plans and developed an evaluation and reflective process for the team to understand what was working in the sessions and where changes could be made. We observed sessions and worked in workshops with the Learning team and facilitators to refine the learning objectives and delivery before the programme’s launch in the new school year.

 

Green Futures – Royal Parks

Green Futures aims to connect hundreds of young people with nature conservation in the Royal Parks, gaining new skills to help combat the climate emergency. Funding from the Kusuma Trust has enabled the Green Futures project to offer each participating school three day-long nature conservation experiences in the Parks over one school year. There will be two cohorts, the first made up of five schools in year one and of six schools in year two. Each school is invited to bring its entire KS3 year group, and a selection of Year 12 students (c.50 each year in total) will take a leadership role.

The activities will include citizen science and practical fieldwork, designed to show how conservation work is experimenting with adaptive measures in the context of environmental changes. Back at school their experience will be used to support project work, reflecting on the work they have contributed to the parks.

Year 12 students work towards completing ASDAN short course awards, through which they will gain experience of planning events and activities whilst learning about careers in the sector. They also play a leadership role in supporting KS3 students, directing activities during their visits. In the second year of the project Year 12 students returned to support the new cohort of students. Some of these will be invited in future to advise the Royal Parks on its approach to creating engaging and meaningful programmes for young people.

We established an evaluation framework colelcting baseline attitudes and skills of the students which would measure progression through the programme. Evaluation of Green Futures demonstrated a positive experience of situated learning with strong outcomes in an understanding of biodiversity and ecosystems. Year 12 students gained ASDAN qualifications and showed an increased confidence in their leadership and communication skills. Across the project, there was a strong likelihood that at least 75% of participants will feel more confident in visiting more natural settings and are more appreciative of biodiversity and facilities in the Royal Parks. Interviews with teachers were undertaken throughout the project to capture the impact on their professional knowledge, the curriculum and schools. The report was presented alongside a workshop with Royal Parks staff to set out actions for the future of their programming and identify key opportunities and challenges as the programme expands.

The first two years of the programme ran from 2021 to 2023 with students working with staff at Hyde Park. Funding has been extended for a further two years enabling Royal Parks to expand to other parks in its estate, enhance the digital resources for schools, and offer more in-school outreach sessions.

 

National Gallery Evaluation Framework

Flow worked with the National Gallery on a comprehensive evaluation framework to support the delivery their 2021-26 learning strategy. It aims to empower everyone to integrate evaluation into their practice, to design for more effective and impactful work across the broad range of onsite, offsite and online programmes that the Gallery delivers. We created a digital toolkit which guides staff through the why, how and when of evaluation, providing template tools and activities which can be used bespokely across their audiences.

The framework was informed by consultation with staff members across all teams of the Learning Department, exploring their future plans including the 5 year strategy, reviewing previous evaluation processes to find out what the current barriers to effectieve evaluation were and designing new tools and approaches to solve them.

A key focus was capturing evidence of qualitative outcomes for participants using a ‘360 degrees’ process as a way of understanding collective success as a team. The evaluation framework provided support to collect and analyse participants’ skills development, learning of new knowledge and of teir experience of the programme. For the Learning Team and wider National Gallery the framework also established metrics for understanding cultural capital and how participants can be empowered through it.

 

Southbank Centre: Art By Post

We at Flow Associates were commissioned by Southbank Centre to create a robust evaluation report of Phase 1 and 2 of the Art by Post project to reflect on this responsive programming and understand opportunities for developing it in the future. The project reached 4500 participants monthly with more than 600 artworks being submitted by artists across the UK.

Art by Post is a nationwide outreach scheme devised and delivered by the Southbank Centre  in response to the pandemic, enabling a continuation of community and wellbeing programmes during and beyond the extended closure of the building. It is more than just a replacement for on-site and local activity, however, as it is creating opportunities for SC to build relationships with arts and care organisations across the UK and to innovate in the design of remote and distributed creative activity for people without digital access.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The programming consists mainly of booklets designed by artists and inspired by Southbank Centre’s art collection and artistic programme. The activities are designed for adults living with one or more long- term health conditions, who through COVID-19 restrictions are at further risk of isolation. SC is especially interested in giving people living with dementia, and their supporters, access to creative resources. The project also aimed to reach those without digital technology at home.

People who sign up to take part are guided through a series of activities which aim to spark the imagination, keep minds active and help people stay connected to others. Along with the booklet participants were given a freepost envelope to return their artwork to Southbank Centre, in the hope that an exhibition could be created once the site reopened after the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Virtual Classrooms

We were commissioned to create a robust evaluation of the Virtual Classrooms project supported by the Respond and Reimagine Grant from the Art Fund. The project set out to reach schools and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic and inform learning practice and programming going into an uncertain and increasingly digital future.

The evaluation followed the delivery of a pilot programme of Virtual Classroom sessions by History of Science Museum and Bodleian Library during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through consultation with staff and schools we mapped how it reached new audiences, increased access for under-represented groups, developed the digital capabilities of the staff and institutions and its reception in schools and colleges.

A report and presentation with a series of recommendations was delivered in order to report to the funder and to guide future iterations and delivery of remote learning sessions.