CONSULTANCY BRIEF: EVALUATION OF FIRST ART CREATIVE PEOPLE & PLACES PROJECT
BACKGROUND
First Art is funded by the Arts Council’s Creative People and Places fund and covers the areas of Ashfield,
Bolsover, North East Derbyshire and Mansfield. The project runs from now until the 31st December 2016.
First Art is a partnership between four cultural and community organisations working in the former coalfields of
North West Derbyshire and North East Nottinghamshire. The partners are Junction Arts, based in Chesterfield,
City Arts, based in Nottingham, The Prince’s Trust, whose regional office is in Leicester, Tony Trafford, who is
Chair and Creswell Heritage Trust, who is hosting the project and from whom the Project’s name is derived, from
the first cave art found in the area.
VISION
First Art is a partnership between four cultural and community organisations working in the former coalfields of
NW Derbyshire and NE Nottinghamshire. During the next three years, and with support from Arts Council
through its Creative People and Places fund, we aim to bring inspiring cultural experiences within reach of
everyone in Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and NE Derbyshire.
We want to do this because people who live here are less involved in the arts than people living in most other
parts of the country, and because evidence shows that communities with culture, creativity and imagination at
their heart are stronger and more resilient. By 2017, dozens of artists will have been commissioned to work on
more than 30 events and projects, involving at least 40,000 new people, and we expect many of them to come
back for more. Local people will have stronger links with art and cultural facilities in Sheffield, Derby and
Nottingham and beyond. And we will have laid the foundations for culture to continue playing a central part in
people’s lives and communities.
Our area, between the Peak District and Sherwood Forest is a land which is hard to define. Scores of villages and
small towns add to the impression of a patchwork of places – a population the size of Bristol – live in the First
Art area of north Derbyshire and north Nottinghamshire.
The First Art partnership will work with artists, theatres and community groups, museums and voluntary
organisations, public bodies, businesses and the wider public to ensure that art is at the heart of positive change
in Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and NE Derbyshire Districts.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Arts Council England’s mission is ‘Great art, for everyone’. First Art shares that aspiration and aims to make it a
reality for all those living, learning or working here, between the High Peak and Sherwood Forest. Our aim is
simple:
First Art will offer great art experiences to everyone in Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and NE Derbyshire.
We will achieve this by:
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Working with outstanding artists to create new art commissions in the area.
Making it easier to enjoy art experiences locally and regionally.
Building people’s knowledge and confidence to participate in the arts.
Innovating, learning from and sharing our work.
Securing the resources to sustain our work.
THE CONSORTIUM
The Consortium is made up of five partners: Junction Arts, City Arts, The Prince’s Trust, Creswell Heritage Trust
and Tony Trafford.
Junction Arts
Junction Arts is a participatory arts organisation based in Chesterfield and have been delivering in the Bolsover
district for over 30 years.
Their primary aim is to increase and extend access to high quality arts through inspirational innovative
participatory arts programmes and projects through partnership and collaboration within the rural areas of the
East Midlands.
Junction Arts believes that art changes people’s lives, builds confidence, self-esteem, increases communication
and supports community and personal empowerment.
Junction Arts is a charity delivering participatory arts in the Chesterfield/ Bolsover District, one of the cold spots
for arts and culture in the Arts Council review.
Aims
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Ensure active involvement and ownership in the artistic process by individuals and communities
through high-quality artistic interaction by and with artists.
Deliver partnership-determined programmes and projects, which are relevant and distinctive to
participants, situation and place.
Promote projects and programmes that have longer-term impact for individuals and communities.
Work with artists of the highest quality, integrity and calibre in order to deliver innovatory programmes
that challenge, break new artistic ground and push the boundaries of existing practice.
City Arts
Since the late 1970s, City Arts’ community work has been positively affecting lives in Nottingham,
Nottinghamshire and beyond. This history has given us an unrivaled understanding of the important role that
the arts, and creativity, play in a person’s sense of place, responsibility and usefulness in society. City Arts has
helped thousands of individuals to become happier, healthier and more involved members of their community.
Work with young people:
City Arts uses its expertise to offer workshops and arts sessions to vulnerable young people with disabilities,
with mental health issues and in schools. These sessions support them to develop new skills, increase their
confidence and learn to express themselves creatively.
In the last three years public funding has supported over 13,000 attendances by young people at City Arts’
Work with vulnerable adults
As well as working with young people, City Arts targets resources towards vulnerable adults. This includes
offering arts activities that support the recovery of people with mental health difficulties, running sessions in
care homes to improve older people’s well-being and much more.
In the last three years there were just under 10,000 attendances by adults at City Arts’ sessions that could not
Performances and Public Art
City Arts runs, supports & participates in events that delight, entertain and enrich the communities of
Nottinghamshire – The Big Walk, Light Night, Night of Festivals & World Event Young Artists are just a few. The
vast majority of these event are free to all who attend.
In the last three years, just over 30,000 people have enjoyed events or performances that City Arts has worked
on.
The Prince’s Trust
The Prince's Trust, established in 1976, supports 13 to 30 years old who are unemployed and those struggling at
school and at risk of exclusion.
Around one in five young people in the UK are not in work, education or training. Youth unemployment costs
the UK economy £10 million a day in lost productivity, while youth crime costs £1 billion every year.
Many of the young people we help are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness or mental health
problems, or have been in trouble with the law.
Their programmes give young people the practical and financial support they need to stabilise their lives and
help to develop key skills, confidence and motivation, enabling young people to move into work, education or
training.
Helping young people
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Develop skills, prepare for work and improve their confidence through a structured 12-week personal
development course, individually tailored development programmes and short engagement
programmes
Improve motivation and attendance at school through our network of xl clubs
Work out whether self-employment is right for them by helping them test their business ideas, write
plans and start their own businesses, or achieve other goals in education, training, volunteering or other
work
Overcome barriers and get their lives working with cash awards of between £50 and £500, and mentor
support for those leaving care or prison
Develop personal and social skills through residential schemes, group activities and tailored one-to-one
support
Their programmes
We run programmes that encourage young people to take responsibility for themselves – helping them build
the life they choose rather than the one they’ve ended up with:
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1
The Enterprise programme provides money and support to help young people start up in business.
The Team programme is a 12-week personal development course, offering work experience,
qualifications, practical skills, community projects and a residential week.
Get Started1 are short courses designed to help young people develop new skills, build confidence and
have fun, helping them to move forwards in their lives.
Get into are short courses offering intensive training and experience in a specific sector to help young
people get a job.
Development Awards are small grants to enable young people to access education, training or work.
Prince's Trust XL clubs give 13-19 year olds who are at risk of truanting, exclusion and
underachievement a say in their education. They aim to improve attendance, motivation and social
skills.
First Art is directly involved in this programme with its Young People strand.
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The Fairbridge programme works with young people aged 13-25, giving them the motivation, selfconfidence and skills they need to change their lives.
Tony Trafford
Tony Trafford is a TV professional with wide experience at ITV, the BBC and other major broadcasters working
at Senior Producer levels, as well as running various independent production companies over many years. He is
a multiple award winner with considerable experience as a producer, director, writer and, more recently, as a
composer He’s worked in corporate and commercials as well as broadcast and his work has won awards for
fiction, fact and advertising. Currently he's also a broadcast consultant to the University of Wolverhampton's
Institute of Media Arts.
Outside television, he’s Chair of Stainsby Festival which is run by volunteers as a not-for-profit registered charity
and has a national reputation in its field. He's Chair of First Art which has recently made a successful bid for
£1.5m from the Arts Council's Creative People & Places programme to develop arts activity across the former
Notts/Derby coalfield. He’s Chair of the Housing & Environment Group for his Local Strategic Partnership where
he also sits on the Executive Board and on its Cultural Forum. He’s Chair of the Bolsover Energy Partnership
which is carrying out an ambitious carbon reduction programme across the District, and on the Board of
Roseland Community Windfarm, which when completed expects to be the largest wholly community owned
windfarm in the UK. Via his other local voluntary work he’s been a key part of a team of three which has raised
over £1.3 million from the EU and other bodies, to build a local resource centre to combat social exclusion.
Creswell Heritage Trust
Recognition of the scientific importance, vulnerability and popular appeal of Creswell Crags developed during
the 1970’s leading to designation as an SSSI in 1981 and as a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1985. With a view
to helping to protect the site and to providing a managed public amenity, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
County Councils negotiated with the landowner, Welbeck Estates, a joint management agreement supported by
a 21 year lease.
In 1996 the Welbeck Estates Company made a deed of gift to the Heritage Trust of the archaeological and
paleontological finds from the 1980’s excavations at Pin Hole, enabling the Trust to obtain provisional status
under the Museums Registration scheme operated by the Museums & Galleries Commission. The Trust obtained
full Registration status in 2002.
The gorge was landscaped in 2007. The Heritage Trust works closely with local communities to promote interest,
participation and ownership of the rich variety of local heritage throughout the area. Through the Pride of Place
programme, Trust staff work with local communities to create events and activities that celebrate local heritage
including guided walks, festivals, local history study groups and workshops and education packs for local
schools. The recent improvements at Creswell Crags, supported by additional revenue project funding from the
European Regional Development Fund, are enabling Trust staff to develop a programme of events and activities
for local people at Creswell Crags. Trust staff also worked closely with the Model Village Residents Association
and with the District of Bolsover to prepare the successful Townscape Heritage Initiative bid to restore Creswell
Model Mining Village.
Creswell Crags Museum and Education Centre is the host organisation for First Art.
The First Art Team
Tony Trafford
Roger Shelley
Paul Steel
Madeline Holmes
Community Engagement Officer
Chair
Director
Creative Director (Junction Arts)
Creative Director (City Arts)
Currently recruiting
Community Engagement Officer
Commissioning & Events Officer
Operations Manager
Administrator
Finance Officer
Communication & Audience
Development Officer
Currently recruiting
Currently recruiting
Kevan Jackson
Samantha Dawson
Jane Whitehead
Currently recruiting
THE PROGRAMME2
Taking its inspiration from the former mining communities, First Art’s ethos was to dig beneath the area’s
fascinating surface to un-earth what was once there – the hidden gems of the area as it were, of which there
are many.
First Art has audience development at its heart and the programme will aim to gather perceptions to the arts,
try to break down any barriers that exist and track changes to those perceptions as the project develops. We
will do this in a number of ways:
Local
First Art will, through an artistic process launch the project using the
opportunity to gather baseline information from audiences in the area,
along with the cultural mapping of the area by engaging with arts
organisations contained within its region.
Go See Events
First Art will embark on a programme of visits to art performances and
events of national significance, inviting residents of its 4 areas of
concentration to gather initial thoughts on audience perceptions and to
evaluate those same audiences post event to track changes to those initial
perceptions. It is through this approach that First Art will seek to try and
break down barriers and build audiences.
Touring
First Art will work with some existing events and festivals to add value to
them, whilst also attracting national artists to the First Art area based on
what our audiences want to see. We will also tap into existing touring
schemes in the region.
Young People
First Art will provide volunteering opportunities, training courses linked with
The Prince’s Trust Get Started programme and showcasing opportunities.
Commissions
First Art will commission artists to create work in the region, responding to
what our audiences want to see.
Events and Festivals
First Art will stage a programme of events that has been informed by the
above process as well as working with some established local events/
festivals to add value.
Sustainability is a key driver of the project and the evaluation process.
THE BRIEF
First Art is seeking a consultancy to undertake the evaluation of the First Art Creative People and Places funded
project covering Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and North-East Derbyshire.
2
Appendix 1 details the programme for Year 1.
The organisation appointed will liaise with A New Direction/ Ecorys, and its Critical Friend, ensuring that the
three national questions, along with the three local questions are addressed as part of the process. The
evaluation company will work closely with the First Art Team and its wider partners to ensure that approaches
to gathering and analysing data collected is both relevant and robust.
The evaluation should demonstrate whether or not the First Art programme achieved its intended outputs,
outcomes and impact3, detailing methodologies, implementation, outcomes/ unexpected outcomes, lessons
learned and recommendations for an exit strategy.
It is anticipated that a second stage of evaluation will be awarded, subject to a further funding application, to
look at the economic impact the additional engagement in the arts had had on the First Art area4.
National Evaluation
The national evaluation of the project will be overseen by A New Direction http://www.anewdirection.org.uk/
and be delivered by Ecorys http://www.ecorys.com/
There are three main questions being addressed by Ecorys.
1.
2.
3.
Are more people from places of least engagement experiencing and inspired by the arts?
To what extent was the aspiration for excellence of art and the process of engaging communities
achieved?
Which approaches were successful and what were the lessons learned?
Local evaluations and monitoring data gathered by all CPP projects and presented to the Arts Council in the form
of interim reports feed into this process.
Ecorys will undertake three case studies from CPP projects across the country in 2014/15. It is not yet known
whether First Art will be one of these case studies.
Ecorys will also be undertaking a meta-evaluation process of all local evaluation.
Local Evaluation
In addition to the central questions to the national evaluation, the following questions will also be addressed
locally.
1.
Is the local cultural offer diversifying and growing as a result of the programme?
2.
Are the changes in the local cultural environment sustainable beyond the 3 years’ ACE funding?
3.
What evidence is there of the programme having a social impact beyond the cultural offer?
The First Art team will be gathering quantitative and qualitative audience data from attendance at events and
activities, which will feed into Arts Council interim reports, and which in turn will filter into national evaluation.
3
The evaluation should capture individual attendee, participant, artist, organisation, partnership, community
and local area.
4
A proposed funding application to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation is planned covering two CPP projects – Appetite
in Stoke and First Art in North Notts/ North Derbys focusing on a city/ housing estate (Appetite) and model
village/ market town (First Art).
First Art will also be purchasing a CRM system to consolidate all of the quantitative and qualitative data gathered.
First Art will also be negotiating with other CPP projects to create a distinct piece of work that matches gathered
data with Arts Council’s identified 13 audience segments5 through a specialist audience agency.
First Art, like all CPPs, will have a Critical Friend who will oversee and quality assure the local evaluation process6.
TIMESCALE
The First Art project is about to commence, so we would want an evaluator in place by the beginning of
December ideally. The project is due for completion by 31st December 2016.
FEE
There is a maximum fee available of £38,000 to include all expenses available to cover the entire project, this
will be given in staged payments each financial year, triggered upon the receipt of progress reports, as follows:
Upon appointment/ signed contract:
Milestone 1: Quarterly Report: 17th March 2015
£6,000.00
£5,000.00
Year 2
Milestone 2: Half-Yearly Report: 15th June 2015
Milestone 3: Half-Yearly Report: 14th December 2015
£5,000.00
£5,000.00
Year 3
Milestone 4: Half-Yearly Report: 20th June 2016
Upon completion of final report.
£10,000.00
£7,000.00
APPLICATION PROCESS
Expressions of interest, giving examples of past similar work for all proposed consultants, response to the brief
and budget to be received by close of business on 8th December 2014. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for
interview w/c 15th December 2014.
CONTACT
For more information and to whom expressions of interest should be sent: Kevan Jackson, Operations Manager/
First Art. Kevan.jackson@creswell-crags.org.uk Tel 01909 720378
5
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/research-and-data/arts-audiences/arts-based-segmentationresearch/13-segments/
6
First Art is currently recruiting for this role.