Embracing the messiness: a creative approach to participatory arts evaluation

ABSTRACT

This article advocates for an approach to evaluation for participatory arts that privileges creative risk-taking into their design and considers some of the leaps of knowledge and discovery that can ensue when they are embraced and encouraged by the research team. By examining the methods used to research the London-based participatory project Unleashed (Barbican Centre, 2012), it considers how a creative, durational approach to research and evaluation methods might support the leaps in knowledge that result from moments of “failure” or “decomposition” (Hughes et al. 2011), and in turn, paint a clearer and more detailed picture of the modes of disruption that sit at the heart of the practice. This paper reflects on the narrative of social inclusion set forth by recent UK governments and cultural policy agendas in which critical reflection is often challenging.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation
• participatory arts
• creative methodologies
• durational methods
• Deleuze
• failure

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the support of colleagues at Guildhall School of Music and Drama's Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts, particularly Professor John Sloboda and Dr Karen Wise. Additionally we would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Leverhulme Trust. Ethics Approval was granted by Royal Holloway University of London Research Ethics Committee in 2012. All participants provided informed consent.

Notes

1 This practice is sometimes referred to as theatre in education, applied drama, community music, socially engaged performance and arts outreach.

2 This climate was precipitated by shifts in government allocated funding for the arts. Local government bore the brunt of public spending cuts since the 2008 financial crash and the 2010 Spending Review. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, there was a 20 per cent reduction in spending by local authorities in England between 2009/2010 and 2014/2015. These cuts were driven by reductions in central government funding to local authorities. Throughout this time Arts Council England tried to support work in the wake of cuts to Local Authority Funding. However, Arts Council England has also been forced to cut their funding. Most recently, ACE have had to cut its budget for 2018–2022 by £156m and completely restructure several funding streams following a collapse in Lottery sales.

3 Retrieved September 21, 2021. https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Funded-organisations_Relationship-Framework_2015-18.pdf

4 Rennie, K. Unpublished Poem, 2012.

5 The evaluation was initially designed by BCL and, then Research and Evaluation Officer, Dr Sophie Moysey. Dr Maia Mackney joined the evaluation team in October 2012 to design the focus group and in-depth interview discussion guides, review the quantitative data, and write the evaluation report alongside Moysey.

6 It is worth noting that this work formed part of a doctoral project and would likely not have been practical or cost-effective for an isolated research or evaluation project.