Archives for November 2011

The artist is experienced in designing and using methods of evaluation that can compare the experience of individuals after significant interventions, and he will employ similar strategies in this project. The artist will work with Seven Stories Learning and Partnership team to develop an approach to measures of success and evidence gathering with the school partners, the approach will be between partners on the CPD sessions at the start of the project. We will refer to Great Art for Everyone (Arts Council England) to guide baseline evidence gathering and to inform reporting. The results can be presented in quantitative figures and use the quotes of the participants.

The completed project will be evaluated with the intention of becoming an inspiring arts resource for the future. The results of the evaluation of the project will be produced as a separate document and all parties will provide data and evidence and be invited to comment on its efficacy. Any subsequent resource guide will inform the resource document and it will contain the things we have learnt and the routes to good practice evidenced by the outcome measures.

The evaluation of the project is built into the timetable on a regular basis and will comprise of the whole team remaining engaged. The project will start with a CPD event where the methods of evaluation, responsibilities and timeline will be led by Seven Stories Learning and Participation team in Partnership with the lead artist and schools. These will include the techniques for gathering baseline, midway and endpoint quantitative and qualitative evidence, via focus groups with pupils and staff.

The expectations of the project and the responsibilities of any individuals in producing their delivery will be reviewed at review points, enabling efficient subsequent collection of information and its presentation at the four staged meetings. These meetings are designed to meet the criteria of producing effective decision making, shaping any future activities and how to improve the capacity to overcome any problems in the delivery of the expectations or inherent artistic techniques. The results of the evaluation will be used to demonstrate what happened as a result of the work done and the complete project will be monitored via the completion of an activity report form.

The progress of the project will be updated through reviewing whether the outcomes are meeting the expectations. This will be affected through feedback forms completed by all the participants or via critiques which will take place at the end of all workshops, during the ‘field work’ abroad and exist throughout the project linking with visiting authors at Seven Stories. The realistic expectations have been created during the planning stage and have formed the main components of this document and Andy has specifically designed the four main stages of the project to each include a strategic planning meeting, where these can be reviewed. The numbers of participants will be recorded and those of the surrounding and growing audience will be correlated by the host and the web-site counter and audience follower hits.

The results of the project will live on at Seven Stories forming part of their unique children’s stories national archive initiative. The mangers of the project propose that it will have introduced, challenged and trained the children and their teachers in new technologies, broken new ground in arts development and inspired a new generation in one the most ancient and exciting conduits of creative storytelling. It is their intention that the project will be the instigator for inspiring and collecting new artistic works from several satellite artists through their visits to the host organisation and to retrieve artworks that would otherwise be lost. The international component of the project will potentially create long term relationships between the youth organisations, whilst promoting Seven Stories, in a year when England hosts the Olympics and celebrates the anniversary of the achievements in E. Hillary in the Himalayan region.

To enable the project succeed it will be supported and monitored by the Seven Stories educational and management team, additionally mentored by the artist’s local community arts education officer. It is an added support to collaborate with Media Villages Ltd, who will deliver the technological training and support.

The risks inherent in such a project include those of health and safety during interaction with the public or otherwise, the limitations and reliability of any technology (intellectual or physical equipment), the limited time-line in which the goals are to be achieved and the efficiency of the predicted financial costing. The artist is proficient in the production and completion of risk assessments for working in schools and public spaces and he will employ the requirement to complete such forms for all the workshops. All the team are in possession of relevant CRB check certification and are covered by personal and public liability insurance or by the insurance of the host organisations. The artist in this case is additionally equipped and qualified to cope with any disclosers of a significant personal nature, especially when working with children. Andy has placed into both the timetable and budget the possibility of relying on back up hardware or software in any use of technological equipment and he is confident in Mat’s ability to manage this whilst he is ‘in the field’ abroad.

The period of time abroad is limited by the weather in the region and it is optimised to occur in a window between the end of November 2011 and the beginning of March 2012. Andy has attempted to build creative space and periods of intellectual reflection into the timetable by limiting the workshops to once a week in each school and equipping the team with sufficient studio and administration time.

Andy and Seven Stories have successfully worked together before to an award winning standard. Andy originally approached there management team with the concept of ‘Hunting for Fairy Tales of the Yeti’ during 2009, because of their national position as a platform for innovative work related to children’s books and story writing. Andy’s suggestions were received with enthusiasm and a confidence that it is an achievable vision. To support the legacy of the project it is their intension to utilise the documented experiences of the participants, the workshop plans and the results of the ‘hunt’, primarily to enable others to continue their own reading, creative storytelling and writing journeys.

This award winning national centre for children’s books have committed further support via their intention to request that throughout the duration of this project all visiting authors and illustrators to the centre will contribute by submitting their own interpretation of the theme. This will generate an expansive and wonderfully supportive and inspiring resource that can be used in the workshops, the website and the final legacy. As a result of discussions during developmental meetings for this project Seven Stories has been inspired to research the working theme of using different continental cultural interpretations of similar monster-characters, during their appreciation of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in England.