Junction Arts Opportunity: ‘Our Place’ Evaluator Brief

Applications are invited for an experienced evaluator for ‘Our Place’, a project led by Junction Arts and only made possible thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. ‘Our Place’ will showcase the people and places of the East Midlands through the arts.

Location: Some travel across the East Midlands may be required
Duration of freelance contract: June – October 2021
Fee: £2,500 (including VAT and expenses)
Application deadline: 10am Tuesday 8th June
Interviews over Zoom: Tuesday 15th June TBC

Project Outline:

Junction Arts and six other arts organisations from the East Midlands are embarking on an ambitious, regional project called Our Place.

Our Place will commission 7 artist residencies in 7 communities across the region to co-create new work that is representative of place. This new work will be filmed by a commissioned filmmaker in a showcase feature of between 3-10 mins duration per community/residency and edited together for a final web broadcast of between 45-60 minutes long. The broadcast will be curated to showcase a diversity of artforms, content and communities that make up our diverse East Midlands, featuring each of the 7 individual pieces linked together by the theme ‘this is our place’. The new work will be premiered online on Thursday 26th August as well as through a series of celebration events delivered by partner organisations over summer 2021.

Background/context:

The project is inspired by ‘Our World’, the first live, global TV broadcast in June 1967 that connected five continents by satellite. The broadcast was conceived by the BBC and invited international artists to perform and represent their respective countries, culminating in a 2-and-a-half-hour celebratory broadcast involving 19 nations. Today, Our World is most famous for the segment from the UK, starring the Beatles who were asked to write an uplifting song to close the broadcast. The Beatles performed ‘All You Need is Love’ for the first time; an incredible response to the anti-war movement and ‘Summer of Love’.

Brief:

Junction Arts are looking for an experienced evaluator to support us and our six partners to undertake an evaluation of the creative engagement process and the final showcase broadcast. We want to understand the impact of a regional project like Our Place, and capture lessons to inform the development of the project in the future.

We are particularly interested in qualitative research that evidences the impact this project has had on participants and project partners. We want to find out the positive impacts this project has had, for example, in terms of participant wellbeing, skills development, community cohesion etc, and any other benefits you identify.

Junction Arts works in an area where people’s involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average. We aim for participants of Our Place to have a quality experience and the opportunity to work with an artist first hand, giving people a creative voice and a vehicle to celebrate themselves and their community. In areas where there is little opportunity to access the arts, this can be life changing, it can increase confidence, improve wellbeing and broaden horizons.

The purposes of the Evaluation Report are to identify the outcomes from each of the creative residencies with our respective communities and the impacts of the final Our Place broadcast on participants, audiences, artists and partners.

Evaluation of the creative engagement process (June-August 2021):

• To capture outcomes and impacts (as mentioned above) from each partner organisation and their participant group
• To consider the quality of experience of participants, artists, arts professionals, partners during the residency
• To evaluate to what extent each arts organisation’s approaches to engagement were successful and what were the lessons learned
• To make recommendations, including some shared priorities and objectives, which may inform future development of Our Place and the work of the partnership

Evaluation of the final Our Place broadcast (Aug-Oct 2021):

• To capture outcomes and impacts from the final broadcast on Thursday 26th August, including live feedback
• To consider the quality of experience for participants and audiences
• To evaluate to what extent the showcase and accessibility channels were successful and what were the lessons learned
• To make recommendations and conclusions, including some shared priorities and objectives, which may inform future development of Our Place and the work of the partnership. Did the broadcast achieve the initial aim to showcase the unique creativity of the East Midlands using a diversity of artforms?

The Evaluator will be supported by the Project Coordinator who will monitor the progress of the project throughout and report back to key stakeholders and funders. As part of the evaluation of the project, the filmmaker will be creating a short documentary film which will capture ‘the making of Our Place’ with each of the partners/artists/communities for wider dissemination and aspired development of Our Place beyond this first phase. Effective and continual communication with the project steering group (partners) and filmmaker is important.

The Evaluator will:

• Work with Junction Arts and the seven commissioned artists to devise a methodology and timeframe to evaluate the Our Place engagement process and broadcast, ensuring all required information from project partners is gathered and collected appropriately
• Liaise with and support each of the seven arts organisations across the East Midlands (see partner list below) and their community groups to collect quantitative and qualitative data from project participants, artists, arts professionals and audiences
• To support the filmmaker with the ‘making of Our Place’ documentary in terms of capturing key project ‘golden’ moments for possible case studies
• To support the Project Coordinator with information for interim and final reports for funders
• To produce a draft and final evaluation report for wide dissemination, regionally, nationally and internationally including via the project steering group, Arts Derbyshire, EMPAF network and to project stakeholders and funders
• Show commitment to diversity and inclusion
• Be willing to be interviewed/filmed as part of Junction Arts’ ‘In Conversation with’ programme and/or the ‘making of Our Place’ documentary film
• Give regular feedback and updates to the project coordinator
• Contribute to the project marketing, promotion and evaluation as agreed
• Attend project steering group meetings, if and when required, including the debrief evaluation session on Wednesday 15th September
• Be willing to travel across the East Midlands and work in a covidsecure way (Government guidelines permitting)

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. Please note that the successful applicant may require a DBS background check and to adhere to Junction Arts’ safeguarding policies and procedures.

Partner Arts organisations:

• Lead – Junction Arts – North Derbyshire
• People Express – South Derbyshire
• Surtal Arts – Derby
• The National Centre for Craft & Design – Sleaford
• Soft Touch Arts – Leicester
• High Peak Community Arts – High Peak
• City Arts – Nottingham

Project Timeline Overview:

• June-July: Artist Residencies with communities, Project Steering group meeting, Filming of documentary & all showcase pieces to be filmed no later than 13th August, Interim report to stakeholders/funders (evaluator to support)
• August: Final production/editing of showcase film, Promotion of broadcast, Project steering group meeting
• 26th Aug: Broadcast of ‘Our Place’ film, time TBC
• Aug-Sept: Editing of secondary ‘making of Our Place’ documentary film
• 15th Sept: Debrief/evaluation session with project partners
• Sept-Oct: Evaluation and documentary film disseminated to wider sector

Project end date: 29/10/21

The Evaluation Report will comprise:

• An executive summary of the project’s key findings, outcomes, impacts and recommendations
• A brief description of the project and aims of the evaluation
• A description of the evaluation methodology used during the creative engagement process and how it worked with the production of the ‘making of Our Place’ documentary
• A detailed analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data the Evaluator has collected including testimonials and case studies
• A record of ‘live feedback’ gathered from participants and audiences from the live broadcast
• Conclusion and recommendations

Fees and Expenses:

A fee of £2,500 to include VAT (if applicable) and expenses is available for this work. The Evaluator will be responsible for their own Tax and NI contributions.

Application Process:

Please submit the following documents by email to Junction Arts: info@junctionarts.org

• A CV with details of two referees
• A covering letter stating your interest, a proposal for how you will approach this work and how your experience/previous work will equip you to undertake the work (maximum 2 x A4 side)
• Example/s of previous evaluation reports (either an online link to openly available reports or via email)
• A budget breakdown detailing how you’d attribute your time towards the evaluation
• Enhanced DBS Check or willingness to get one
• Copy of Public Liability insurance or willingness to get one

Person Specification (Essential)

• Proven track record of successfully devising and delivering evaluation reports for arts organisations and a range of stakeholders or other relevant settings
• Demonstrable competence in handling both quantitative and qualitative research
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills and ability to facilitate evaluative discussions
• Knowledge and experience of participatory arts practice including understanding of the local, regional and national arts sector
• Flexibility to travel across the East Midlands
• Commitment to ensuring that issues of diversity are identified and addressed in the course of the evaluation process

The deadline for applications is 10am Tuesday 8th June 2021. Please note that we will not consider late submissions. We expect to notify shortlisted applicants by 10th June with an interview day of Tuesday 15th June, TBC.

If you’ve got any questions, please contact amy@junctionarts.org. Please note that it may take a couple of days to get back to you.

Background of Junction Arts:

Junction Arts are one of the longest established participatory arts organisations in the country and our vision is to create a better future for everyone through the arts. Established in 1976 we have been at the forefront of participatory arts activity for over 40 years. We believe passionately in the positive impact that arts can have on people and places, especially during COVID restrictions where we have seen the arts used as a form of coping, resilience and vital mental wellbeing.