Just now I'm working as...
Researcher & Writer: St Philip's Church - Heritage Open Days
St Philip's Church, illustrated page from the 1896 fundraiser programme brochure.
St Philip's is an iconic Salford church close to Manchester centre in the busy urban setting of Chapel Street. For nearly 200 years the church has reached out to help and improve its neighbourhood, and now wants to share that history in the 2018 Heritage Open Day celebrations. I'm delighted to be researching the building and its role in Salford, to write a booklet commemorating some of the more and less well known twists and turns of its life from the early 1800s. While I scour hundreds of pages of ancient parish magazines, photographs and biographies; my colleague, archivist Heather Roberts, is recording oral histories of locals watching changes come and go over the past 80 or so years, so that our history will be a personal, human account as much as an architectural and social record.
Evaluation Mentor: Gallery Oldham, Artist Rooms
Richard Long, Cornish Slate Ellipse 2009.
Tate / National Galleries of Scotland. © Richard Long
Gallery Oldham are hosting artworks by Richard Long, as part of the Artist Rooms project created by National Galleries of Scotland & Tate. The team are running a four day residential for young people, combining time in the gallery with three days in a rural outdoor centre, where they will explore their natural surroundings to make artworks in response to Richard Long's work. The co-ordinator wanted guidance developing a meaningful evaluation approach, beyond box-ticking and more appropriate for the tone of the project. The Artist Rooms standard monitoring form, and criteria of Arts Award Explore certification also needed to be included in the approach. The work involved clarifying the aims and objectives of the residential, creating a suitable framework with practical evaluation tools and approaches; and help organising, analysing and summarising the data and findings from the project.
Evaluation Strategy Advisor: Venture Arts
Line drawing by Robert Dixon,
learning disabled artist based at Venture Arts.
Venture Arts help level the playing field of the professional visual arts sector by supporting the development and positioning of learning disabled artists as equals in high profile galleries, museums and art fairs. With a long history of projects behind them, each with a separate approach to evaluation, they now want to consolidate by establishing an ongoing, internally run evaluation framework to track and investigate the power of their work in the long term; including their new status as n Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. This involves creating a framework to explore the delivery of their business plan and covers social, cultural, economic and environmental outcomes locally, regionally, nationally, and eventually internationally. Crucially, the approach needs to work for the tutors, volunteers, staff members, project partners and of course the artists themselves - learning disabled and otherwise. The work covers everything from recommendations around networks and software; to identifying appropriate and meaningful qualitative approaches suitable for learning disabled artists to express what matters and is meaningful for them, including non-verbal methods.
Evaluation Consultant: New North and South
New North and South is a new network of eleven arts organisations from across the North of England and South Asia working together for a three year programme of co-commissions, exhibitions and intellectual exchange to celebrate shared heritage across continents and develop artistic talent. The network consists of Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum, Museum of Science and Industry Manchester, Liverpool Biennial, The Tetley in Leeds and Colombo Biennale (Sri Lanka), Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Karachi and Lahore Biennales (Pakistan), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India) and the British Council. As evaluation consultant I'll be working with the project's director, audiences researcher, curators and artists to find out what the impact of the network and it's development is on each of the organisations, and the arts and curatorial practice of those involved. I'll also be looking at how the programme builds relationships with local audiences, and how effective the programme has been in establishing long lasting relationships with local South Asian populations and partners.
Image: Neha Choksi Untitled, 2017 (production still) Courtesy the artist and Project 88
Image: Neha Choksi Untitled, 2017 (production still) Courtesy the artist and Project 88
Association of Independent Museums Organisational Change Enabler & Heritage Lottery Fund Resilient Heritage Mentor
As an AIM trained Museums Enabler, and Heritage Lottery Fund appointed mentor / consultant for resilient heritage development and for engagement; I help heritage organisations look at their organisation and how to take it forward into a new political, economic and public landscape. This happens by challenging, advising, facilitating and supporting senior leadership and governance groups in thinking differently and improving their vision, structures and approaches to be more ready for a new climate. This might mean for example, reshaping governance structures or procedures; recruiting and managing specialist consultants or other providers; exploring new income generation potential; changing business models; and being up to date with legislative requirements. This builds on previous work as a social impact evaluator, coach, mentor, critical friend, charity trustee, fundraiser, Arts Council Resilient Museum Consultant; as well as 20+ years working in heritage and other sectors using mixed-economy models.