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When Blue Cabin partnered with tialt // there is an alternative to develop a new way of measuring our impact, we wanted to make sure that people across the entire organisation were involved – including our team of associate artists. Associate artist Carol Bowden gives an insight into the process.
I have been an Associate Artist with Blue Cabin for over a year now and work specifically on the This Is The Place project. This Is The Place is an early years music-making project to support relationships and attachment. Myself and Katie Doherty deliver music-making sessions to babies and very young children, and their foster carers. Working with Darlington Borough Council and Redcar & Cleveland Council with funding from Youth Music and Creative Darlington, there are many stakeholders who rely on Blue Cabin’s evaluation to understand the impact of the project.
Like many other artists who work freelance across a number of projects, the words feedback and evaluation tends to raise a bit of tension and an audible groan. As reflective practitioners, our work is a responsive and reactive process that happens “in the moment” or in the flow of a session, during delivery, instinctual and taking up a lot of thought and energy during facilitation. To put these thoughts down on paper/online files/evaluation applications, is a slower process and takes time, of which we often have very little, and pulls us away from creativity!
As reflective practitioners, we wholeheartedly understand why it is so necessary to share our thoughts and observations with others, however, as creatives, it can be difficult to gather evidence and share this in an often-times uncreative way.
We have seen evaluation processes that have been devised by someone in an organisation who has never visited the project being evaluated, who may not understand the demographic fully who we are working with, and who may not even be a creative practitioner. It can feel cold and dispassionate and, if you are a creative, you will know that the people and our passion is the root of our work!
This is where tialt – There Is An Alternative – comes in. Dougie from tialt took us through the Blue Cabin impact framework, and this was followed by a day of reflection, conversation, good food and plenty of refreshments. Artists and musicians gathered around the table to share their knowledge, expertise and experience, and to reflect on ways we have or could gather evaluation. We talked about our practice and our participants, with lots of laughter, inspiration, heartfelt anecdotes and, at times, tears. We’re a passionate lot!
Being in the company of such wonderful creatives, and feeling very looked after by Jenny and Dawn from Blue Cabin, I was disappointed that I couldn’t stay for the whole day.
Whether you are the creative or the participant, there is usually the sense that evaluation is being “done to you”, in that the organisations that you work for will send you questions to answer, in the hope that they will support further applications for funding. It is often dry and impersonal and with no input from the facilitator of the sessions in how best to engage participants in the process.
It is very rare that you have the luxury of contributing to the evaluation process in a more active role and this is where working with Blue Cabin is a joy. They value the expertise of their freelance creatives and know that our knowledge of our participants and our passion can contribute to the process and add immeasurable value and to the whole experience for everyone.
Evaluation also has to change. There are so many variables across projects that respond to the changing characteristics of a project, such as time, place, venue, people in the space, ages and abilities, and activities taking place. Projects are fundamentally about relationships and like a healthy relationship, to prevent becoming stagnant, projects develop and grow. Evaluation has to become passionate and change with the relationship and Blue Cabin understands this.
We are all stakeholders in this relationship and we all can bring our passion and creativity to evaluation.
Thank you Carol for sharing this insight into our Associate Artists’ involvement in measuring the impact of Blue Cabin’s work.
