Qualitative Evaluation of the Super Slow Way Programme Interim report 2015-2016

Abstract

This is an interim report based on the first year of the Super Slow Way programme. It presents early findings from a qualitative evaluation and in this way responds to the idea that Creative People and Places is an action research project, which calls for learning to be fed in iteratively throughout the project. The basis of our evaluation has been a series of case studies of commissioned projects, interviews with key stakeholders and Super Slow Way staff. We have used ethnographic (observational) data and a new group based method for assessing audience experience called the visual matrix.

The report falls into three parts:

1. The background, challenges and, in summary form, the achievements of the programme during its first year. This part draws on case studies and vignettes presented in part 2 and to a degree on cases that are not yet complete (and therefore not included as case studies at this stage) because the impacts of these projects are still emerging and will need to be followed up. The section concludes with the summary outcomes of year 1.

2. The completed case studies that we can present at this stage. Further case studies for year 2 will be added to year 1 case studies and distributed as separate documents during the course of the year. However, there is sufficient critical mass here to establish a solid basis for our discussions in part 1 and part 3.

3. Part 3 is a contribution to thinking about how best to support artists and programme staff in this new and challenging area of socially engaged practice. It identifies the benefits and drawbacks of four different models that Super Slow Way has used and it offers some provisional recommendations that might help to offset some of the pressures on staff and artists.

Part 3 also presents a write up of a visual matrix held on an awayday for artists in the summer of 2016. This helps to illuminate some of the imaginative and emotional difficulties some of the artists faced in working on the programme.