Outreach to Ownership: A community-led research pilot investigating inclusive approaches to community engagement across culture sectors
Lead Research Organisation:
Historic Bldgs & Mnts Commis for England
Department Name: Engagement Group
Abstract
**Subject to revisions pending further discussions on structure and delivery with AHRC, advisory board and partners**
'Outreach to Ownership' is a cross-border hub and spokes research pilot delivered by Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland that will support a range of smaller culture sector partner organisations and their communities to explore a broad spectrum of inclusive approaches to community engagement across the sector in Scotland and England.
The hub and spokes model is an innovative partnership structure, with a small team at Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland playing a management and advocacy role as the hub, with smaller spoke organisations leading the inclusive engagement research, piloting and testing methodologies for a scaled-up all UK nations programme in 2022/23.
Community empowerment, whether through 'levelling up' initiatives in England, or community wealth commitments in Scotland, has become a key focus for UK and devolved governments in recent years. Such policies increasingly ask communities to shape, participate in, and even take responsibility for the design and delivery of cultural services and ownership of cultural assets such as museums, libraries, galleries and historic buildings, for example. This pilot will empower communities to interrogate the full extent of these trends across the culture sector, and to advocate for the contribution that an inclusive community-engaged culture sector can make to local socio-economic development and national policy.
This innovative pilot will produce new data and strategic insight that will help to identify where mutual aid models and research partnerships built around inclusive community engagement can be brokered across culture sectors, identifying advocating for the unique offer and leadership that local communities can bring to culture sector partners, such as the critical role of volunteers in delivering impact, inclusion and covid recovery across culture sectors. The pilot will evaluate and analyse the social and economic impacts of inclusive cultural engagement, identifying where best practice leads to increases in visitor numbers, improved wellbeing and social cohesion for local communities; business and skills growth. Critical failure points are also in scope: where community engagement fails or poses risk to cultural assets and services.
Spokes organisations will develop research topics in co-creative workshops. These might include: developing and sustaining community partnerships (E.G. with third sector organisations); co-commissioning of creative or historic interpretation work;
community engagement in digital-only contexts; inclusive engagement in rural and isolated places; co-design of exhibitions, events and outreach programmes; community-led research (archival, object-based, visual, oral historical, or ethnographic); community leadership and/or ownership of assets.
'Outreach to Ownership' is a cross-border hub and spokes research pilot delivered by Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland that will support a range of smaller culture sector partner organisations and their communities to explore a broad spectrum of inclusive approaches to community engagement across the sector in Scotland and England.
The hub and spokes model is an innovative partnership structure, with a small team at Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland playing a management and advocacy role as the hub, with smaller spoke organisations leading the inclusive engagement research, piloting and testing methodologies for a scaled-up all UK nations programme in 2022/23.
Community empowerment, whether through 'levelling up' initiatives in England, or community wealth commitments in Scotland, has become a key focus for UK and devolved governments in recent years. Such policies increasingly ask communities to shape, participate in, and even take responsibility for the design and delivery of cultural services and ownership of cultural assets such as museums, libraries, galleries and historic buildings, for example. This pilot will empower communities to interrogate the full extent of these trends across the culture sector, and to advocate for the contribution that an inclusive community-engaged culture sector can make to local socio-economic development and national policy.
This innovative pilot will produce new data and strategic insight that will help to identify where mutual aid models and research partnerships built around inclusive community engagement can be brokered across culture sectors, identifying advocating for the unique offer and leadership that local communities can bring to culture sector partners, such as the critical role of volunteers in delivering impact, inclusion and covid recovery across culture sectors. The pilot will evaluate and analyse the social and economic impacts of inclusive cultural engagement, identifying where best practice leads to increases in visitor numbers, improved wellbeing and social cohesion for local communities; business and skills growth. Critical failure points are also in scope: where community engagement fails or poses risk to cultural assets and services.
Spokes organisations will develop research topics in co-creative workshops. These might include: developing and sustaining community partnerships (E.G. with third sector organisations); co-commissioning of creative or historic interpretation work;
community engagement in digital-only contexts; inclusive engagement in rural and isolated places; co-design of exhibitions, events and outreach programmes; community-led research (archival, object-based, visual, oral historical, or ethnographic); community leadership and/or ownership of assets.