Beyond exchange: raising the value, increasing flow and ensuring socio-economic impact of arts & cultural resources in peripheral territories (Brazil)

Lead Research Organisation: Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Drama

Abstract

International cultural exchange combined with collaborative knowledge creation increases the ability of arts organisations to develop social capital and "engaged citizenship", delivering multiple socio-economic benefits for low-income territories. Previous research undertaken through the AHRC-funded project THE ART OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE: 2014-2016 [AH/M003612/1] produced research showing how knowledge mobilization between artists and arts companies in UK and Brazil produced dynamic and innovative benefits linked to human and social development. This new proposal will shift the axis of exchange, moving from between Brazil and the UK to across Brazilian arts and cultural organisations focused on delivering significant economic, social, cultural, welfare in low-income territories of extreme vulnerability. British and Brazilian researchers will collaborate with civil society arts organisations based in socially vulnerable territories in Brazil to develop resources, training activities and knowledge-mobilization activities for hyper-local cultural institutions in the creative economy of Rio de Janeiro's peripheral communities to strengthen and measure their impact towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with particular emphasis on: SDG1 (no poverty), SDG8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and SDG17 (partnerships for the goals). Drawing from the original research and by continuing on the pathways to impact that have followed, a collaborative British and Brazilian team will set up a and run a Cultural Exchange Hub for the Creative Economy in the favela-complex of Maré, and support a shared learning programme to train 60 arts leaders and managers working in the creative economy on innovative social technologies and methodologies that measure their socio-economic impact. The aim of the project is to draw from AHRC-funded research to strengthen the capacity of local arts organisations and create an engaged network across the city of Rio de Janeiro that builds alliances with key stakeholders responsible for policy-level decisions that can sustain development-focused creative economy initiatives.

This Follow-on Funded project will take forward the innovations in creative practices advanced through research on UK-Brazil exchanges THE ART OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE. The hub and training programme will enable local producers, consumers and makers of policy in the cultural sector to construct new narratives of evaluation, facilitating civil society organisations based in vulnerable territories to enhance their work towards social and human development goals and to contribute to wider debates about how the arts create safer, healthier, wealthier and more equitable communities. The project has been co-created with two cultural organisations based in territories subject to high indices of lethal violence and low indices of socio-economic development in Rio de Janeiro. Redes da Maré [Maré Networks] and Agencia de Redes para a Juventude [the Agency for Youth Networks] will ensure that learning from the original research is put into practice by organisations using arts initiatives to achieve sustainable progress in multiple dimensions of human development across over 30 peripheral communities. The project has been designed to engage policymakers from government and non-governmental agencies in the co-creation of the evaluation indicators to ensure that the new evidence and data that is produced by the hub and training programme informs and shapes the creation of cultural policy that focuses on social and human development.

This Follow-On project will mobilise knowledge, extend the impact of research and build a mutually sustaining network of cultural practitioners and policymakers that strengthens the capacity of arts organisation to address human and social development issues and demonstrate progress towards the UN SDGs.

Planned Impact

Knowledge, skills and understanding from AHRC-funded research about cultural exchange and the creative economy will be mobilized within territories affected by low indices of socio-economic development in Brazil. The project will lead to a coherent, transparent and evidence-based evaluation of cultural resources and their role in addressing key social and human development goals. Local arts organisations based in vulnerable urban territories in Rio de Janeiro will be trained in a learn-by-doing methodology to build their capacity to deliver cultural initiatives that reduce inequalities and contribute to social and human development in vulnerable territories subject to multiple stress factors. Coproduction and simultaneous generation of impact and knowledge exchange between arts organisations facing similar development challenges is central to the aim and design of the proposed project ensuring that its outcomes are built through the way in which the project - and its network of relations - is structured. Impact will be enhanced through local knowledge sharing (and co-creation) to produce reliable data and evidence both to improve practices and also to inform policy making within government and non-government. The project will coincide with the start of new terms of government at State and Federal levels, which creates the ideal environment for the project to build meaningful relationships over the new term of government. The project framework sets up opportunities for participating organisations on the programme to engage directly with the incoming administrations and impact on the construction of new policies (facilitated by HERITAGE, VALIATI, SILVA and FAUSTINI).

The proposed activities will produce outcomes of significant value for non-academic beneficiaries in Brazil, ranging from civil society organisations based in vulnerable territories to policy makers from government (Federal/State/Municipal) and NGO/INGOs working in the development field. Impact outputs and outcomes include: the establishment of a knowledge-mobilization creative economy hub with a focus on arts-based initiatives for social and human development in vulnerable territories; creation of training and evaluation materials and the know-how to share and develop these tools in contexts of extreme social vulnerability; new data to create evidence-based policy; strengthening of international exchange networks between UK and Brazilian cultural institutions from hyper-local civil society organisations through to government ministries and International Development Agencies. Embedded dialogue with policymakers and ongoing evaluation of the project itself will ensure that the cultural initiatives produced by organisations based in socially vulnerable territories not only impact more effectively on the UN SDGs (particularly 1, 8, 16 and 17) but also contribute to a growing body of evidence that impacts on the creation of future projects and programmes. The process of creating a network in which local arts and cultural organisations become co-protagonists in the production of new data will inform further research and development about hard-to-reach territories suffering from high rates of violence, poverty, social exclusion and inequality, benefitting academics and practitioners seeking to establish key indicators that can be the base for standardisation of data production, consolidating the impact on policy produced by government and international development agencies. The strength of the academic and non-academic partnerships established during the original research on THE ART OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE will ensure that impact of this proposed new project continues to impact through dialogues between Brazil, the UK and beyond.
 
Description 1. The work funded through this award has built the capacity of 40 young cultural entrepreneurs based in peripheral and vulnerable territories in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to measure the socio-economic benefits of their arts work. The project revealed that it is possible for young people with no formal training in social science methodologies to devise economic indicators and apply recognized research tools that will calibrate the social and human impact of arts and cultural projects in relation to the specific territories where they operate. The process has enabled over 30 arts organizations working in vulnerable territories to produce coherent and comparable data about what their projects achieve, resulting in the application of over 1000 quantitative questionnaires with residents from Rio de Janeiro's least most vulnerable and socially excluded communities.

2. The research has produced unique evidence of engagement in arts practices by a population that is usually outside of any standard measurements of cultural engagement. It has incentivized knowledge mobilization by establishing four hubs/incubators of social innovation to promote training in evaluation of the creative economy and cultural micro- industries at strategic points of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Each of the hubs was located far away from the traditional sites of recognized cultural production.

3. The funding provided by UKRI has supported research that has built the resilience of community-based cultural organizations through the production and analysis of data about the impact of micro-cultural industries in territories subject to high indices of lethal violence and low indices of socio-economic development in Rio de Janeiro.

4. The research has created a process that enables socially and economically disadvantaged young people to inform decision-making that directly affects their territories. It will improve public understanding of cultural strategies for human and social development and facilitate co-creation of policy in the final public seminar hosted by the State Secretary of Culture and Creative Industries in April 2020. The young creative entrepreneurs who have been the research subjects will be responsible for disseminating knowledge produced by original research.

This research has enhanced the agency of young creative entrepreneurs from vulnerable territories in Rio de Janeiro to measure the effectiveness of the interventions they seek to make through their arts practices. By strengthening the role of local arts and cultural organizations through facilitating territorially-based knowledge exchange/creation, the research has delivered sustainable outcomes of significant value for the non-academic partners which include: the establishment of four creative economy hubs of knowledge-mobilization with a focus on arts-based initiatives for social and human development in vulnerable territories; the creation of training and evaluation materials and the know-how to share and develop these tools in contexts of extreme social vulnerability; new data to create evidence-based policy.
Exploitation Route The sustainability of the project has been enhanced by the partnership with two highly experienced community-based organisations which have long-term commitments in these territories. The research team has worked directly with policy makers (government/non-government) to examine ways of creating a bridge between the young people producing the evidence and the funders and policy makers they seek to influence. The final report from the project was published on the Cultural Value website: https://culturalvalue.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PPP_relatorio-beyond-exchange_INGLES_prop1_1401_rev.pdf
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Creative Economy

Education

Environment

Healthcare

Leisure Activities

including Sports

Recreation and Tourism

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://culturalvalue.org/dashboard/#/relative-values-ii
 
Description This research has mobilized knowledge generated by a unique research partnership between British and Brazilian academics in collaboration with arts organizations based in territories subject to some of the highest indices of lethal violence and lowest indices of socio-economic development in Brazil. It has been achieved by establishing an innovative partnership with Redes da Maré/Maré Development Networks and the Agência de Redes para a Juventude/Agency for Youth Networks - two civil society organizations based in Rio de Janeiro. The main focus of these two organizations is on delivering significant economic, social, cultural and welfare impacts in socially vulnerable territories as well as stimulating and contributing actively to social and cultural policy debates. The direct beneficiaries of this research has included not only Redes da Maré and the Agência de Redes para a Juventude, but 40 individual cultural producers representing 30 arts and cultural organisations working with populations that live beyond the provision of basic and equal rights to education, health, social welfare, housing and public security. HERITAGE (PI) and VALIATI (Co-I) have worked closely with these two organizations to develop and disseminate learning that will build the evidence base about how creative economic initiatives based in vulnerable territories have the potential to deliver significant economic, social, cultural impacts, and contribute to the shaping of more effective development and welfare policies that contribute to Brazil's progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and Agenda 2030 - with particular emphasis on: SDG1 (no poverty), SDG8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and SDG17 (partnerships for the goals). The final report presents an analysis of a questionnaire applied to over 1,000 residents from Rio's most vulnerable communities, providing coherent data about the social development impact of micro-creative economy initiatives. It is published on new website culturalvalue.org here: https://culturalvalue.org/our-stories/our-practice/ The research provides unprecedented insights into the creative networks that sustain cultural activities in these territories as well as the ways in which access is blocked to wider distribution networks essential to economic growth. Through a range of indicators, the research provides new insights into the perception and viability of artistic work as a profession, the extent to which cultural democracy has been established in Rio de Janeiro, the social value of the cultural resources in peripheral territories and the extent of cultural engagement that is generated by locally produced initiatives. For policy makers and funders, the research provides detailed data about infrastructure, new businesses, renovation of public spaces, creation of new sites of community socialization, and quantifiable improvements in health and public security that result from community and individual engagement in arts and cultural activities. The research also demonstrates the capacity of social agency that is stimulated through arts activities in Rio de Janeiro's most vulnerable territories, through measuring individual reflectivity, the expansion of social capital, social mobilization and an expansion of personal perspective. By using research tools that HERITAGE and VALIATI have been developing with a range of more established organizations in the UK and Brazil, the datasets produced by the young creative entrepreneurs on this programme will inform and shape policy debates beyond the immediate context of these vulnerable territories in Rio de Janeiro.
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy,Other
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Economic

Policy & public services

 
Description Build Back Better: a participatory approach to mapping, measuring and mobilising cultural heritage in Brazil's Iron Quadrangle
Amount £209,435 (GBP)
Funding ID AH/V006355/1 
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2020 
End 11/2022
 
Description Counting Culture: What Do We Need to Know About How the Creative Industries Can Deliver Equitable, Just and Sustainable Development in Brazil and the UK? (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Queen Mary University of London).
Amount £67,704 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2018 
End 06/2021
 
Description National Portfolio 2023-26
Amount £403,728 (GBP)
Organisation Arts Council England 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2023 
End 03/2026
 
Description The Agency project: commission to conduct a Community-Based Research (CBR) project: Building Capacity and Leadership among Young People in South London and North Manchester
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Organisation National Lottery 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2021 
End 09/2022
 
Title Forty bespoke questionnaires 
Description Each of the forty research participants developed a bespoke questionnaire about the socio-economic impacts of their own practice, collected field data using this questionnaire and is in the final stages of analysis prior to presentation of the results. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The questionnaires and methodology have increased the participants' ability to recognise, measure and narrate the socio-economic impact and value of their cultural practice. 
 
Title Datasets for Beyond Exchange 
Description 40 young people making cultural work in 19 different communities in Rio de Janeiro have compiled datasets addressing: - the relationships between violence and access to arts & culture; - the sense of safety that could be communicated to participants by a cultural project; - how arts projects could affect the local economy; - how arts projects could affect participants' self-esteem and perceptions of their surroundings; - how arts projects could generate social and cultural networks; - how participation in arts projects affected people's impressions of their local territory and their political and social views; - the reach of each project in terms of equality and diversity. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Research participants fed back that the information collected enabled them to a) respond to the data they had collected in the design of future phases of their project, b) confidently design future research for themselves to support funding cases for their project. 
 
Description Collaboration between Eliana Sousa Silva/Instituto Maria e Joao Aleixo and The Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) 
Organisation Coventry University
Department Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Through the research relationships built during The Art of Cultural Exchange, Paul Heritage was able to support and broker the entry of a new Brazil research partner to the MIDEQ Migration for Development and Equality research partnership (South-South Migration Corridor: Haiti-Brazil). Paul Heritage and PPPdoBrasil will continue to support IMJA's participation in the research and exchange with international partners throughout the course of the project.
Collaborator Contribution IMJA will conduct 3.5 years of research including large scale fieldwork to contribute comparator studies in Brazil as part of this large international study.
Impact Accession agreement. Multi-disciplinary collaboration: - Migration studies - Social science/Human Geography - Practice-based arts research.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration between Eliana Sousa Silva/Instituto Maria e Joao Aleixo and The Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) 
Organisation Institute Maria and João Aleixo
Country Brazil 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Through the research relationships built during The Art of Cultural Exchange, Paul Heritage was able to support and broker the entry of a new Brazil research partner to the MIDEQ Migration for Development and Equality research partnership (South-South Migration Corridor: Haiti-Brazil). Paul Heritage and PPPdoBrasil will continue to support IMJA's participation in the research and exchange with international partners throughout the course of the project.
Collaborator Contribution IMJA will conduct 3.5 years of research including large scale fieldwork to contribute comparator studies in Brazil as part of this large international study.
Impact Accession agreement. Multi-disciplinary collaboration: - Migration studies - Social science/Human Geography - Practice-based arts research.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration between Eliana Sousa Silva/Instituto Maria e Joao Aleixo and The Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) 
Organisation The Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development
Country Haiti 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Through the research relationships built during The Art of Cultural Exchange, Paul Heritage was able to support and broker the entry of a new Brazil research partner to the MIDEQ Migration for Development and Equality research partnership (South-South Migration Corridor: Haiti-Brazil). Paul Heritage and PPPdoBrasil will continue to support IMJA's participation in the research and exchange with international partners throughout the course of the project.
Collaborator Contribution IMJA will conduct 3.5 years of research including large scale fieldwork to contribute comparator studies in Brazil as part of this large international study.
Impact Accession agreement. Multi-disciplinary collaboration: - Migration studies - Social science/Human Geography - Practice-based arts research.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaborative research partnership 
Organisation Agency for Youth Networks
Country Brazil 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The research team has organised the training programme and provided training in tools and methodologies to enable the 40 young cultural producers recruited to develop bespoke tools to evaluate the socio-economic impact of their own work in peripheral territories of Rio de Janeiro.
Collaborator Contribution The partners have recruited participants for the research and provided coordination and supervision for their individual fieldwork programmes. Redes da Mare has in addition provided a venue for research team meetings and workshops.
Impact 40 young cultural producers have each developed and applied a new research tool - a bespoke questionnaire to collect data about the impacts of their own practice.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaborative research partnership 
Organisation Maré Networks
Country Brazil 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The research team has organised the training programme and provided training in tools and methodologies to enable the 40 young cultural producers recruited to develop bespoke tools to evaluate the socio-economic impact of their own work in peripheral territories of Rio de Janeiro.
Collaborator Contribution The partners have recruited participants for the research and provided coordination and supervision for their individual fieldwork programmes. Redes da Mare has in addition provided a venue for research team meetings and workshops.
Impact 40 young cultural producers have each developed and applied a new research tool - a bespoke questionnaire to collect data about the impacts of their own practice.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 
Organisation Institute of Contemporary Arts
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Host organisation for ECHOES Indigenous Film festival
Collaborator Contribution Hosting event
Impact - Festival brought attention to issues around the future of Indigenous peoples, their experiences, from ongoing struggles for land rights to the impact of the climate emergency on Indigenous cultural heritage, and what their arts represents to an international audience.
Start Year 2023
 
Description 05/06/2019 - Lecture "Relative Values: Evidências em Políticas Públicas de Arte e Cultura" at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre/Brazil) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Paul Heritage and Leandro Valiati gave a talk about the "Relative Values" research programme followed by a discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Data analysis training 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact 20 October 2019 - HERITAGE/Valiati led 2nd follow-up training meeting, to review fieldwork data collected by the 40 research collaborators and to train participants for data analysis
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description First follow-up training 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact 14 and 15 September 2019 - HERITAGE/Valiati led first follow-up meeting with research participants to organise their questionnaires and data collection processes prior to the 40 participants undertaking their field research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description First partnership meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact 22 February 2019: Paul Heritage (PI) and Leandro Valiati (Co-I) led a first meeting with "Beyond Exchange" partner organisations Agência de Redes para a Juventude and Redes da Maré. The research plan was discussed, priorities set and engagement and recruitment plans agreed for recruiting participants in the research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description First training 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact 18 to 21 July 2019 - HERITAGE/Valiati led residential training immersion at Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) with 40 cultural agents selected for the programme, based in favelas and other peripheral communities from Rio de Janeiro
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Talk with Indigenous filmmakers at the ICA 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Screening of 18 short filmes + Q&A sessions with Indigenous curators/filmmakers
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Workshop to share preliminary results 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact 24 November 2019 - HERITAGE/Valiati led final follow-up meeting with the 40 research collaborators to share preliminary results and define strategies for data analysis in preparation for a final seminar to be held in 2020. The feedback from the 40 participants, mainly young cultural producers who make their work in favelas or other peripheral areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro, was extremely positive, saying that the methodology for measuring the value of their work in socio-economic terms had raised their awareness of the contribution they make and increased their confidence in their own work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019