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

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.

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.