Performing Places: working with local councils to reach new communities and facilitate wellbeing in living environments
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Department Name: Faculty
Abstract
With its focus on expanding impact and engagement from a previous research grant, Performing Local Places will use arts practices to improve the living environments of two sets of people in two geographical areas of need in UK: Camden (London) and Oldham (Greater Manchester). Findings from these projects will be disseminated and publicised to all local authorities in the UK, promoting a new mode of service delivery for enhancing health and wellbeing in complex living environments .
Project participants will be within the oversight and services of local authorities and councils will be helping to broker the activity within their provider frameworks. The arts practices comprise a cultural product called 'Performing Place' which has been developed and tested in previous practical research projects with vulnerable groups affiliated with, and engaged via, arts organisations. Building on that project, in this new development we have consulted on priority areas within local councils who have identified a future need for such work. Two practical projects will be planned, one in Camden and one in Oldham, working between Arts leaders and other departments, Mental Health in Camden and Stronger Communities in Oldham. Both the planning and delivery period will include working with local council representatives, key workers and leading artist/facilitator practitioners with the new end users.
In Camden we will work in at least one Council-owned area of the Supported Living Programme, in buildings that house those with need of 'stepping stone' support to live more independently and whose cultural engagement may also be at the lower end of the spectrum within the Borough (which is an indicator of health and wellbeing). We will run 15 weekly sessions based in the residences, engaging adults with their current and potential 'place'.
In Oldham, we will work in the ward of Clarksfield with long-term residents and comparatively newly arrived Roma residents, assuaging disharmonies arising from different cultural understandings within the same local community. This work will follow a different model of Performing Place practice - a week's intensive engagement rather than weekly, workshops (as in Camden) - and will take place over a week in the summer of 2016.
In the planning and delivery of the projects, we will work with specialist lead facilitators following and adapting models used in the previous project, 'Challenging concepts of "liquid" place through performing practices in community contexts', 2011-2014 (Challenging Place). Such activities will include a range of improvisation and performance-related activities that are shaped from everyday operations and behaviours. None of the participants are likely to be performers but the activities are non-threatening, accessible and shaped to raise levels of cultural engagement where there may be existing barriers. This is an important part of Performing Place, that it can be accessed by participants without particular skill or experience in performance. (See http://www.performingplaces.org/placepracsitesotw.html for example.)
The impact and engagement of these two follow-on projects will be formally documented in line with local authority reporting and disseminated via simple web pages on the existing site, three symposia and a 32-page document (with executive summary). This document will be sent to the 400+ local authorities in the UK with the intention that such practice be promoted and assimilated for use in other priority areas. Two symposia will take place in London and Manchester with representatives from all nearby local authority councils invited, as well as nationally. A third symposium will take place for the 33 members of London Arts Forum.
Project participants will be within the oversight and services of local authorities and councils will be helping to broker the activity within their provider frameworks. The arts practices comprise a cultural product called 'Performing Place' which has been developed and tested in previous practical research projects with vulnerable groups affiliated with, and engaged via, arts organisations. Building on that project, in this new development we have consulted on priority areas within local councils who have identified a future need for such work. Two practical projects will be planned, one in Camden and one in Oldham, working between Arts leaders and other departments, Mental Health in Camden and Stronger Communities in Oldham. Both the planning and delivery period will include working with local council representatives, key workers and leading artist/facilitator practitioners with the new end users.
In Camden we will work in at least one Council-owned area of the Supported Living Programme, in buildings that house those with need of 'stepping stone' support to live more independently and whose cultural engagement may also be at the lower end of the spectrum within the Borough (which is an indicator of health and wellbeing). We will run 15 weekly sessions based in the residences, engaging adults with their current and potential 'place'.
In Oldham, we will work in the ward of Clarksfield with long-term residents and comparatively newly arrived Roma residents, assuaging disharmonies arising from different cultural understandings within the same local community. This work will follow a different model of Performing Place practice - a week's intensive engagement rather than weekly, workshops (as in Camden) - and will take place over a week in the summer of 2016.
In the planning and delivery of the projects, we will work with specialist lead facilitators following and adapting models used in the previous project, 'Challenging concepts of "liquid" place through performing practices in community contexts', 2011-2014 (Challenging Place). Such activities will include a range of improvisation and performance-related activities that are shaped from everyday operations and behaviours. None of the participants are likely to be performers but the activities are non-threatening, accessible and shaped to raise levels of cultural engagement where there may be existing barriers. This is an important part of Performing Place, that it can be accessed by participants without particular skill or experience in performance. (See http://www.performingplaces.org/placepracsitesotw.html for example.)
The impact and engagement of these two follow-on projects will be formally documented in line with local authority reporting and disseminated via simple web pages on the existing site, three symposia and a 32-page document (with executive summary). This document will be sent to the 400+ local authorities in the UK with the intention that such practice be promoted and assimilated for use in other priority areas. Two symposia will take place in London and Manchester with representatives from all nearby local authority councils invited, as well as nationally. A third symposium will take place for the 33 members of London Arts Forum.
Planned Impact
This Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement project will increase the effectiveness and impact of public services and influence policy by demonstrating an enhancement to the quality of life of participants through their creative engagement. Impact can be summarised in the following areas:
- Programme beneficiaries.
Each of the two sets of participants is expected to benefit directly from the practical projects, reporting changes in attitude to place, aspirations and wellbeing. In Camden, residents will be those previously unable to live on their own (such as those with mental health issues, learning difficulties or lack of confidence) and in Supported Living. Many will have been homeless. Performing Place activities are designed as non-threatening 'extensions' to the everyday where performative activities will be guided by skilled artist facilitators to increase independence in new or existing places. Findings from the previous project suggest that such activities will develop new place attachments. In Clarksfield, Oldham, impact will be supported by local community leading figures from different cultures in Oldham. Participants from approximately five streets in Clarksfield will take part in a week-long performing place project which will be promoted to the surrounding areas to increase public engagement and footfall for wider safer neighbourhood impact and profile-raising. Within this project a range of activities will take place that invite residents to re-envision their physical locality, subverting it, enriching it in people's minds through 'performing' it and, subsequently, creating a 'plural' neighbourhood where different cultural behaviours are accepted by longer term residents.
- Local authorities
We are looking to establish a blueprint and advocate a step-change in public service delivery frameworks and how the two councils may consider Performing Place in partnership with other areas of the public agenda priority areas (e.g. regeneration, health and wellbeing). This is with a longer term view to placing it at strategic planning and commissioning level. As a key to service enhancement and individual and community ownership, we anticipate Performing Place becoming a useful contributor to achieving local authority targets as will be evidenced in Camden and Oldham. With the dissemination of a final report document nationally, and following the summative symposia in London and Manchester, we are committed to extending this work further.
- Arts practitioners.
PI Mackey will work alongside arts facilitators who have experience in her Performing Place activities and facilitating work with participants from the previous projects. Together, they will 'train' further facilitator practitioners to work in this way, utilising documentation gathered from the previous projects in Challenging Place. Those with experience will benefit from passing on skills as well as further experimentation opportunities. Those new to some of the techniques and thinking will learn new ideas and how to work with these in less familiar (and challenging) public contexts. It is anticipated that this network of practitioners will be extended in future projects.
- Service Providers
It is expected that service providers will be exposed to the performing place cultural offer in the short space of the project. This will promote the longer-term use and function of specialised arts interventions as a way of supporting holistic council efficiencies (e.g. decreasing the period needed for adults to remain in supported living projects will be explicit). It is anticipated that voluntary and community sector key workers will actively pursue such projects in consultation with their authority, as well as network about the impact and the benefits of the work with the participants, thus leading to expanded opportunities.
- Programme beneficiaries.
Each of the two sets of participants is expected to benefit directly from the practical projects, reporting changes in attitude to place, aspirations and wellbeing. In Camden, residents will be those previously unable to live on their own (such as those with mental health issues, learning difficulties or lack of confidence) and in Supported Living. Many will have been homeless. Performing Place activities are designed as non-threatening 'extensions' to the everyday where performative activities will be guided by skilled artist facilitators to increase independence in new or existing places. Findings from the previous project suggest that such activities will develop new place attachments. In Clarksfield, Oldham, impact will be supported by local community leading figures from different cultures in Oldham. Participants from approximately five streets in Clarksfield will take part in a week-long performing place project which will be promoted to the surrounding areas to increase public engagement and footfall for wider safer neighbourhood impact and profile-raising. Within this project a range of activities will take place that invite residents to re-envision their physical locality, subverting it, enriching it in people's minds through 'performing' it and, subsequently, creating a 'plural' neighbourhood where different cultural behaviours are accepted by longer term residents.
- Local authorities
We are looking to establish a blueprint and advocate a step-change in public service delivery frameworks and how the two councils may consider Performing Place in partnership with other areas of the public agenda priority areas (e.g. regeneration, health and wellbeing). This is with a longer term view to placing it at strategic planning and commissioning level. As a key to service enhancement and individual and community ownership, we anticipate Performing Place becoming a useful contributor to achieving local authority targets as will be evidenced in Camden and Oldham. With the dissemination of a final report document nationally, and following the summative symposia in London and Manchester, we are committed to extending this work further.
- Arts practitioners.
PI Mackey will work alongside arts facilitators who have experience in her Performing Place activities and facilitating work with participants from the previous projects. Together, they will 'train' further facilitator practitioners to work in this way, utilising documentation gathered from the previous projects in Challenging Place. Those with experience will benefit from passing on skills as well as further experimentation opportunities. Those new to some of the techniques and thinking will learn new ideas and how to work with these in less familiar (and challenging) public contexts. It is anticipated that this network of practitioners will be extended in future projects.
- Service Providers
It is expected that service providers will be exposed to the performing place cultural offer in the short space of the project. This will promote the longer-term use and function of specialised arts interventions as a way of supporting holistic council efficiencies (e.g. decreasing the period needed for adults to remain in supported living projects will be explicit). It is anticipated that voluntary and community sector key workers will actively pursue such projects in consultation with their authority, as well as network about the impact and the benefits of the work with the participants, thus leading to expanded opportunities.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Sally Mackey (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Mackey S
(2016)
Applied theatre and practice as research: polyphonic conversations
in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance
MacKey S
(2016)
Critical Perspectives on Applied Theatre
Mackey S
(2020)
A Short Disquisition on Anatopia: Rethinking Place and Its Performance
in Contemporary Theatre Review
| Title | EARTHED an intensive week of workshops and residency in Clarksfield, Oldham |
| Description | In Oldham, a week-long participatory, interactive performance narrative took place in one neighbourhood (Clarksfield) experiencing population change, with longer-established residents and new migrants. EARTHED project had contact with around 1000 participants; with a longer gestation period followed by one week of intensive project. The project intended to make use of, expand and develop performing place practices where physical places are subverted, shifted, given profile and reframed through a range of different kinds of performance-related events. Such activities re-engage people with their locality and environment, easing and improving people's feelings in their location. A narrative was developed to frame the week's intensive arts project. Two visitors and their baby - beings from another planet - were teleported down from their spacecraft into Clarksfield as part of a scheduled stop in their space journeying. They were tourists, seeking knowledge and experience of Clarksfield as well as finding fuel for their spacecraft. Fuel was gathered - or 'sucked' - from positive energy to be found in people and the area. At the end of the week, they would return to their spacecraft from a launch pad to travel home. This narrative served several functions: • Welcoming 'aliens' to Clarksfield - a key metaphor for a source of tensions in Clarksfield. These 'aliens' represented a new stranger presence in Clarksfield, potentially bringing others in Clarksfield together to welcome new people; • inviting positive responses to the area as 'fuel' was collected; • seeing the place of Clarksfield afresh through 'alien' eyes; • changing the landscape as the aliens innocently placed themselves in it or 'decorated' it differently - thus refreshing it for residents; • offering a focus - a spectacle - for families and neighbours to talk about and engage with; • providing a source for arts and creative work within outreach workshops in schools and community halls. Timeline: The final EARTHED project (5 days intensive, 6th to 10th September, 2016) comprised: • a range of workshops in two Clarksfield primary schools, • post-school family and over 60s' workshops at a local church hall and elsewhere, • a series of 'pop-up' street performance activities comprising walkabouts and community interactions all over Clarksfield, • a finale in a small park at Clarksfield (a mini-festival to bid farewell to the alien characters). |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | It was estimated that around 1000 people were involved with EARTHED, approximately 20% of the Clarksfield population. (Researchers recognise there was repetition in some of the numbers below where engagement is suggested of over 1100 people.) Business Intelligence's evaluation of EARTHED focuses on the effect of the project. A number of research techniques were used by the evaluation team including observation of the week, surveys, evaluation forms, a post-project focus group (n10) and interviews with artists, core team and support team. A statistical evaluation of the impact of the project was di cult; capturing most people's views was not possible in the midst of building a fictional narrative. Business Intelligence's evaluation takes account of all these research methods including the week-long observations by two researchers. An extract from the most statistic-based form of evaluation is included here. An evaluation form was designed and distributed at the final event at Beckett Meadows once the final event had ended, electronically via the Oldham Council consultation portal as well as being shared wherever possible by groups involved in the various activities. What follows is a summary of the key findings from the evaluation (n41). • 67% of respondents felt that the project had made them think more positively about the Clarksfield area. • 92% of respondents indicated that they either loved or liked the project. - 34% respondents stated that the project had brought them together with people of different ages. • 29% respondents stated that the project had brought them together with people of different ethnic backgrounds. Interestingly, this number was observed as much higher in the workshops and at the final event by the project team. • 88% of respondents attended the final event with their children and/or friends • 83% of respondents to the evaluation form indicated that they had stayed for longer than 30 minutes. Interestingly, no respondents stated that their attendance had been fluid, although this was clearly observed by researchers. • 65% of respondents indicated that they had experienced the alien characters on one or more occasions. |
| URL | http://performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Title | PLACE practices with adults with mental illness in Camden |
| Description | The focus of Performing Local Places in Camden was to work with clients who lived in St Mungo's 24-hour supported accommodation. The project also worked with a number of clients from other St Mungo's residences in the area, where clients were living more independently and were supported by staff only during normal working hours. Performing Local Places was to work specifically with clients living at St Mungo's Adamson Road supported living accommodation (comprising six flats, an office and communal space) to begin to think about 'moving on'. At the time of the intervention, there were 21 clients living at Adamson Road in five shared and one self-contained flat. Many of the clients had moved there after spending a period of time in hospital due to a mental health diagnosis. Clients living in the flats can access 24-hour support and are supported by key workers. Clients meet their key worker at monthly sessions and informally at least once a week. There are a number of group activities available that are run by St Mungo's staff and volunteers, including walking, gardening and peer support groups, art and dance therapy. 17 Place sessions took place at Adamson Road and its surrounding streets and open spaces. Numbers of participants varied. One week, there was only one resident present, for example. There was a core group of four or five participants, and this remained fairly consistent from half- way through until the end of the project. The initial plan was to work with clients from these residences over 17 weeks to create a body of performance-based work in the local area and beyond. Initial sessions consisted of 'making' activities where clients created simple improvised objects from tissue paper and similar materials, and placed them around the activities room where the project was taking place. Later sessions developed these 'making' activities, asking clients to create 'places' or 'scapes', often based around clients' positive memories. In the second half of the project, the focus shifted to getting clients outside to engage with the local area including leaving behind traces of the group's presence. These traces often consisted of trails made of ordinary everyday items such as flour, cake sprinkles, plastic daisies and paper tags with messages handwritten by clients. Other external activities included tying imitation autumn leaves in a nearby tree-lined walkway, creating a small 'performance space' in a nearby church garden and building a temporary 'party' site on a triangle of pavement. These activities often took on elements of performance. In one session, for example, the group re-created one client's positive memory of a tea party with scones through an improvisational activity where everyone took on a character. Facilitators helped clients think about the significance of these outings into the local area through reflection sessions before and after. All clients have experienced mental illness and some may have experienced homelessness; some having also experienced abuse. Many clients have experienced having very little control over where they live or for how long. Clients may have negative associations with the area around Adamson Road because of the circumstances that led them to living there. Practices that intentionally involve working with small and ordinary physical features of a location, such as brick walls or plants to create experiences that may be positively memorable, may be particularly well-suited to helping clients come to terms with their current environment. Within sessions, facilitators and clients worked together on a number of activities. These were not discrete activities, but worked in reciprocal, non-linear ways, with ideas and images arising in one activity, inspiring the content of later activities and always focused on 'place'. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | There was evidence that some clients felt that the project had helped them in this form of 'moving on'. I think I tried to feel more settled here but things haven't changed for me really since [names significant negative event]. I'm trying not to dwell on feelings about [signi cant negative event]. A lot of my time is taken up by things like that when I'm not in the [Performing Place] group so it's another reason why I like to be involved in the groups, which is kind of moving on. [. . .] So yes, I've sort of moved on. I've accepted that I live here now. I've accepted that . . . [Client 01] This sense of 'moving on' as a form of personal development was also felt by participants who had very recently moved out into independent living. Well, for me, it means, like, where I'm at the moment with my new at I'm thinking about what I can do to decorate the place, make it look like mine, you know? So I have quite a good selection of ideas, and I think what it's done is take, like, not a stagnant brain literally, but, like, a stagnant imagination and it's brought it back to life. Because I was always very creative but I, sort of, got out of the habit of it, so now I'm, you know, being creative again. So that's my moving on, is going back to my roots and, you know, getting all my art stu out again and doing all of that kind of stuff, yes. (Client 02) Outcomes observed included changes in the way clients feel about being resident at St Mungo's; acceptance of situation, improved sense of wellbeing and a new sense of having a place within local community (like being able to give back). There was a new sense of connectedness among the clients who took part. They became physically more comfortable with each other, and felt more able to support each other. |
| URL | http://performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Title | Performing Places Bexley 2017-2019 |
| Description | The project (2017 - 2019) focuses on the town of Bexleyheath, creating an imaginative fiction with and for the townspeople including extensive outreach workshops in schools and community groups. It took place particularly in the summers of 2018 and 2019. Sally Mackey worked with Royal Central School of Speech and Drama alumna Suha Al-Khayyat (DE99) from Little Fish Theatre Company, Ross Bolwell-Williams (DE08) from Emergency Exit Arts, Adelina Ong (PhD Candidate) and many others. Post-project creative products included an exhibition in Bexleyheath Library and an Education Resource Pack that was distributed as hard copies and digitally to four Bexleyheath secondary schools. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | This project created activities that encouraged Bexley as a place at ease with itself, with an engaged population and integrated communities, where everyone feels they belong and can get on in life. The two-year project had a final evaluation which identified impacts. |
| URL | https://www.cssd.ac.uk/performing-places-bexley |
| Description | Key findings can be found on p.5 of the evaluation document: http://www.performingplaces.org/local.html In brief, they comprise: SPECIALISTS IN PERFORMING PLACE PRACTICES FROM THE ROYAL CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (CENTRAL) WORKED WITH TWO LOCAL AUTHORITIES, CAMDEN AND OLDHAM COUNCILS, RESPONDING TO COUNCIL PRIORITIES. PRIMARILY FUNDED BY THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL (AHRC), THE WORK PROVOKED NEW WAYS OF CONSIDERING 'PLACE' BY LOCAL RESIDENTS. The models demonstrated: Positive forms of engagement; broad reach with repeated participant interest; a clear catalyst for future engagement building good memories of place; increased feeling of being in place; improved sense of wellbeing; new sense of connectedness amongst clients; changes in the way people feel about being residential; new sense of place within a community. The findings did not fully demonstrate how transferable large-scale projects are and to what extent this can be manifest and successful within large-scale community contexts. A follow-up project, Performing Places Bexley, is addressing this. |
| Exploitation Route | Findings were disseminated at two major symposia, in London and Oldham, with approximately 35 local authorities represented. A final report was handed out and four local authorities immediately contacted us about using the Performing Places model. One of these has proceeeded and is recorded elswhere under this award as Performing Places Bexley. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Description | Performing Local Places was an AHRC 'follow-on funding for impact and engagement' award. It took principles and practices from earlier award-winning work (Challenging Place) and invited councils to identify cross-cutting priorities that might benefit from such practices. Performing place practices were thus rolled out into new contexts and with new variations of practice. Findings from each of the evaluation reports suggest that the two projects in Performing Local Places succeeded in their aims. Participants increased their attachment to place and concomitant benefits accrued. Each project was limited and each evaluation indicates that further work would be of additional benefit to the participants. (This has already been put in place in Camden. Further sessions with the residents were funded by St Mungo's.) Performing place as a cultural practice was disseminated through two symposia; Greater London and Greater Manchester council staff with strategic and commissioning authority were invited. To increase understanding of the value of the work, the Performing Local Places report has been sent to all local authorities in the UK. Arising from Performing Local Places as a whole project, overall recommendations are that: > Place attachment is recognised as an important means to wellbeing by all local authorities. > Enhancing place attachment is assumed as able to meet mainstream council agendas. > Performing place is understood as an innovative and lateral arts practice that facilitates and achieves place attachment. This is in line with the opening quote in this document: 'innovative new schemes across the UK are paving the way to improved outcomes for people and communities, and better value for money for commissioners'. (Slay and Ellis-Petersen, 2016: 5). > Experienced, highly creative, trained practitioners are employed for this work. Such practitioners will combine expert levels of performance-related facilitation for a wide range of participants with a air for unusual and lateral creative ideas. They will be able to inspire and attract others to work with them, whether local authority figures or specialist artists, and they will have been 'trained' in performing place practices. > In planning projects, sufficient time and resources are allocated to the following: - organisation and administration of projects; - planning project ideas over a regular and continuous period of time with re ection periods to muse on ideas before implementing them; - experimentation with new practices; - outreach work of longevity, depth and rigour; - enthusing, collaborating and discussing with relevant figures in councils and organisations who are supporting the work; - inviting and promoting attendance by these figures at key moments; - phasing Performing Place practices in certain contexts, allowing for reflection between stages of the work; - documenting during the process and seeking permissions for use of images (as appropriate); - debriefing; - disseminating project work confidently; - sharing and reflecting on affective moments. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Performing Places Bexley |
| Amount | £200,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | London Borough of Bexley |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| Description | Camden Council - working with St Mungo's Housing Association employed by Camden Council |
| Organisation | Camden Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Performing Local Places worked closely with St Mungo's to help their residents (adults with mental illness) feel more settled and more comfortable with living in St Mungo's supported accommodation. For residents who had only been at St Mungo's a short time, it helped ease their transition from inpatient services to supported accommodation. The initial project aim of helping residents think about physically 'moving on' from 24-hour supported accommodation to more independent forms of supported living proved to be too ambitious for the particular set of residents who were most engaged with the project. Interviews with staff and residents from St Mungo's, however, revealed different understandings of what 'moving on' could mean, including residents coming to accept some aspects of what has happened to them, thus providing the platform from which some residents may be able to build a meaningful life. Since January 2017, St Mungo's has funded 12 more sessions under Finding Your Place, in response to the residents appeal for the sessions to be continued. |
| Collaborator Contribution | St Mungo's funded support staff to be present during the Performing Local Places project. The St Mungo's staff would remind residents of upcoming activities, travel down with them to Adamson Road (if based in semi-independent residences) and/or assist by knocking on doors of the residents on the morning itself. |
| Impact | St Mungo's has funded 12 more sessions under Finding Your Place, beginning January 2017, in response to the residents appeal for the sessions to be continued. The St Mungo's manager spoke at both symposia at the end of the project (in London and Oldham). |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Oldham Theatre Workshop |
| Organisation | Oldham Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The PLP team worked closely with Oldham Theatre Workshop to organise the intensive week of workshops in Clarksfield. Business Intelligence (our external evaluators) estimated that the various workshops and final event attracted around 1000 individuals in total. A number of children attending the final event had also been present at school workshops. Based on these figures around one in five local residents played some part in the week's activities. Many more are likely to have heard about them from children, neighbours and others. The event was welcomed by those involved. It was recognised by the project team and commissioner that a one-week long series of events may not provoke long-term change but may act as a catalyst for future engagement within the Clarks eld community. It was 'an event' that attracted the community, and the memory of such an event was part of the project's intentions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Oldham Theatre Workshop (OTW) collaborated with the PLP Team to put together an overarching narrative for the workshops during the week, and recommended the narrative of EARTHED with two aliens, and their baby, coming to earth as part of a planned stop on their journey back to their planet. OTW also did most of the outreach to schools, community leaders and groups, coordinating logistics of the workshops such that the aliens could 'visit' an ongoing session at the school/community group. |
| Impact | It was clear that the mixture of outreach work conducted by the team including work in schools, with parents, local residents and community groups successfully enabled the project to engage with a wide range of Clarksfield residents. Response to the project has been positive from all involved, with participants increasingly owning the fictional narrative as the week progressed. Those involved in the workshops were seen to be actively participating in the activities. The nature of the week's events meant that the same faces became recognisable to members of the research team as the week wore on. Some of the changes in the observed behaviours of these individuals such as increased confidence and increased feeling of being in place are an indicator of the programme's success. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Battle of Ideas, 2018, Panel paper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Battle of Ideas is an annual, very well attended event, at the Barbican Centre, London. As a result of my work in Performing Local Places and Performing Places Bexley, I was invited to give a paper as one of fibve members of a panel entitled: Can Culture Heal Fractured Communities. I was cited in the abstract for the whole panel from where I had said the arts can 'engage people physically and emotionally can build strong communities'. Led by Claire Fox, the Battle of Ideas is an exciting and adventurous hub of thinking attended by a wide range of people supported by The Academy of Ideas, the Barbican and Camelot. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/can-culture-heal-fractured-communities/ |
| Description | Business Intelligence Report on Performing Local Places (EARTHED) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was an evaluation of EARTHED undertaken by Business Intelligence on the Oldham practical project. Links to this report were emailed to about 70 council heads of department, executive directors and councillors who attended the Oldham and London Performing Local Places symposia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Description | McPin Foundation evaluation of PLACE project in Camden with St Mungo's Housing Association |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was an evaluation of PLACE undertaken by Mc Pin Foundation on the Camden practical project. Links to this report were emailed to about 70 council heads of department, executive directors and councillors who attended the Oldham and London Performing Local Places symposia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Description | Performing Local Places report |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A 40-page report on Performing Local Places, outlining the findings of EARTHED and PLACE with a focus on place attachment for council heads of departments, executive directors and councillors with an interest in building stronger communities or supporting mental health provisions and promoting wellbeing in communities. Business Intelligence's evaluations on EARTHED (Oldham) and McPin Foundation's evaluations on PLACE (London) were summarised and formed the basis of this report. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Description | Performing Places Bexley |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Following the symposium for Performing Places: Working with Local Councils to reach new communities and facilitate wellbeing in living environments, Mackey was awarded nearly £200,000 of a major new grant given to Bexley Council for 'Performing Places Bexley'. Performing Places Bexley will focus on the town of Bexleyheath, creating an imaginative fiction with and for the townspeople including extensive outreach workshops in schools and community groups. It will take place in the summers of 2018 and 2019. Mackey will be working with alumna Suha Al-Khayyat (DE99) from Little Fish Theatre Company, Ross Bolwell-Williams (DE08) from Emergency Exit Arts, Adelina Ong (PhD Candidate, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) and many others. In their press release announcing the collaboration, The London Borough of Bexley noted that Bexley was set to benefit from a range of community initiatives following the successful funding bid for four projects. These will help the borough gain more up-to-date information on the make-up of the local population and would support community events and initiatives designed to foster good relations between existing and new residents. Leader of Bexley Council, Cllr Teresa O'Neil OBE, welcomed the success of the bid: "This is good news for the borough and shows how seriously we take our responsibility to ensure that Bexley is a place at ease with itself, with an engaged population and integrated communities, where everyone feels they belong and can get on in life. This funding will help us access more up-to-date information to understand how the borough is changing, adapt our services to meet changing demands and fund activities to bring different communities together." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.cssd.ac.uk/news/professor-sally-mackey-receives-major-new-grant-performing-places-bexley |
| Description | Performing Places Bexley - research blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Curated blog comprising researchers' insights into some of the activities and background to Performing Places Bexley. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.cssd.ac.uk/research/performing-places-bexley-blog |
| Description | TEDxRoyalCentralSchool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. The abstract for the talk is as follows: Sally Mackey explores the value of performance practices in establishing and catalysing place attachment. By working with specific drama activities forged out of applied theatre practices, she suggests that we can reshape people's understanding of, and feelings towards, their home location. Her presentation will touch on applied theatre and its capacity to shift people's thinking. Following this, she will identify the critical importance of physical places - and place attachment - in the current global context of extensive geopolitical change. Through residents' participation in a range of non-threatening, performance-based activities, Mackey believes we can ease people's sense of location and improve well-being. With two project examples, she will demonstrate this 'next stage': performing place. Sally Mackey is Professor of Applied Theatre and Performance at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London where she founded the first UK undergraduate degree in applied theatre. On the editorial board of RiDE: the Journal of Applied Performance and Theatre and advisory board of Applied Theatre Research, she is a key figure in the Applied and Social Theatre field. Reflecting a related interest in theatre ecology, she was a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) commissioning panel for the major themes of 'Landscape and Environment' and 'Living with Environmental Change' and the cross RCUK panel 'Valuing Nature: Health and Wellbeing'. Publishing on performance, place, community and the environment, she has co-edited themed editions in RiDE - 'On Site and Place' and 'Environmentalism' - and has completed outputs from three AHRC grants in the last few years: Challenging Place, Performing Local Places and Performing Abergavenny |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/vkju7hhtQFg |
| Description | Training - Performing Places at Bird College, Kent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I gave four workshops to Bird College students on performing places so that they could participate in the Performing Places Bexley project in Bexleyheath, June 2018. Approximately 70 students took part and 'performed' in Bexleyheath Broadway. I used the work from Performing Local Places as inspiration and source. The outcome was successful performances by them in Bexleyheath Broadway. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.cssd.ac.uk/performing-places-bexley |
| Description | Training - Performing Places at Rose Bruford College, Kent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I undertook a workshop at Rose Bruford College in January 2019, introducing 12 MA students (and two staff) to Performing Places with particular reference to Performing Local Places. The intention is that there will be a follow-up workshop and the outcome will be that these students will take part in the 2019, Phase 2 of Performing Places Bexley. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.cssd.ac.uk/performing-places-bexley |
| Description | Unfamiliareyes - Performing Local Places Symposium (London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 58 people attended Unfamiliareyes - the Performing Local Places Symposium on 1 March 2017, at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama where facilitators shared their reflections on the two projects (EARTHED in Oldham and A Game of Trails in London). Most were council heads of departments, executive directors and councillors from Greater London. Staff from St Mungo's, Oldham Theatre Workshop, project participants and artists were also present. The session ended with stimulating discussions about how these Place Practices might be used to create wellbeing in other locations throughout Greater London. 29 participants indicated interest in having similar Place projects within their Borough. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://performingplaces.org/local.html |
| Description | Unfamiliareyes - the Performing Local Places Symposium (Oldham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 43 people attended Unfamiliareyes - the Performing Local Places Symposium on 7 March 2017, at Oldham Gallery where facilitators shared their reflections on the two projects (EARTHED in Oldham and A Game of Trails in London). Most were council heads of departments, executive directors and councillors from Oldham, Bolton, Bury and Salford. Staff from Oldham Theatre Workshop, St Mungo's, project facilitators and artists were also present. The session ended with stimulating discussions about how these Place Practices might be sustained and expanded in Greater Manchester. 22 attendees indicated further interest in extending similar Place practices to their borough. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |