About
Nell Farrally is a freelance evaluator and researcher for arts, cultural and community organisations. She’s very much in demand, so sometimes works with other freelancers to add capacity to a project. When she was approached to evaluate The Future Is Us – a research and development programme of youth arts work in North Monmouthshire – she asked me to help.
The work was a partnership between The Borough Theatre (Monmouthshire County Council), Melville Centre for the Arts and Dance Blast. It was funded by the UK government’s Community Renewal Fund, a fund to help areas in the UK prepare for applying to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
How I helped
Nell led on designing the evaluation questions, framework/plan, theory of change and data gathering methods.
My work involved:
- interviewing young people and teachers – audio-recorded interviews at school, or in out-of-school activities, This resulted in transcriptions which Nell then analysed for themes and insights
- visiting workshops, classes and events to observe and make notes, and writing these up in a storytelling/case study format
- contributing to sections of the evaluation report and editing the whole report
Other methods led by Nell included reflective meetings for artists, artist journals and pupil postcard questions.
Through all of these methods, we gathered a rich understanding of what happened during the project. We explored what it meant for individuals, what could be learned from the project, and the impact it had on young people, teachers, artists and the Council.
The final report, ‘A seat at the table: developing citizenry and youth voice through arts participation in North Monmouthshire’ has helped to inform the Council’s work around youth arts and youth voice, and its emerging cultural strategy.