envision

The context

The organisation

Tate Liverpool Mission Statement: “To be innovative and influential in the presentation and interpretation of British and international modern and contemporary art, engaging existing visitors and developing a more diverse audience base.” The Gallery is funded by a range of corporate partners and members, employing 72 staff with an annual turnover of £5.52 million. North West Disability Arts Forum (NWDAF)’s vision is to:

• Facilitate the active participation of all Disabled people in every aspect of the arts and cultural sectors
• Actively promote and celebrate Deaf Arts, Disability Arts and other emerging cultural expressions within disability contexts
• Inform and guide arts & cultural organisations to include Disabled people in all aspects of their service delivery, employment and programming of Disabled artists and companies.

The organisation receives core funding from Liverpool City Council and Arts Council England North West, with additional project funding from various sources. NWDAF employ 3 Full Time and 4 Part Time with an annual turnover of £348,724.

Website: North West Disability Arts Forum in partnership with Tate Liverpool

The situation

Young Disabled and Deaf People from Special Schools on Merseyside are not accessing Tate Liverpool’s exhibitions and programmes as independent users.

The idea

The project was designed to engage Disabled and Deaf Young People with Tate Liverpool’s exhibitions of modern contemporary art.

We employed a disabled visual artist, Ross Clark, with experience of gallery education and an awareness of differing learning styles. He ran a series of ten workshops to enable young disabled participants to identify the issues which prevent them from accessing cultural institutions and programmes as independent users.

The project also set out to increase young people’s knowledge and understanding of Tate Liverpool’s exhibitions and programmes with a view to them becoming involved in Young Tate, the Gallery’s peer-led education programme.

The project

Planning

The project was developed in partnership between Naomi Horlock, Education Curator, Young People at Tate Liverpool, and Jennie Newman, Youth Arts Development Worker, NWDAF, before bringing in freelance artist Ross Clark.

Jennie contacted various schools and organisations that have worked with NWDAF in the past and asked learning mentors and teachers to identify young people for the project.

The initial sessions were planned to give the young people some idea of Tate Liverpool and its programmes and exhibitions, as well as allowing them to feel comfortable in a new environment. Methods included:

• Employing non-disabled peer leaders from Young Tate to work alongside the Artist and Young People.
• Working with the International Modern Art Exhibition (IMA) collection: investigating the artworks and producing work in response to it’s themes.

As the workshops progressed we worked with the young people through conversations and questionnaires to identify their needs, and express what they felt they needed for the project and to facilitate their future independent participation in Tate Liverpool programmes.

Delivery

The project delivery team was lead by Ross and included three Young Tate Leaders, who have knowledge and direct experience of youth programmes available through Tate Liverpool. The Young Tate Leaders acted as mentors for the group, ‘buddying-up’ with individual participants, and providing a familiar face to those who wished to continue visiting Tate Liverpool when the project ended. They also encouraged participants to share their thoughts of the experiences on offer.

The project consisted of two hour sessions run every Tuesday, with a break for Easter. In addition, a session with PAs was added to the programme to discuss the project's aims and how they felt they could support the young people more effectively.

We recognised that the two hour sessions, although good for introductory purposes, did not give us long enough to reach the depth needed to engage the young people. We therefore agreed with staff to extend to full day Saturday sessions.

The participants came from three local schools: Merseyview, Redbridge and Sandfield Park. One of our major problems was coordinating a start date. This ended up being staggered with new participants arriving each week until our final group became established on our last Tuesday session.

With different young people arriving each week we had to re-plan the approach regularly – however, the young people who arrived in week one were able to support the newer members who arrived in week two and so on.

We also encountered a problem of overseeing the participants in the gallery environment. Having been brought up in the sheltered social context of a Special School many problems tend to be pre-empted by staff, with acceptable behaviour being enforced rather than learnt. This was combined with a short attention span along with other emotional and behavioural difficulties. Therefore, the young people we worked with had very little idea of the boundaries that operate in a gallery context.

On the first session, although there were only three participants we had numerous, understandable, attempts at touching works of art. Therefore, in response to a suggestion by the Young Tate Leader employed to support the project, two more Leaders, Laura and Mike, were brought in. This has, of course, increased the project costs.

Due to the participants' lack of socialisation with non-disabled peers we rapidly discovered that the 20 hours we allotted to the project were inadequate for integrating the participants into Young Tate. Instead, we focused on integrating a peer-mentoring approach, to help them get used to working with non-disabled people who were close in age.

The overall attendance of the project was good, in spite of a shaky start.

Outcomes

Impact on participants

“My ideas were good and people liked them” (participant)

Young people within the special school system are largely isolated from mainstream social opportunities. Our expected outcomes for the project shifted to focus on peer mentoring as a way of combating this exclusion and encouraging supported integration into the Young Tate programme – observing that as the project advanced participants looked forward to sessions and became more outgoing, confident and responsive. This took the form of:

• More conversations about the art work on show.
• Making links to the work on display and current events.
• Making connections to art works and the “self”.
• Longer attention spans.
• Conversations about life outside the Gallery.
• Talking positively about the project to peers at school

Note: All the participants involved in the project had learning difficulties, some have emotional and behavioural difficulties, therefore using direct questioning techniques proved unsuccessful. The information detailed in this section comes from observations from the Lead Artist, PAs, Young Tate members employed to support the project and conversations between the participants.

Impact on others involved

PAs

The PAs and learning mentors have recognised a change in their views regarding the young people involved in the project, they now recognise:

• The value of Young Tate for the socialisation of the participants (see note below)
• The value of exhibitions for prompting critical thinking in the participants, including self-reflection.

The support workers also reported that they now have increased confidence in visiting galleries with young people.

Young Tate Leaders

The members of Young Tate found that their approaches to learning at Tate Liverpool have become more flexible, and they have learned to adapt their approaches to working with the group:

• They are happy to break down activities into component parts and revisit as necessary.
• They feel more comfortable concentrating on emotional responses to works of art instead of objective ones.

Note: Many of the Young People receive encouragement to participate in activities outside the school mainly from the schools themselves. This is largely down to their social circumstances and the difficult situations parents and guardians find themselves in when having to look after a disabled child.

Institutional change

Tate Liverpool’s Interpretation and Education department is now looking at the outcomes of the Inside out Project and ways to develop approaches to engaging Disabled and Deaf young people outside of school visits. As a result of the project the following recommendations are being considered:

• Working with parents in order for them to be able to see time spent at the Gallery as “worthwhile”.
• Reviewing the way in which the Gallery delivers programmes for Disabled and Deaf Young People, particularly out of school hours.
• Using more visual, auditory and emotional input.
• Providing peer support for Disabled and Deaf Young People.

At the time of writing issues around funding to sustain participants in attending the Gallery as independent visitors are still being resolved. These include seeking at funding sources with NWDAF for access costs for Disabled and Deaf Young People, including:

• Taxis
• Personal Assistants.(see note below)
• Encouraging support from parents and guardians
• Working with them to see the value of Young Tate

Note: At the time of writing it is unknown whether we can sustain the financial cost in supporting the participants attending the Gallery as independent users since the costs of taxis and PAs is high.

Lessons learned

What worked and what didn’t

What worked ...

• Using an approach that showed participants that the Tate Liverpool and Young Tate was accessible to them.
• Focusing on peer mentoring, with three Young Tate leaders working on the project ensured a successful outcome.

and what didn’t ...

• Pre-delivery we would have preferred to arrange a time for the PAs to come in, discuss the project and be introduced to the Gallery (we were not able to do this due to time span).
• After five weeks of sessions the young people did not feel ready to take up Young Tate activities. However, they do feel able to attend further supported sessions with the aim of taking part in ArtSpace weekend drop in workshops.
• 2 hour sessions on the Tuesday evenings were not long enough to get the young people settled and focused.
• PAs and Learning mentors – project was reliant on their good will, Saturdays and school holidays were problematic for them.
• Support outside school – a significant number of participants do not have the support of parents/guardians to attend non school related activities.

Next steps

As a result of the project we recognise the lack of support the young people who participated receive for activities outside of school. Tate Liverpool is committed to retaining the participants and will look for sources of funding with the support of NWDAF.

All participants will be invited to join Young Tate. They will be kept informed of Tate events and activities, and encouraged to attend ArtSpace, a monthly drop-in for teenagers.

We are monitoring the participants’ independent use of the Gallery, and are working with parents and guardians to encourage them to see participation with Tate Liverpool as a beneficial to each young persons’ development. (see note below)

The Gallery has now employed the Ross to work in an advisory capacity on access for disabled young people, and to work alongside Young Tate, mentoring and training Young Tate Leaders to enable them to become ‘buddies’ and support their peers with disabilities who want to get involved in gallery programme and events.

Note: Many of the Young People receive encouragement to participate in activities outside the school mainly from the schools themselves. However the take up of opportunities is largely down to the young people’s social circumstances and the difficult situations parents and guardians find themselves in when having to look after a disabled child.

Images

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Appendix

The original budget was increased by £1960 to accommodate adjustments in the project delivery.

Expenditure
Artist
Fees	Planning 2 days (£10 per hour £10 x 16 hours)	£160
	Planning 2 days (£10 per hour £10 x 16 hours)	£160
	10 sessions @ £60 (half an hour set up and packing + 2 hours with young people)	£600
	Evaluation - 5 days (£10 per hour, £10 x 40 hours)	£400
Travel	£10 per session allowed	£100
Materials	£500 allowed	£500
Young Tate
Fees	Planning 20 hours (£10 per hour, £10 x 20 hours x 3 Young Tate)	£600
	Delivery 20 hours + 20 hours set up and debrief time (£10 per hour, £10 x 40 hours x 3 Young Tate)	£1200
Participants
Travel	5 taxis x £15 x £10 sessions (£15 max for combined journey to and from Tate Liverpool	£750
Access	Sign language interpreter (£25 per hour x 10 sessions)
	Personal Assistants (5 x £9 per hour [3 hours - includes travel time] x 10)
Refreshments	£5 per session (£5 x 10)	£50
Total	£6370

Questionnaire responses

In response to the question, What would you need to get to Tate Liverpool?

“I would need financial and PA support or and outreach worker”

“I think my dad would bring me”

“My Nan would bring me but she would need someone to meet her to make her feel comfortable”

“I would walk” (This young woman lives 15 miles from the gallery)

In response to the question, What was good about your time at Tate Liverpool?

“My butty was good”. (On the two Saturday sessions Tate Liverpool provided the young people with a choice of sandwiches from the menu of the local cafe).

“My ideas were good and people liked them”

“People listened to me”

“I liked making things”

“People didn't tell me what to do” (The young person in question had complained to Jay, one of the Young Tate that were supporting the project that he was always told how to make things at school).

“Seeing our sculpture grow”

“Making the sculpture - drawing round our bodies and making it 3D” (Taking the theme of Identity from International Modern Art we made two sculptures to do with identity they were designed and made by the young people)

“Cutting out” (The PA of the young man who said this had told us he couldn't cut with scissors. He devised a way where he could cut card by himself and was very pleased with himself)