envision

The context

The organisation

Fabrica’s mission and programme
Fabrica is a visual arts organisation based in a former Regency church in central Brighton that commissions contemporary visual art installations specific to its building. An educational charity established in 1995 its mission is to increase access to contemporary visual art for a broad audience.
Fabrica is a place where artists come to make new work. The organisation supports and encourages the artists with whom it works to be adventurous and to test the boundaries of their practice. It encourages an open dialogue between artists and visitors within the gallery space and produces an integrated programme of education and audience development activity that strives to remove barriers to access, engagement and understanding. The organisation signs up to the idea that ‘the arts’ are a flexible arena in which we can develop our individual and collective identities. And that contemporary art can be challenging and provide us with new experiences, perspectives and opportunities to grow.
The Fabrica Programme comprises four interlinked strands of activity. These are:
• An exhibition programme of four main shows each year, interspersed with smaller experi-mental exhibitions and events promoted in partnership with others. Organised on a seasonal basis, Fabrica's programme reflects new developments across four areas of practice: site-specific crafts, large-scale sculpture, lens-based installations and interactive digital media.
• An integrated education and audience development programme, serving schools, families, groups and individuals with particular needs and interests. Activities can be planned to hap-pen alongside the exhibition or outside of the gallery.
• The Artist Resource ­ a reference library, one-one sessions, talks, workshops, seminars and networking events.
• A volunteer and work placement scheme providing people of different ages and back-grounds with opportunities front of house, in the office and with the exhibition and education project teams.

Partners and funders
Fabrica is funded by Arts Council, South East, Brighton and Hove City Council, the European Union. It works with a range of local, regional, national and international partners including: galleries, education and youth organisations, professional development organisations, health care and social service organsations.

Number of staff and annual turnover
Fabrica has nine part-time employees. Annual turnover is £350,000

Website: Fabrica

The situation

As a charity Fabrica must endeavour to fulfil its mission. Fabrica’s Audience Development Plan (ADP) provides the framework for the organisation to deliver its mission and the ADP identifies young people in particular as an audience that it wishes to encourage to visit the gallery and/or use its other resources. Over the past ten years Fabrica has developed levels of expertise in working with young people in school and youth club contexts but has lacked the knowledge and resources to work with ‘hard to reach’ young people such as young offenders. The combination of the Envision R&D grant and support structure, plus recently de-veloped contacts in the Youth Offending Team has provided the opportunity for Fabrica to explore the barriers to and potential for young offenders accessing Fabrica and other galleries in Brighton & Hove.

The idea

The aim of the project was to increase access to contemporary art for young people in Brighton & Hove on the ISSP Programme, and that in order to achieve this Fabrica would need to know more about the specific needs and barriers to engagement for this type of young per-son. The idea was to plan and deliver a short project which would enable an exchange of knowledge, understanding and skills between a small group of young offenders, Fabrica staff and education volunteers and Youth Justice Officers.
The project intended to achieve its aims in the following ways:
1.    By holding 4-6 activity sessions for 6-10 young people on the ISSP programme which would broaden their experience and skills through engagement with contem-porary art and ideas.
2.    By supporting gallery staff and volunteers to work with these young people through supervised familiarization, training and other CPD activities.
3.    By giving staff the knowledge and experience to make appropriate organizational change for future access and partnership.
4.    By exploring the potential of the projects results to be used for advocacy.

The project

Planning

In February 2007 two planning and preparation meetings took place between Fabrica Co-Director Liz Whitehead and Youth Justice Worker Andrew White. These established the time-table, roles and responsibilities and the key issues which could affect the shape and success of the project. The key issues were:
1. An anxiety that the lack of experience of Fabrica staff and volunteers in working with young offenders could arise in situations which were too challenging or extremely difficult to manage – ie that individuals might feel out of their depth. It was felt there were two aspects to this issue. Firstly, a fear of what kind of extremity of behaviour the young people may have, secondly the capacities of the Fabrica team to deal with it on a personal and practical level. This was addressed by planning ‘familiarisation’ sessions which would bring the artist and Fabrica team into contact with one or two young people in a session supervised by an-other Youth Justice Worker and Activity Leader. AW felt that some first hand experience of the young people in a situation that the Fabrica team did not have to manage would: allay fears and challenge preconceived ideas about young offenders by (most likely) providing a positive experience.
2. The short attention span of the young people and their attitude to the activity in principle (ie The ISSP could be seen to proposing ‘art as punishment’). This was addressed by planning two, three-hour sessions for each participant which would happen within two days of each other. It was decided that motivation was most likely to be kept up if there was a fast turnover of activities within each session and if the young people could work one to one with a volunteer/staff member as a co-participant.
3. What was actually possible within the interests of the young people, cash and other resources, the time-frame, etc. AW had discussed the project with several participants in the ISSP and established definite interest from four young people. Photography and Sculpture were cited as the areas that AW thought the young people would be most interested in. LW researched suitable artists in these areas of practice.
4. Roles and responsibilities. LW committed to creating and managing the staff and volunteer team, contracting and managing an experienced artist who would lead the activity sessions, and organising the necessary space and materials. AW committed to organising and being responsible for the group of young people.
5. There was some discussion about practical issues and potential variables. For example the project needed to be delayed due to a lack of young offenders assigned to the ISSP at the time that the project was actually planned for.
Subsequent planning meetings were held with as many members of the team as possible (LW, AW, Tila Rodrigez-Past (Exhibition Space & Volunteer Manager) three volunteers (Mich-ele Topping, Gail Lockhart-Watson & Clare Hankinson) and the artist (Danny Wilson – see attached CV).
A planning session in April with AW and Fabrica staff and volunteers discussed the practical pros and cons of Photography over Sculpture as a practice-based vehicle for the activity ses-sions. Through discussion there was a consensus that the practical and technical particularities of Sculpture could make it difficult to realise a finished piece/pieces that the participants might be happy with, within the agreed time-frame of two three-hour sessions. LW talked about photographer Danny Wilson as a suitable artist for the project and presented some of his past work and it was agreed to approach DW to undertake the project. DW was contracted in April.
A further planning session in May between staff, volunteers, the artist and AW established the themes (Self & Representation) confirmed the length of the sessions at three hours and venue (Phoenix Studios, as Fabrica was unavailable for the new dates ) for the activities with the young people.

Delivery

Training & CPD
Five familiarisation sessions took place between March and April which gave two Fabrica staff, the three volunteers and the artist an opportunity to meet and work alongside four young offenders and Youth Justice Workers on a non-arts based project.
After the familiarisation sessions a group briefing and discussion session was held whereby AW gave a presentation on the Intensive Supervision & Surveillance Programme (ISSP) and volunteers and staff had the opportunity to raise and discuss questions, concerns and observations about the young people they had met. Fabrica staff and volunteers commented that  they felt more confident about moving forward with the project following the familiarisation and briefing sessions.  There was a lot of discussion about what would and would not work with the group – e.g the size of each group, the child adult ratio, gender mix, the suitability of the envision questionnaires and how they could be integrated into the activities – based on the first hand experience volunteers and staff had had.
Volunteers also attended the workshop planning sessions with the artist and the final debrief. This enabled volunteers to be involved in the whole project from idea, to planning, delivery and de-brief.
LW had three short discussions with Richard Beales during the project which provided insight into planning and working with the Youth Offending Team.
Sessions with the young people
Six half-day workshops took place at Phoenix Arts Association, Brighton over three days from 29 May to 31 May 2007. Each group had been planned to be made up of three young people, the artist, a Youth Justice Officer, a member of Fabrica staff and a volunteer from Fabrica. In the event a shortage of young people on the ISSP meant that six rather than nine participants were ready to take part.
The workshops key themes were: Using photography to explore ideas of self, representation and environment; Contemporary art and what artists do, and to some extent galleries and what we think about them. Activities centred around three main tasks over the two sessions which were mostly done in pairs with each young person paired with a volunteer.
Out of the six workshops one was cancelled as no young people arrived, two ran as planned and three ran with less than the full complement of young participants. The actual participants were: Dale, Dan, Eddie, Sam and Sonny

Outcomes

Impact on participants

The young people took part in a total of 6 hours of art activity so any impact was very difficult to measure. It was impossible to integrate this part of the questionnaire into the sessions. AW tried to pick this section of the questionnaire up with the participants as a follow up session with their case worker but it didn’t work.
What changes did the artists or other professionals involved observe?
AW felt it was a positive experience for all those who were able to make it. That the situation was potentially quite challenging for some of the participants but they handled it well. Two participants in particular really seemed to enjoy all of the sessions.

We have no way of knowing if the young people concerned have returned to the gallery unless they or the Youth Offending Team let us know. AW & LW both felt it was unlikely that there would be significant changes in behaviour with such a small amount of contact time. Once the young people are off the ISSP AW does not have any more contact with the young people.

Impact on others involved

 At the briefing/training session which took place after the familiarisation sessions staff and volunteers reported feeling more confident about working with young offenders. At the debrief the volunteers reported having enjoyed working with the young people and a desire to work on similar projects. The artist expressed a wish to continue working with this type of young person. LW is currently exploring options for creating a longer programme of work-shops with the Youth Offending Team

Institutional change

 In terms of current front of house attitudes and procedures there appeared to be no necessary changes to make which might increase access to Fabrica for this group of young people, other than developing ways for Fabrica staff and volunteers to develop longer term relationships with these young people. It was apparent that the primary barrier to engagement for these young people was the disrupted nature of their day to day lives which meant that in the short space of time Fabrica had to work with them they were often unable to take part because they were for example: in court, missed the bus/train, couldn’t find the venue, etc. A longer term programme of workshops – ie a regular club (which adopts the model currently used by the Youth Offending Team) and which would enable the development of long term relationships between individuals and organisations and build a proper skills base is a proposal Fabrica is currently investigating with the Youth Offending Team, other envision south east recipients and Brighton & Hove Drug Prevention Unit.

Lessons learned

What worked and what didn’t

Factor in a 30% drop out rate for participants due to unforeseen circumstances when plan-ning adult to child ratios.
Future projects should have shorter, but more sessions.
Any impact on the young people’s behaviour and attitude is more likely to captured via a longer programme of activity.

Photography – particularly digital cameras with instant printers was a good medium as it gave instant results which was rewarding. One of the activities involved taking photographs of the streetscape whilst walking to the venue which used the time well and kept the interest of participants.
A fast turnover of activities and working indoors and outside meant participants didn’t get bored. The young people liked being at Phoenix Gallery – we were able to work across a variety of spaces – gallery education room and outdoors.
Working with volunteers. Pairing up volunteers with the young people worked well it gave the young people one-to-one attention with someone not too much older than them and helped counteract/deflect disruptive behaviour. The volunteers (who were all under 25yrs) developed good relationships with the young people and really enjoyed the sessions. They felt well prepared and supported in the project.

In the planning we were too concerned about getting the adult to child ratio right but didn’t take on board the likelihood that things would crop up which meant that some young people wouldn’t turn up for the sessions or that there might be a shortage of people assigned to the ISSP. For example in most sessions there were too many adults to young people.
Trying to integrate a standard questionnaire into a two-part workshop didn’t work. The relalionships weren’t sufficiently developed enough to ask some of the questions and they felt dislocated from the activities.
Running the sessions at Phoenix as added to the practical difficulties of running the workshop and finding the venue was more difficult for some of the participants.
The sessions were slightly too long – 2hrs rather than 3 would have worked better for some participants.

 

Next steps

Fabrica is currently investigating possibilities for establishing a longer programme of work-shops – ideally a photography club which can form part of the ISSP and be a drop-in facility for young people coming off the ISSP – this will require fundraising.

Images

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Appendix

Statistical information for envision’s Grants for the Arts Activity Report

Where did your project take place?
Phoenix Art Association in the education rooms and the park opposite.
Full address:
Phoenix Arts Association, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton
Full postcode    B    N    2      
                          9    N    B  

 

How many people do you estimate benefited from the activity? 11
 
‘Taking part’ means doing the activity. ‘Audience’ includes people going to an exhibition or performance, and people getting access to work that is printed, recorded, broadcast or on the internet.
This activity    Number
   
Artists    1
   
Others taking part    10
   
Audience   
What are the age ranges of the people who benefited from your activity? Mark all relevant boxes.
   
    
All age ranges
   
 
 Children under five
   
 
 Children (five to 11)
   
X 
 Young people (12 to 15)
   
X     Young people (16 to 19)
   
X     Young people (20 to 24)
   
X     Adults (25 to 64)
   
    
 Adults (65 and over)

Was your activity directed at, or particularly relevant to, any of the following groups of peo-ple? Please mark any relevant boxes.
   
    
 Disabled people
   
X     People at risk of ‘social exclusion’ (not being able to take part fully in society because of, for example, poverty, prejudice or isolation)
   
   
    
 Asian or Asian British (includes Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani
 or any other Asian background)
   
   
    
 Black or Black British (includes African, Caribbean)
   
    
 Chinese
   
    
 Any other ethnic group
 (Please describe below in no more than 10 words.)
   
     

Please give details of the results of your activity.

This activity    Number
   
Number of performance or exhibition days    3
   
Number of new products or commissions*

    1 powerpoint tool
   
Period of employment for artists (in days)    5
   
Number of sessions for education, training or taking part. ‘Taking part’ means doing the activity (Divide the day into three sessions - morning, afternoon and evening. A ‘session’ is any one of, or part of one of, these. For example, a half-day education workshop would be one session.)   
    6

 

Curriculum Vitae, Exhibitions & Education Work.

Name:        Danny Wilson
Born:        Bristol, 1971
Address:    Flat 2 9 Elm Grove, Brighton, BN2 3ET
Telephone:    Home: 01273 693366, Mobile: 07812592250.
Email:        danny_wilson2005@yahoo.co.uk

Education:
        1992-1995 University of Brighton,
        BA (Hons) Editorial Photography 2:1

        1991-1992 Filton Technical College, Bristol,
        Foundation in Photography.

Selected Exhibitions:

        January 2007 Things we Love, Crane Kalman Brighton

October 2006    Vanishing Point, Grey Area, Brighton.

June 2006     We found a place…then we drifted apart, Otter Gallery, University of Chichester, Chichester.

March 2006    The Everyday Catalogue, The European Commission Office, London

Jan 2006       Outside the frame, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton

June 2005     Start Summer Open, Start Contemporary Gallery, Brighton.

June 2004     ‘Outside In’, Permanent Gallery Brighton,

October 2003    ‘Place of Dead Roads’, Brighton Photo Fringe exhibition, Sanctuary Arts, Brighton.

January 2003 ‘Intermission’, Brighton Little Theatre, Brighton.

May 1997     ‘Inspirit’, Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery, Maidstone.

October 1994    ‘Relative Values’, The Photographers Gallery, London.

Awards & Grants:

        March 2007    Shortlisted for Arts Council England International Fellowship                 Photography
Jan 2006    Arts Council England South East Grants for the Arts for Individuals
June 2005    Arts Council England South East Grants for the Arts for Individuals
Jan 2005    Awards for All lottery grant
June 2004     Arts Council England South East Grants for the Arts for Individuals
   
Selected Education Projects:

March 2006 – Jan 2007, Ore Valley Visual Audit, Creative Partnerships & Brighton Photo Biennial project. Working with young people from the Ore Valley Estate and Hillcrest School on a photographic record of the area which was then exhibited locally, images then archived as a permanent record of the regeneration of the area and used as the young people’s voice in regards to the changes taking place in Ore Valley.

August – October 2005, Slideshow. Photography workshop leader, in conjunction with Fabrica and Coalition 4 Youth, follow up to Shutterspeed, resulting in DVD, presentation at Fabrica & trip to Northern France to meet young people from a parallel project.

Jan- March 2005 Project Coordinator and workshop leader, Picture Perfect. Photography project working with a group of 13-15 year olds at Woodingdean Youth Club, Brighton. Resulted in permanent exhibition of young people’s photographs at the youth club.

August - October 2003, Shutterspeed.  Photography workshop leader, in conjunction with Fabrica Gallery and Coalition 4 Youth in Brighton. Resulted in a DVD slideshow & presentation at Fabrica Gallery.


References:

       
Liz Whitehead           
Co Director               
        Fabrica                   
        40 Duke St.                                            Brighton                   
        BN1 1AG           
        Tel: 01273 778646       
Email: liz@fabrica.org.uk

Juliette Buss
Education Consultant
Brighton Photo Biennial
University of Brighton
Grand Parade
Brighton BN2 0JY
Tel: 01273 643052
Emil: juliette.buss@virgin.net